241–250 of 325 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the other side, MY2015 Audi A3 8V needs online access for remote re-sync (sometimes the RF part of the key looses sync with the car). So yes, generally older cars are easy to modify, newer not (at least yet). Also the cheap gismo was cheap because it was a clone, original tools are not that cheap.
You need to connect your car to the internet?
Why did they not park the car back and wait with the police on call in order to catch the thieves that would have come back the next night?
With the alarm disabled, they could wait a month.
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I don't know why he didn't talk to the police and tell them what he suspects and see if they would set up an ambush for the car thieves that night. Put the car back in place and wait for them to show up
The thieves didn’t have to come back the first night. Could have done it weeks later.
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The BMW just reported some ambiguous state of distress, whereas a person calling the police and telling them that some car has had its windows smashed in in downtown is by all reasonable criteria equivalent to a burglary in process. If someone's not stealing from that car now, they will be in 5 minutes.
>The BMW just reported some ambiguous state of distress It reported damage to the car severe enough to sever the door frame!!
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Why should the police be sent to a smashed window? Not much they can do at that point unless you caught somebody red-handed. "Yup, that window is totally smashed. OK, just file a claim with your insurance company."
Maybe I read too much about fooling fingerprint readers and think this is easier than it really is, but isn't it easy to check for prints in the car? In the general case, a shattered window means someone stole something and must have touched something in the car. Of course not everyone is in the database, but if they are ever caught with anything they will be.
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no, there is no software that i know of where you can as a consumer make your i3 an i5 with just a software unlock, that you can get for like 10 eur. the difference on the base model mercedes c class between getting a less powerful engine and the one that is one level up is like 3.5-4k eur. that is a lot of money. if i could unlock the bigger engine with just 400 eur i would buy the base model. manufacturers don't wa…
It’s not just more power though. My car has two version 130hp and 155. For the 2 grand I got 25 more horsepower and bigger brakes ,bigger clutch , bigger wheels with wider tyres and an LSD. The only time I can recall where the engine has been exactly the same inside was the mini one and Mini Cooper where the ecu only allowed for 86% throttle on the lower powered version. Every other engine has had a mechanical differ…
There are some other differences, the 280bhp is AWS vs RWD for the 200bhp version, and you can get the 200 with smaller wheels. However when going for larger wheels on the 200bhp, you also get the exact same larger brakes...
It's a cool €6000 difference, for a similarly equipped car. I actually don't want AWD and the chassis can clearly handle this much power on the rear-wheels alone, the top-of-the-line 510bhp version is also RWD - so going for the 200bhp version and giving a reputable tuner €700 is a tempting proposition...
Reading this article is honestly a bit of a domestic culture shock for me, where does this guy live in The Netherlands? Here in downtown Amsterdam we called the police because the rear window of someone's car had just been smashed outside our office, and the police's response was "Has anyone been hurt? Nope? Then we're not coming". Meanwhile, wherever this guy lives they're sending officers because some BMW call cent…
Don't you read the news? There have recently been articles in the international press that Amsterdam is a jungle right now: > Official ombudsman, Arre Zuurmond told Dutch paper Trouw that "the city centre becomes an urban jungle at night". He added: "Criminal money flourishes, there is no authority and the police can no longer handle the situation." https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/amsterdam-tourists-...
Total crime numbers in Amsterdam are down substantially on prior years (https://www.ois.amsterdam.nl/popup/1663). The number of Dutch prisoners have halved over the last 10 years. Dutch prisons are now so empty the space is being rented out to other countries (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37904263).
At the same time, the number of tourists to Amsterdam has increased 60% over the last 10 years. It is not surprising the numbers are sometimes difficult to manage.
But, speaking as someone who since 2000 has lived in Amsterdam or visited at least monthly, I have never felt safer in the city.
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Nah, BMW-thieves are incredibly resourceful. They managed to steal parts of the dashboard and airbag from my neighbours car, without further damage, while in the driveway with the alarms not triggered on a modern 3-series. All the neighbour noticed was the dog barking a few times at night. We all sleep within 30 ft of that car. Practice makes perfect. Those parts are sourced to eastern Europe and are stolen on demand…
It's a widespread problem right now. It happens in waves, and if you go to BMW dealers in larger cities it's not uncommon to see 4-5 5 series missing the dashboard and airbags. What I don't understand is what are they using it for? Can they upgrade older models with it?
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That is a British tabloid.
A most damning indictment indeed.
I was in Amsterdam last weekend, at the party mentioned at the very end of the article. Thousands of people packed into the square on a Friday evening having fun. Minimal police and security guards present.
On the Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people visited Amsterdam to watch the Canal Pride on the Prinsengracht. The police reported minimal disturbances, and arrested a grand total of 25 people, 17 of which were for pickpocketing [1]. That is a substantial reduction on prior years.
[1] https://www.politie.nl/nieuws/2018/augustus/6/05-zakkenrolle...
I used to fix cars for a living. Sometimes it involved “cracking” alarm & immobiliser systems. My clients all claimed they broke/lost their keys to their car - most of the time they were believable (car stuck in front of their driveway, etc). Sometimes less so, but I’d do it anyway because I needed the money and I had no proof of the contrary (innocent until proven guilty right?), although given the sad conditions of…
In Russia and, I guess, similar countries, it's quite rare to encounter a car which isn't protected by an external protection system (not sure how it's called in English, in Russian it's usually called "Сигнализация") which includes shock sensors, alarm system, remote control and car block which protects some vital engine circuits. There are systems with dialog protocol between remote control and car with actual encr…
"Immobiliser", usually. :)