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Comment by gambiting | Hacker News Reader

Just a reminder(I remember those times too) that before the advent of immobilisers and electronic ignition locks, any car could be started in about 30 seconds with some very basic tools. Car theft has been absolutely rampant until the mass adoption of immobilisers where it has literally dropped off a cliff - it hasn't stopped thieves completely of course, but it's very much the case of electronics reducing crime by an order of magnitude(at least here in Europe).

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I remember those times too, though I've never had any cars stolen by car thieves. I have lost 4 cars to the tech. That is 4 times the security system bricked my car in a variety of different ways;

I suppose the big difference between a person stealing my car, and the immobilizer stealing my car is that my insurance has to pay out for that first one.

> I have lost 4 cars to the tech

Could you elaborate? A friend of mine had his car randomly not starting the engine, but fixed it through the replacement of an electronic board, and some mechanics said they could circumvent that.

I find it hard to believe you've had 4 cars bricked by faulty electronics.

You could use a basic flat-head screwdriver for both the door and ignition ... Unreal really

I had an old Mercedes 230TE that could be unlocked and started with any flattish piece of metal roughly the same size and shape as the key.

Once I went out to the car early one morning to find it parked up exactly where I'd left it, with 200 more miles on the clock, the petrol tank rather more full, and the engine still warm...

My family once found their car in the parking lot of the grocery store with the groceries of someone else already inside the car, and a note and contact info left on the windshield about how this person unlocked my parents’ car thinking it was theirs, accidentally loaded their groceries into the wrong identical vehicle, closed the trunk, and then couldn’t unlock it again after noticing the mistake.

Very gentleman-thief of them. Maybe Lupin needed your car for a bit :)

You can be sure the ignition relay came into the house with me at night after that...

To be fair those cars are trivial to install your own immobilizer. Autozone will sell you a switch for cheap and you can tuck it under the carpet by the pedals, or install a dummy switch in one of the spare slots on your dash.

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