Perhaps the best method of theft prevention is to buy a car no one is interested in stealing?

Like my Picanto!!!

The Carflow Longarm hasn't been available to buy new for ages. Many years. It was also called the AA Steering Lock and, I believe was also in Halfords too ... and they too aren't available new. Some still for sale second hand occasionally. Spare keys were available for them up until last year ... but no longer. I have two Longarms so must be careful not to lose the keys now that spares gone for ever.

The Disklok IS still for sale although not cheap. Two sizes and two colours. Ebay has plenty but they usually look knocked about. I would think keys are still available for them.

The Disklok is very heavy, very strong, very visible and somewhat incovenient to store but when I parked up in dodgy areas I always used one. I still have them in case I have to go back to the smoke.

I have a Thatcham approved Stop Lock Pro on the Landcruiser (easy to use so you use it without a second thought) not as it's an easy vehicle to steal anyway but it's no doubt valuable for spares and even more valuable stuffed into a container and shipped to the third world where it would sell instantly.

Unfortunately the usual suspects would probably lift it with a lorry crane if they really want it (and short of chaining it down there's no stopping that), all you can do is make your vehicle harder to steal than someone else's, hence locked secure heavy gates on our driveway plus security lights, plus non dangerous, but they don't know that, dogs free during daylight hours.

I,d just be careful where I parked and avoid leaving property in view so nobody smashes a window.

I once suggested to my sister she not leave a packet of cigs on her dashboard. She said I was being over cautious. Her side window was smashed and the cigs gone when we got back.

I resisted the temptation to say anything.

I parked in a multistorey car park and left the car with a shirt lying on the back seat. Came back to find the window smashed and the shirt lying in the foot space. The thieves must have thought that I was hiding something like a laptop under the shirt. If I have to leave the car in a dodgy area I try to park in a street and leave the glove box open and the rear seat down so the thieves can see that there is nothing to steal without smashing the window. Mind you I don't put it past them to smash something just for spite.

"leave the glove box open and the rear seat down so the thieves can see that there is nothing to steal without smashing the window. Mind you I don't put it past them to smash something just for spite."

Some particularly low-life car thieves seem to break into shall we say "unremarkable"cars just for the practice. I once had a 10 year old Fiesta with an isolator switch (connected to the coil IIRC). When I sold it to two colleagues and they put it up for sale a year afer that, a dodgy looking potential buyer tried to beat them down on price and walked off in disgust. Tht every night there was an unsuccessful attempt to steal it, and the frustrated thief smashed the car to pieces.

Apart from alarms and general precautions, my defensive system of choice would include strategically placed joke vomit, blood or doggy-doo, a high capacity smoke canister, blood curdling sirens and jets of indelible purple dye. (The South African anti-hijacking "Blaster" is apparently no longer in production, otherwise it'd be "frying tonight" as the ultimate theft deterrent!)

Don't mention isolator switches, i had one fitted to my MB many years ago by my mobile sparky, and yes i forgot all about it.

So much did i forget it that when it failed to turn over ocne after i'd vacuumed it and accidentally flicked the switch, i then hot wired the starter to get it going and took it over to my MB indy.

The next day, after dismantling half the interior and found it wasn't the suspected auto box inhibitor after all, the MB indy traced the wiring and found a hidden switch, he phoned me up and asked me about a certain switch...bingo...and yes i've never lived it down to this day, whenever i go there at some point that hidden switch will find it's way into the conversation.

I like the idea of a blank cartridge, but these days foiled thief become victim and entitled to massive compo for PTSD or whatever crock of rubbish some ambulance chaser could dream up.

My 80's Chevy Camaro had a device called a Black Jake if i recall correctly, it would allow the car to start and run but would die in a few seconds unless disarmed, quite a clever device just when a potnetial thief is making their getaway they pull out onto the road and the car stops dead hopefully drawing uwanted attention to themselves, well it might in the 80s before the old bill were welded to chairs in front of computer screens.