Follow Up On Stolen Car

[Kentish Man]

As I have posted my car a Fiesta 1.6 Zetec S cost £15,269 fully loaded leather etc was stolen last Friday. My insurance company Aviva have already made me an offer of £9550 (£10,000-£450 acess) the car was two years old in September and had done 19,500 miles. Difficult to find a car with exactly the same spec as mine seems they have offered a average price for the year, so Deal or no deal what do people think?

[Stoney871]

I reckon they've undervalued it.

[CheesyPeteza]

I would go back and ask for more. I think they might deliberately undervalue as some people will just accept it. Its been a long time but my parents car was stolen when I was younger, they went back two or three times and complained about the value they were being offered for the car, the insurance company kept on increasing how much they would pay out.

Might as well put up a fight, you've got nothing to lose.

[Gary Minty Jupe]

got to be worth more , go back to them

[TDCiST]

id expect £11-12000 for a 2 year old car...

Best thing to do is to find 3 of the same or similar spec cars in a dealer somewhere, and go to your insurance company with that saying "Thats how much its going to cost me" I had a friend who did that and he got the middle of the 3 prices...

[btmaldon]

Actually for an insurance company that's not a bad offer. Normally you would lose 30% of the cars value in the first year alone. In PX Ford would only give you around £7.5k. In two years your car has only reduced in value by 34.5% which is brilliant by any standard. Sure, why not try for more, but it would be a bonus if you achieve more.

[Kentish Man]

I have been on line all day and yes there are a few 2010 year cars slightly more but there are also some quite a bit less. I don't think they take in account the cost of all the extras that a vehicle might have but the point is their offer is realy £10,000 which is not too bad, I agreed to pay the £450 access when I took the policy out. I am going to see my local dealer tomorrow I will see what he thinks.

They have a Metal on a 12 plate 6000 miles £12,500.

[alexp999]

You've got nothing to loose trying to get a bit more, but having looked around it does seem like a pretty fair price.

[btmaldon]

That metal sounds good to. How much are they new?

[Mathrin]

Purchase receipt is the big one on this. Proves all added extras you've got in there that they may be able to increase for. Unfortunately I'm on a week off at the moment, so couldn't tell you the ranges that GVA would give for a vehicle of that age til Monday at the earliest :/

[Kentish Man]

Had a result got my insurance with Aviva through Swinton brokers, found out that not only was I entitled to claim for £150 towards any contents stolen but I forgot that I paid a extra £39 to protect my access so will get that back. Going to have a look at the Metal tomorrow they are £17000 new this one is a year old done 6000 miles they want £12000, it's got most of the extras that I had on my previous car as standard (except the key less start which of course I don't want) So for about £2000 I get a newer faster car, seems too good to be true, these thieves have done me a favour lol.

[Stoney871]

The moral of the story is don't get keyless entry.

[Kentish Man]

The moral of the story is don't get keyless entry.

Nor Keyless start.

[Stoney871]

It certainly does seem to be way too easy to defeat the system.

Anytime you remove a mechanical action in favour of an electronic one you run the risk of some thieving beggar figuring it out way too fast.

Chip and pin bank cards? Cracked!

Cash points? Cracked!

Mobile phones? Cracked!

All Ford has to do to stop the Fiestas getting stolen is move the OBD port to the main dash area and it would be solved.

It would be out of reach and less attractive to scum who have light fingers.

The Fiesta's front side window is way too easy to remove and gives clear access to the port, I read at least 10 reports a week concerning theft of or from a Fiesta and the access route is always that window and the stolen ones are always a keyless entry/start model.

[alexp999]

So although it won't stop you getting your window smashed in, the best bet to prevent the car being stolen, is disconnect the OBD port or something?

[Stoney871]

Move the port away from easy access via the window or as some members suggested a while back, fit a switch between certain wires so as to disable the port.

The word is that the crooks are using modified IDS units to directly access the ECU as an auto locksmith would and telling the car to unlock and allow the car to start.

As long as the IDS remains plugged into the port them the car will run and drive as normal.

Most of the cars taken are stripped and the parts sold abroad or possibly onto eBay but no confirmation of that has as yet been possible.

As I said before though, the main weakness isthat quarter window, it's easy to pop out and very rarely sets off any internal alarm sensors.

Seeing as the sensors are easy to spot if you are clued up on what to look for then they can easily avoid any ones that may give them away.

The standard ford alarm is designed to sound when doors, boots or bonnets are forced or accessed without an authorised key but using the IDS they simply deactivate it as if a transponder chip is present.

Even a simple act of maybe adding a pin code to access the higher ECU functions i.e. locks, alarms and immobilisers would solve many problems.

Are you listening Ford? (probably not)

[alexp999]

I assume the port is needed during a service, though? So whatever you do will need to be put right before you take it in.

[Stoney871]

If you install a switch that disables the port, you just switch it back on again.

The tea leaf's are unlikely to suss out a random switch buried under the dash and hopefully this would reduce the number of stolen fiestas and result in just needing glass replacing instead.

[Stoney871]

Another option would be to get an independent immobiliser fitted or as some here have done get a good tracking unit fitted.

The tracker system is generally recognised as best and is endorsed and indeed supported by many police road crime units in the country.

[Big Lib]

_{Never accept the forst offer!}

[Kentish Man]

There was no sign of any glass from a window being broken just some small fragments of the part where the key would go into the lock on the drivers door.