2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

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Hugo Stiglitz
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2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

Post by Hugo Stiglitz »

I'm about to receive my new GTI. Do I need any anti theft aids. Is it a target like the keyless ST?
S_94
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Re: 2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

Post by S_94 »

With the GTI there's a little indent on the drivers handle (I think passenger too). When you push/touch that after locking the car you can no longer use Keyless Entry to open the car. The car effectively stops listening for the signal. I do this every time I lock the car. You have to use the key fob next time you want to unlock the car.

I also keep my car keys in a Faraday pouch at home for an extra layer of security, probably overkill but puts my mind at ease a bit. You can pick these up for £5-10 on Amazon.

You might have seen this thread from yesterday viewtopic.php?f=71&t=76811. Unfortunately it could happen to anyone, unless you can keep the car in a garage over night.

I can't recall many reports of cars being stolen / broken into on this forum. But it's good to take some extra steps to prevent these situations.
SRGTD
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Re: 2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

Post by SRGTD »

I’ve not heard of the Polo GTI being a specific theft target - unlike the previous generation Fiesta ST. Like @S_94, I also temporarily disable the keyless entry feature. Locking the car conventionally by pressing the lock button and then touching the indent on the door handle soon becomes second nature.

Security issues with keyless entry are often discussed on VWROC forum. Interestingly, it seems that anyone on that forum who’s been unfortunate enough to have their Golf R stolen, it’s not the result of the perpetrators intercepting the keyless signal from the key fob with signal relay equipment, it’s as a result of their home being broken into and the keys stolen.

If keyless entry hadn’t been a standard feature on my car, I’d never have specified it as an extra cost option. IMHO it’s a feature the car manufacturers marketing departments seem to have convinced many car owners that keyless is a ‘must have’ feature that they can’t do without. I could easily manage without it - I do quite like the start button though 🙂.
Andy Beats
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Re: 2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

Post by Andy Beats »

Never had a car stolen, or attempted to be stolen.
If you've to worry about the type of car you have, is it wise to have it at all?
Some of you live in a different world, glad it doesn't even have to cross my mind. :(
Not being facetious here, just it seems a few of you generally have to worry about having car X where you live.
A colleague had this issue with a Subaru where he lived, it got nicked and they waited for the replacement and nicked it too. :shock:
He had to concede the car was inappropriate for the area he lived in, so he went back to a normal car until he could move to a lower crime area.
Yes I agree it shouldn't be this way, but it is.
Hugo Stiglitz
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Re: 2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

Post by Hugo Stiglitz »

I've never had a problem and I live in inner city Manchester.

When I'm in I have the front door propped wide open and don't generally lock my car unless my mountain bike is inside.

I live down the bottom of a cul de sac so if you are coming down you'd stand out and garden hoping is difficult.

I've also had 4 Subaru's whilst living in the area however 2 of the 4 were Foresters so probably not the most thief-exciting vehicles..

Just curious really.
MrTomOates
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Re: 2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

Post by MrTomOates »

Yes.

But honestly, any car is a target. More so with it being either a VW, Audi or Mercedes.

I've returned to the forum because I wanted to share my experience with having a GTI. I had my GTI+ broken into on Aug 5th 2021 whilst it was parked up in a security operated car park; with electronic gates, security staff on site and motion censored cameras. I as you could well have guessed, I was disgusted by the security on the day because it took the thief at very most 27 minutes (due to disturbances) to break into the car without alerting anyone or anything, strip the car and take everything that he wanted and walk away with £8,000 worth of electrical equipment. I didn't find out that my car was broken into until 1 hour and 30 minutes which had I have not finished early that day may not have found out that soon. To the knowledge of the breakdown cover person who deals with a lot of these issues daily with VW, Mercedes and Audi's was that the thief wants a computer microchip that is located at the back of the dashboard that connects the car to SatNav services which costs around £2,000 - £3,000 and with it they can use it to connect Sky Boxes to all multi-channels. Anything additional on the strip of the car is sold separately as you can imagine. Without disturbances, it may have only taken 15 minutes.

I'd look at getting an ghost immobiliser installed and a fitted car tracker. I'm looking at getting a tracker that you can keep tabs on your mobile phone, it's an £80 a year service and if there's any sort of motion detected on the car, the app/device notifies that there's motion detected (I.E. somebody has attempted the car door). I've seen it used in person and it was used on a transit van, it's a real game changer. Only thing is, I can't remember the brand/company :cry: :lol:

You can have a look for yourself with how the car was left.

Image
Hugo Stiglitz
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Re: 2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

Post by Hugo Stiglitz »

MrTomOates wrote: Tue Sep 21, 2021 2:28 pm Yes.

But honestly, any car is a target. More so with it being either a VW, Audi or Mercedes.

I've returned to the forum because I wanted to share my experience with having a GTI. I had my GTI+ broken into on Aug 5th 2021 whilst it was parked up in a security operated car park; with electronic gates, security staff on site and motion censored cameras. I as you could well have guessed, I was disgusted by the security on the day because it took the thief at very most 27 minutes (due to disturbances) to break into the car without alerting anyone or anything, strip the car and take everything that he wanted and walk away with £8,000 worth of electrical equipment. I didn't find out that my car was broken into until 1 hour and 30 minutes which had I have not finished early that day may not have found out that soon. To the knowledge of the breakdown cover person who deals with a lot of these issues daily with VW, Mercedes and Audi's was that the thief wants a computer microchip that is located at the back of the dashboard that connects the car to SatNav services which costs around £2,000 - £3,000 and with it they can use it to connect Sky Boxes to all multi-channels. Anything additional on the strip of the car is sold separately as you can imagine. Without disturbances, it may have only taken 15 minutes.

I'd look at getting an ghost immobiliser installed and a fitted car tracker. I'm looking at getting a tracker that you can keep tabs on your mobile phone, it's an £80 a year service and if there's any sort of motion detected on the car, the app/device notifies that there's motion detected (I.E. somebody has attempted the car door). I've seen it used in person and it was used on a transit van, it's a real game changer. Only thing is, I can't remember the brand/company :cry: :lol:

You can have a look for yourself with how the car was left.

Image
I see the smashed glass on the drivers mat.

Whereabouts do you live? Do you think they followed/spotted you or through any work that you had done on the car recently.

I notice the whole dash is clips and plug and play. That wouldn't gave taken too long.
MrTomOates
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Re: 2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

Post by MrTomOates »

I see the smashed glass on the drivers mat.

Whereabouts do you live? Do you think they followed/spotted you or through any work that you had done on the car recently.
I live in Yorkshire and the area is definitely a high risk but I think most places are high risk. I live in quite a "posh" area and you'd think that the "posh" areas are the areas where there's less crime - it's definitely the opposite because that's where most thieves drive to and target.

The car was definitely targeted. The person who did it was definitely watching my work patterns across weeks maybe months, seeing when I got into work, when I went to work; how often I go to the car on breaks, how often people go out of the work place and how many cars park near my car. I have a tendency to park well away from other cars due to my pickiness of keeping the car pristine and stopping it from either getting clipped by other cars by opening car doors or purposely/accidentally keyed.

What the person did was chip away at the glass door panel on the driver-side door. Puncture the rubber sealant surrounding and attaching the glass and that then punctured the glass causing it to shatter.
lancslad1985
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Re: 2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

Post by lancslad1985 »

Living in a posh area makes you a target Tom. I was reading an article yesterday how thieves now target homes with ring doorbells as they’re more likely to have a lot of smart tech and be more affluent. I hope you get your Gti sorted.

It’s disgusting that if you live in a nice area you’re more likely to be targeted but that’s the world we sadly live in. My new Tiguan is worth far more than my gti+ was but there’s a golf R, S4, Jag XS, Fiat abarth, scirocco R and an older Audi R8 on my road, so my car should be less appealing as it’s not an R line!
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Re: 2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

Post by Nora »

I was the first to try and have a autowatch ghost immobiliser fitted, unfortunately it is impossible for them to get it to work correctly, the software in the immobiliser and the car are incompatible. They even brought the guy down from Scotland who developed it and two of them sat in my car for six hours with a laptop trying everything, they almost got it to work. But at the last minute it failed and threw dozens of gearbox fault codes which had to be cleared
Andy Beats
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Re: 2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

Post by Andy Beats »

lancslad1985 wrote: Tue Sep 21, 2021 8:06 pm Living in a posh area makes you a target Tom. I was reading an article yesterday how thieves now target homes with ring doorbells as they’re more likely to have a lot of smart tech and be more affluent. I hope you get your Gti sorted.

It’s disgusting that if you live in a nice area you’re more likely to be targeted but that’s the world we sadly live in. My new Tiguan is worth far more than my gti+ was but there’s a golf R, S4, Jag XS, Fiat abarth, scirocco R and an older Audi R8 on my road, so my car should be less appealing as it’s not an R line!
We live in a nice area, Evoques/Velars/Range rovers litter the place and there's a couple of Bentleys etc.
In all the years we've been there, I've only seen the one incident where I heard a car pull up outside and it arose my suspicions.
Right enough, car full of scrotes who then got out and each one went to a different house door.
This is where it gets quite amusing....
I got my best football supporter voice on, shouted F-OFF at the top of my voice, which made them all pile back into the car.
I then jumped into my car to give chase, but the commotion had made neighbours wake up by this point.
So the guy across the road heard commotion, saw my car shooting out of my drive, thought it was being nicked and got into his car to give chase! :D
So me chasing them, him chasing me... :D

Annoyingly, I'm the only one in the street with a camera, a very discreet Blink one that i can barely spot myself when the batteries run out.
TBH I'm not overly protective of cars, why bother?
If they want to code the keyless entry and drive off with it quietly in the night, I'll get another one.
I'd rather that than them break into the house looking for the keys.
I don't get this obsession with protecting something that's insured.
SRGTD
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Re: 2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

Post by SRGTD »

Andy Beats wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 9:19 am I don't get this obsession with protecting something that's insured.
I don’t think it’s an obsession with the majority of people when it comes to taking additional security measures with their cars. It’s more likely they want to try and avoid the hassle and inconvenience that normally follows a car theft, especially if they don’t have the luxury of a second car in the household that they could make use of.

A home is something that’s also insured (by most people). Presumably you take a less relaxed approach to home security and protecting the home?
Andy Beats
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Re: 2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

Post by Andy Beats »

SRGTD wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 11:21 am
I don’t think it’s an obsession with the majority of people when it comes to taking additional security measures with their cars. It’s more likely they want to try and avoid the hassle and inconvenience that normally follows a car theft, especially if they don’t have the luxury of a second car in the household that they could make use of.

A home is something that’s also insured (by most people). Presumably you take a less relaxed approach to home security and protecting the home?
I'm not lax with security, but I don't go OTT either.
I do 'enough' with cars to make sure I'm covered, no more (so, basically, I lock them!) :D
A house is different, as there may be people in it when they attempt to steal stuff, so I will go a wee bit extra there (we zone the entire downstairs area at night on the alarm etc).

If you take these 'faraday pouches' for keys as an example, I really don't get them.
It's like people hope if the thieves can't clone the key they are going to walk away with a respectful nod to the owner for their security savvy ("fair enough guvnor, you beat us there")
Are they heck, they're going to break in for the keys, maybe using menace to find them.... :shock:

In that scenario, is waking up to the car gone without you even knowing the better option?
Hell yes, so that is can example of taking it too far for me.
Harrihealey02
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Re: 2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

Post by Harrihealey02 »

I had a faraday pouch and my car still got stolen, it was a Fiesta keyless, even had a cheap steering lock on it. I think what happened is they will park outside your house wait for you to get the keys out and they will steal the code there. That’s what they must have done with mine. One thing to note was a had a previous keyless Fiesta stolen about 4 months prior so took extra precautions with the new one and it still got taken. Best suggestion is to use a insurance approved steering lock. And also disabling the keyless completely if possible. If it’s in a faraday pouch and you have to remove it before unlocking the car what’s the point of keyless in the first place.
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Re: 2018 onwards GTI any attempt theft issues?

Post by stevereeves »

RE: thefts (grrr !) years ago I / family found out ; 'the hard way' that parents contents insurance didn't extend to out shed, my moto-x bike (Kawi KX125) and all my gear, tools, etc was stolen, less one glove, it was one very serious oversight. I'd saved like mad to buy it in the first place, then have the engine rebuilt, then it was gone, just like that. Felt like I 'd been punched in the stomach, on relfection think I'd rather have taken the punch to the stomach as it meant no more moto-x, ever. Moving on (or pretending !) re: car / vehicle theft or theft in general; if some wants somthing they always will find a way, friends in USA tell me high value performance cars, & motorcycles, have been known to be picked up on a crane and dropped onto a low-loader, in broad daylight.

But we can do our best to make such thefts at least dificult to make a thief think twice; vary driving parking habits, leave car in highly visible areas, best of all (if possibe) hide it completely, or try to hide it in plain sight. I live in an ok-ish area, just across the road (other side of ther tracks ?) from a 'well-to-do' area (and yes many of the people are 'up themselves', LOL!), vehicle theft is almost uknown but it can happen, motocycles get stolen more than anything. I prefer non-tinted windows so the light-fingered brigade can see there is nothing in the veihcle, walk round local car park and count the laptops, tablets, phones etc left in cars (shudder). I'm one of the few in our street to rent a garage, neighbours think I'm wasting my money but old habits die hard. Getting on point, at one time it was a 'fashion' to make cars 'look-a-likes' i.e. re-badge a standard car, fit next model up wheels, etc to make, say, a standard Golf or Polo appear to be a GTi, when only enthusiasts would know the difference. Me, if I had a GTi I'do the oppposite; I'd de-badge a GTi, fit standard wheels, etc, to make it appear a regular or standard model and theoretically a bit less appealing, won't stop a determined thief but it may get them to think twice and move on.....
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