Surprised no-one's already posted this.
WhatCar? have just released their latest round of security testing.
In this year?s annual What Car? Security Supertest, 16 of the 20 new cars on test were broken into within two minutes. The Fiat Panda?s security was the easiest to overcome and resisted for just eight seconds.
Just four cars passed the break-in tests ? the BMW 525i SE, Lexus RX300 SE-L, Peugeot 407 SE and the BMW X3 SE.
www.whatcar.com/News_Article.asp?NA_ID=212739
{Link is deliberately non-clickable. If you want to see the report, you'll have to copy/paste it into your url address bar. DD}
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I would be amazed if a £6k Panda had the same level of resistance as any of those that you list.
This is another one of those non lists really. It neither proves anything or disproves anything.
It certainly wouldn't prevent me from buying a panda because I do all the sensible things that people do to prevent a car from being a target.
Burglar bill knows that most cars cannot be started these days without the keys so not presenting temping bags and such goes a long way to improving security.
I'd also think they'd be more likely to want into a 5 series than a panda.
:) JaB
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so not presenting temping bags and such goes a long way to improving security.
The point I think they're trying to make is that any car is a target if it can be got into within 8 seconds, regardless of whether you hide things in the boot or not.
Quote from the site "many cars will fall victim to thieves targeting boots packed with Christmas shopping."
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True .. any car can fall victim to burglar bill, the majority of whom will resort to brute force...
I don't think 5 series come with armour glass as standard :-)
I thnk the "skilled" car breaker inner makes his livelyhood contributing to things like this list :D these days. I've had a car broken inot 3 times over the years on each occasion the glass was broken the doors opened the radio ripped out.
I imagine it takes considerably less than 8 seconds to break the glass on any car.
I don't doubt the findings, I just think it's a bit of non event
;-) JaB
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What's worse, the Panda gets ranked about halfway in the full list. How bad must the bottom placed VW Lupo be...?
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What's worse, the Panda gets ranked about halfway in the full list.
What other factors would put the quickest car to open so far from the overall bottom of the list?
I was under the impression that car security had massively improved in recent years. Maybe I was confusing the ease of breaking in with the ease of driving away.
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Doesn't matter really.
I can't see anybody saying "ooo, a Fordatsun Sierratego, no point in breaking in to that, it will take me fifteen seconds, I'll go and find a car which will only take me 8"
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Exactly. Opportunity most of the time although after a certain amount of time, they may give up. (I'm talking minutes here if a car can hold out that long).
--
Adam
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the BMW 525i SE,
Just the 525i SE ? What about the other 5s. ?
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They are not just testing new cars!
In the list are the BMW 323Ci and the BMW 328i Touring. The 323 and 328 models vanished from the dealers in mid-2000, replaced by the 320, 325 and 330 models.
This is problem 1.
Problem 2, as PU notes, is that they don't seem to realise that all 3s and 5s (etc) will be the same.
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I had a panda. It was old (93) (that's the year of manufacture not yer actual age)) but it went like a racket (not a rocket) and had rust and dent in all the usual places and the only reason I got rid of it was that the manifold started making a noise and would've cost £100 to replace. It got me to work and back for 4 years with no problem. I left it unlocked every day hoping that someone would twoc it but regretfully it never was twocced. The day I drove it to the scrapper was a sad day. He charged me £20 but said it was a shame but the modern philosophy of £25 a week for a recent punto/corsa/micra regime at the main dealers was killing off the scrapyards. It was a very sound car but it had to go. I saw it every morning for 3 months as I drove past the scrapyard on the way to work and for some reason they opened the wndows (of which there were only 2) to either let in air or burglars.
After 4 months they crushed it. Now I have a passatt and it's brilliant. Only 18K more expensive than a car that would probably have gone on for ages.
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I asked a garage how much they'd give me for it in part ex against a new picasso and received the answer "Mr Brad we don't want your panda"
and it's an old joke but I'll tell it.
I asked friend in the trade how much it was worth and they said "How much petrol has it got in the tank...?"
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Very unkind to Pandas in here! The old ones were cheap and were basically a little box with an engine and they rusted cheerfully away. One thing redeemed the old Panda though, surprisingly they were brilliant in the snow. They had character and in seconds was a van,or the dog had a kennel on wheels. I had 4 or five of them and was rarely let down.
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Years ago a mate of mine used to leave his old Cortina unlocked with the key in the ignition....burglar Bill never looked at it!
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Thats probably because he had his own key to fit it......
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I didn't read past the headline when I saw the story, but I presume they used either a "professional" thief or a security expert to carry out the tests. Not the sort of people who would waste their time on a Panda or a Lupo.
The average car thief could not open a can of beans, let alone a locked car, which is why they resort to a brick through the window. Mark two Escorts and Nova's are the staple diet of this sort, and even then the simplest of Krooklocks will defeat them. It is when you progress to desirable and profitable motors that Hi Tech security becomes a concern, because then you will have to deal with thieves who are practised in their trade.
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