A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole mine
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A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole mine
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Re: A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole mine
#2>Given that Zipcar has had 16 years of experience having cars stolen, they must have decided that it would cost more to install cutoff devices in the fleet than to buy some extra cars every year.
I'm sure that GPS tracking makes it pretty easy to recover these cars. They probably get them back pretty quickly.
Re: A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole mine
#3Fascinating. As member I've always thought it would be a lot of temptation to leave these cars around with the keys in plain sight, and assumed there was a cut-off capability. It seems like it would be pretty inconvenient for members if it happened that often while in use.
Re: A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole mine
#4>Given that Zipcar has had 16 years of experience having cars stolen, they must have decided that it would cost more to install cutoff devices in the fleet than to buy some extra cars every year. I'm sure that GPS tracking makes it pretty easy to recover these cars. They probably get them back pretty quickly.
I guess that makes them pretty good bait cars for the police too (if they're interested). If every cop sat on a zipcar while they're doing their paperwork, they'd probably catch somebody trying to steal one every once in a while.
Re: A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole mine
#5You cant have a remote cutoff option due to lawsuits. What if a zipcar got turned off on the highway and caused an accident, they would be sued
Re: A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole mine
#6>Given that Zipcar has had 16 years of experience having cars stolen, they must have decided that it would cost more to install cutoff devices in the fleet than to buy some extra cars every year. I'm sure that GPS tracking makes it pretty easy to recover these cars. They probably get them back pretty quickly.
I'd imagine killing the engine could have potential liability issues if they cut it off at a dangerous time whereas GPS tracking lets them hand off that responsibility to the police.
Re: A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole mine
#7You cant have a remote cutoff option due to lawsuits. What if a zipcar got turned off on the highway and caused an accident, they would be sued
How about disabling the car once the crooks park it?
Re: A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole mine
#8> Zipcar can track the cars using GPS but they told me they can’t turn off the engine remotely.
A less extreme (and litigious) option could be to just turn on the car's alarm remotely. It would make the prospect of stealing one far less attractive to thieves if it was known that the alarm would start blaring at some random point after they've driven off with it.
Re: A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole mine
#9This was surprising to me! I always figured my Zipcar wasn't much of a target for thieves because: It has a big Zipcar logo emblazoned on it (slows down turnaround of the car if you're trying to sell it), it has the custom Zipcard locking mechanism, which is tied into the car's alarm system, and each car has GPS in it, which you'd think would lead the cops right to them.
Wondering what use these cars are to thieves? Is it just a quick way to grab a ride somewhere (maybe out of town)? Are they actually selling these cars intact to people to be repainted/refitted and sold? Or are they sold for scrap/parts?
(edit: formatting)
Re: A Zipcar a day gets stolen in SF – here's how they stole mine
#10This was surprising to me! I always figured my Zipcar wasn't much of a target for thieves because: It has a big Zipcar logo emblazoned on it (slows down turnaround of the car if you're trying to sell it), it has the custom Zipcard locking mechanism, which is tied into the car's alarm system, and each car has GPS in it, which you'd think would lead the cops right to them. Wondering what use these cars are to thieves?…
I would guess they take it to a chop shop and sell it for parts, but I'm not sure how plausible that is since they have GPS (or maybe they all get caught). Perhaps the thieves know the cars have GPS and can disable it in some way before they get to the chop shop.