How bad is car theft around Toronto these days?

[snowcat]

I am living in Japan now, moving back to Canada for a few months and decided to move near Toronto.

My old city (Vancouver) has horrendous, absolutely horrendous car theft problems.

My cars had regular theft attempts, I was paying a lot of money to the insurance company for the deductible from all the damage the thieves kept causing. They never did get my cars though.

How bad is it in Toronto? In Vancouver you can't safely leave a skyline or rx7 in a public parking space for more than a minute, eventually it WILL get broken into or stolen.

[CDGuy]

I am living in Japan now, moving back to Canada for a few months and decided to move near Toronto.

My old city (Vancouver) has horrendous, absolutely horrendous car theft problems.

My cars had regular theft attempts, I was paying a lot of money to the insurance company for the deductible from all the damage the thieves kept causing. They never did get my cars though.

How bad is it in Toronto? In Vancouver you can't safely leave a skyline or rx7 in a public parking space for more than a minute, eventually it WILL get broken into or stolen.

They won't get stolen if you have a good alarm setup on them.

It's really not bad at all. I'm being completely, honestly serious.

[doublejceballos]

lets put it this way
i have a beater gtst sitting in my driveway everynight,
im rocking a black widow alarm, and TWO clubs.
if you have a garage. youll be ok.

[MikeRWK]

Kids only know how to steal the dodges with glowrings here, thank ****.

[dah_hunter]

This is a gernerlization..

I have lived the GVRD area my whole life, and parked everywhere from the Slums of Surrey, the Hills of New west, and Grain fields of Abbotsford.. you just have to be smart and not park in a bad area... IE: Crack heads on every corner Etc...

Im pretty sure the same is true anywhere you live..

I have been broken it 2 times my entire life, Once when i was 16.. didnt know what a skyline was.. second time was my Bone stock Celsior, and it was just some stupid kids, they stole my hoodie.. found the hoodie later that evening..

[ARC240]

In all honesty, it shouldn't really matter how bad our theft situation is anyway. Protect your car right from the start. If it's a car that is highly desirable or modified, get some sort of security system to start off. The way I see it, better to spend $350 on a decent alarm system than to have the car swept away. Not to say that an alarm system is a sure fire way to deter criminals, however, it is a great start. You should invest a good bit of funds in trying to keep the vehicle secure. Just remember though, if they REALLY want the car, there's nothing to say that they still wouldn't be able to nab it, despite the efforts to keep it safe. Your best security is a good set of eyes, an alarm system and to be weary of where you leave the car while unattended.

[MikeRWK]

Do people use flatbeds to steal cars out there?

[Skym]

Yes, been a few GTR's stolen that way in the past year.

Also there have been some Skylines stolen lately with alarms. They were able to drive car away, as they knew how to defeat the alarms. I gather the main reasons behind why those cars with alarms were easy to steal, was the install, features of alarm.

Also a hidden kill switch helps.

[MikeRWK]

probably got under the car and bypassed the starter kill relay.

[Skym]

But they stopped the alarm going off. A kill switch does a better job than a alarm system. Some remove fuses.

[MikeRWK]

I've got some ideas on how to do it i just wish i had a car to test on.

[snowcat]

Flatbeds were a problem in BC when I left.

The thieves I had problems with even checked under the hood to try to start the car but I had pulled a bunch of relays and fuses. People laughed at me when I showed them what was in my wallet. Then one morning I walked out to my car and the window had been smashed and the car was totally trashed by someone who had tried to steal it. The pulled fuses and relays saved my car.

Alarms IMO don't really do much because a lot of thieves know how to disable them very quickly most of the time. Even a 2 way alarm is no good if the thief disables the system in a few seconds and you can't hear your keychain speaker going off in your sleep.

I've thought about electrifying the car door handles with a small current but it would present problems with rust developing quickly on other parts of the car.

Bleh, fuckin car thieves.

[raijin-xiii]

just hide the thing lol

[snowcat]

not everyone has a garage or lives in a condo with free parking

[raijin-xiii]

neither do I. one can at least try to be resourceful though!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOY4BnsddKE