Keyless cars

[Zizzagaaaaah]

I have my eye on a lovely car (2018) for my daughter
It's a premium edition with heated seats sunroof etc
I noticed at the bottom it also had a smart key " keyless entry stop start system"
All I've read is about these being always stolen
Do most cars have these systems now
Are they really insecure
I'm feeling that I would rather not buy it because of this

I would definitely not get a keyless car, particularly if it's a desirable brand. Extra risk and hassle for what?

The classic way of stealing a car used to be hot-wiring the ignition: joining two wires together, and starting the car that way. In the mid 90's, improved immobiliser technology made this more difficult, so some thieves then resorted to breaking into the house to steal the keys. So a car theft and a break-in would happen.

When my parents' car keys were stolen in about 1988 (the car itself was not stolen), for a very ordinary car; no immobiliser or anything, the garage managed to pick the door lock with a paper clip, but bypassing the mechanical steering locking mechanism proved much more tricky and expensive; indeed, the entire steering mechanism had to be replaced.

I had a newish Fiesta ST stolen in 2018 and the CCTV showed them taking it in under two mins. They smashed the little porthole window by wingmirror and plugged a laptop into the OBD port. I believe this effectively let's them put it in service mode. They were able to turn off alarm, start engine, and drive straight off.

OBD theft accounts for the vast majority of keyless theft and part of the issue is that it's illegal to disable the port in the EU for some reason. However, a simple and fairly effective solution it to get the OBD 'relocated'. They just tuck the wire up deep inside the dash - no opportunistic thief is going to want to dismantle the dash to get at the OBD wiring, especially as they're usually reaching through the window to plug into the port.

You can also get fake/dummy OBD ports that light up when plugged into which will fool some thieves. Some will instantly brick the device being plugged into them, meaning that even if the thieves then realise it's fake they now don't have a working device. These options are pretty cheap compared to £500 trackers and Ghost systems etc.

Another option is just taking fuse out or getting a kill switch wired in and hidden somewhere discreet.

Amazing! I hadn’t heard if this before.

I just think that car manufacturers should be clear on security of new tech. Rather than suggest using a steering lock. And I’d like a choice to buy key or keyless car.

In the article I linked earlier it mentions a CAN device to unlock and start the car without the key being needed. Is that the same thing?

I hate it. I seem to spend half my life hunting down my keys.

My husband's BMW 3 series had keyless entry and we never had an issue with it being stolen (or people looking like they were casing it to steal). We do live in an area with low crime and quite a lot of other nice cars though, so no reason we'd be a target particularly.

It's mad, isn't it? I get that there are some people who like it, but it does seem such a retrograde step to fit it as standard, whether you want it or not. How does it make life easier when you have to 'just remember to buy and use a Faraday pouch' along with your car?!

I also hate the auto start/stop feature on cars. Or, specifically, the fact that you have to press a button to turn it OFF, rather than pressing a button if you want to use it - or, better still, a switch that you could leave on or off, according to your personal preference.

Mine likes to fail sometimes in the most inconvenient places, so the car will merrily turn the engine off, but then not turn back on - so I have to see and mentally process the message on the dashboard, then remember to put the car back into Neutral and my foot on the brake, so the engine can be started, then put it back into Drive and continue on my way, hopefully without getting honked at too much. Old cars without this 'modern improvement' never gave me this hassle!

Stop start motor is another ‘Improvement’ that has unwanted consequences.
I didn’t realise that the starter motor then needs repacking sooner. How is that an eco improvement? At least though you can turn off the stop start feature.

We learnt the hard way with the stop start feature, our car broke down on the way to the airport. The battery that stop start used to restart had died, there is no warning that is going to happen! The garage told us they it's bad for the engine too. We no longer use that "feature" 😂

There has recently been a spate of thefts from cars in 3 villages near us , all keyless entry cars .

A lot of people complain about keyless entry (I work for a garage)
There's an update for some cars which stops the thefts. I spent a day ringing people who were eligible, they just need to come in any day and it'll take 30 mins

For people who were so vocal about thefts, only about 25% of them booked in

I'm not sure. Most probably. I know the device can be bought online for about £40.

A mate once left his keys on the roof (keyless) whilst getting kids, bits on etc.

Drove off and they obviously disappeared on the local motorway. No spare!! The story massively puts me off 🤣

That’s be me. I lose everything.

I don't know for sure if it's true, but I understand that batteries in cars with stop/start also cost more when you need a new one.

More expensive, to pay for a feature that you didn't want in the first place!

False economy!

They really should be transparent and give the whole picture.

I wonder if the stop/start feature is designed so that, on paper, a car can be demonstrated to be more fuel efficient - a bit like the VW diesel scandal - but in practice, it's just a box-ticking exercise?

It sounds great, in theory; but in practice, it always seems to cut out the very instant you're about to move off again. Obviously, if you know that you're going to be waiting for a while, for whatever reason, most drivers will have hands that they can use to turn the engine off with the key, and then turn it back on again when they KNOW (not just a computer guesses) that they're ready to move off again.

Yes agree with you.

I think it was to do with carbon emissions. Whilst car off then no carbon emissions. But again no joined up thinking with regards to battery and starter motor needing to be replaced more often.

I really dislike the box ticking and quick wins with unintended consequences.

I don’t think that constantly stopping and restarting the engine does it any good. I’ve got into the habit of turning the stop/start off when I reach down to put the car into drive. Do it without thinking now.