Hi guys,

My mk2 Focus was stolen mid July from Birmingham area. This is a long shot but if anyone sees it, shout up please :)

James

Ouch sorry to hear mate,

heres a white one for sale in Birmingham may be worth taking a look:

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/331230348649?nav=SEARCH

I would get DVLA to revoke the tax if its possible? and MOT status, will throw up any ANPR's and other systems then? I am aware it will have a stolen marker anyway but just a thought!

Hi guys,

My mk2 Focus was stolen mid July from Birmingham area. This is a long shot but if anyone sees it, shout up please :)

James

what miles was on the clock?

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/251599707514?nav=SEARCH

what miles was on the clock?

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/251599707514?nav=SEARCH

Different Tax Disc Holder? ;)

Yeah thanks guys. I'll take a look.

Mileage was 26800 or so.

Sorry to hear it mate, although I would be surprised if the carstill stands in one piece.

Normally with these cars, they rip the things apart as soon as they get their mits on them and sell the parts off for profit.

Plenty of 59 plate white focus RS's on eBay from Birmingham and surrounding areas. Any distinctive features mate that may set it apart? In case it maybe on eBay. :/

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Plenty of 59 plate white focus RS's on eBay from Birmingham and surrounding areas. Any distinctive features mate that may set it apart? In case it maybe on eBay. :/

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Hi Marco,

I've looked at some for sale (again, a complete long shot as I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to publicly sell the car?) and have seen some that 'could' be it. Problem is, most of them, if not all of them are probably legit sales.

The only unique characteristics it had was white and black Ford badges, although I suspect they would have been removed right away.

Good news is that the insurance have now paid me out so I can go look at something else. I'm thinking of a mk2 Focus ST. Same engine, slightly 'worse' performance but less desirable by thieves I would have thought. Installing a Viper security system on it straight away.

Any comments, good or bad with regards to the mk2 ST would be great!

Hi Marco,

I've looked at some for sale (again, a complete long shot as I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to publicly sell the car?) and have seen some that 'could' be it. Problem is, most of them, if not all of them are probably legit sales.

The only unique characteristics it had was white and black Ford badges, although I suspect they would have been removed right away.

Good news is that the insurance have now paid me out so I can go look at something else. I'm thinking of a mk2 Focus ST. Same engine, slightly 'worse' performance but less desirable by thieves I would have thought. Installing a Viper security system on it straight away.

Any comments, good or bad with regards to the mk2 ST would be great!

Stick a TDCi badge on the boot and the thieves will leave it alone thinking its a replica,

Aww that's so gutting mate! A mk2 focus ST is a good shout but as you say less performance than RS. Aye stick a tdci badge and they'll leave it be or even a Zetec S badge and they'll think twice :) but it's a good thing the insurance company paid out hope you got the exact money you were after.

Marc

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I would love to install a kill switch on every car.... if the car is touched by anyone other than the owner, they are electrified by the full force of the alternator from start until crispy bacon!

Good job the insurers paid out, but its a slap in the face I guess having to downgrade from what was your perfect car, to that which is still good, but not what you really want!

I would say go back for the RS, but pull the badges, and do whatever you can to try and deter them, make it discreet by false advertising it as a lesser model, or just remove all badges, and try and hide the exhaust system where possible (take a couple of inches off, so that when they walk around the back of the car, they dont just see two pipes sticking out and leading to curiosity!

Blimey they paid out quick. Normally it's wait a month to see if it turns up and question you under a spotlamp in the meantime.

Blimey they paid out quick. Normally it's wait a month to see if it turns up and question you under a spotlamp in the meantime.

they must be pretty confident its gone for parts,

Some criminal gangs are very organized in what they do and can have a car stolen, stripped and on ebay within 48hrs all that is required is a team of individuals with a garage, very common these days particularly on sought after vehicles like the RS many people want to build replicas so theres a large European market, plenty of auction sites aswell,

I work with a guy, his brother is a farmer,

His brother was browsing ebay.ie to purchase a sillage trailer, when he spotted a picture of his existing trailer for sale on ebay, photographed in his field.

He contacted the police whom told him to phone up and buy it,

He phoned up and guy aranged to view it next day,

So that night his trailer was stolen,

He phoned cops whom went with him next day and arrested the seller whom had stolen the trailer and was selling it out of another random persons field, implied the trailer and the land he was selling the trailer from were all his,

When he completely eterprised on everything in a bid to make "easy money"

Hi guys,

Picked up the ST today. It's an ex police car from the South Wales force. (Never knew they drove STs!) I'll post a photo tomorrow.

I would love to install a kill switch on every car.... if the car is touched by anyone other than the owner, they are electrified by the full force of the alternator from start until crispy bacon!

Good job the insurers paid out, but its a slap in the face I guess having to downgrade from what was your perfect car, to that which is still good, but not what you really want!

I would say go back for the RS, but pull the badges, and do whatever you can to try and deter them, make it discreet by false advertising it as a lesser model, or just remove all badges, and try and hide the exhaust system where possible (take a couple of inches off, so that when they walk around the back of the car, they dont just see two pipes sticking out and leading to curiosity!

Thinking of moving home next year due to this as who's the say the same thief or thieves won't come back to my address in a few months down the line. I still aim to buy another RS as they're beauties. Need to garage and be less naive as an owner ect ect.

Blimey they paid out quick. Normally it's wait a month to see if it turns up and question you under a spotlamp in the meantime.

Took them 2/3 weeks to pay out, for the full price I paid for it as well minus £150 excess! Insurance company is Admiral. The claims department have been very efficient in all of this. Shame the same can't be said for the department who handle the quotations - they're useless, in my experience anyway.

It's the STs first night on the driveway tonight. I don't think I'll sleep lol. I've hopefully got a guy from Secure My Car early next week to setup some security.

Police definitely use ST's, I'm currently driving a Frozen White ST3 estate for work purposes.

May I recommend you fit a tracker of some sort? plenty of little spaces on your car where one can be hidden.

Statistically you are far more likely to recover a car with a device fitted and if it is one from Tracker themselves you are covered by the infrastructure available to all 52 Police Forces in the UK.

Police definitely use ST's, I'm currently driving a Frozen White ST3 estate for work purposes.

May I recommend you fit a tracker of some sort? plenty of little spaces on your car where one can be hidden.

Statistically you are far more likely to recover a car with a device fitted and if it is one from Tracker themselves you are covered by the infrastructure available to all 52 Police Forces in the UK.

+1 id choose tracker over an alarm any day,

They're not cheap but are very effective.

I don't have the recovery stats to hand but you are far more likely to recover a Tracker fitted vehicle than one without and often within hours as well.

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Clive, do you have any info on how effective the GPRS trackers are?

(The sort you can activate with a text message, and it can text you its GPS data)

I've not heard much about them, but it seems like a potentially cheaper option than the subscription based services?

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You have to consider that you get what you pay for.

Tracker is a monitored system so as soon as you report the vehicle missing they notify your local force and pass on the tracking code.

With a self managed unit you have to pass the location data yourself and this may not be given such a high priority.

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Clive, do you have any info on how effective the GPRS trackers are?

(The sort you can activate with a text message, and it can text you its GPS data)

I've not heard much about them, but it seems like a potentially cheaper option than the subscription based services?

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they operate using a mobile phone sim card,

You txt the mobile number and it txts you back with coordinates,

It can also txt you if it goes over a certain speed,

And if you ring it,

It auto answes for you to listen but they have no speaker for you to communicate

"This is God speaking, bring th3 car back now" no none of that 5h1t

Oh the police here drive STs no doubt about it in Falkirk we have a blue ST panda unit in traffic and a unmarked silver ST which is very effective in catching up with the nutters with their suped up saxos lol :P. Would encourage our scottish force to bring in the new focus ST or even the new RS when its released :)

Glad you've got yourself another decent car mate although not as good as the RS but just as fun :P it'll be well looked after being ex-police :)

Marc :)

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Although maybe a few scratches from people propped on the bonnet :P

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Although maybe a few scratches from people propped on the bonnet :P

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Same as mine then! ;)