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Frequently Stolen Cars
Car alarms might drive you nuts when they go off when someone isn’t trying to hijack your wheels thanks to the cat jumping on top of them hoping for a quiet nap (actually, that one could be quite funny to watch when the cat leaps up like… a startled cat), a heavy truck or an earthquake (if you’re in New Zealand) shakes the car a bit, or something going wrong with the wiring. I’m not making the wiring one up – a male friend of mine who will remain unnamed once had his Mazda Bongo van’s alarm go off in the middle of the night. He went out practically in the nuddy to switch it off only to have a female police officer come down the drive to make sure everything was all right – she had the sense to realise that a scantily-clad person poking around a noisy car is likely to be the owner. Anyway, back to car alarms. They might be annoying but they are a deterrent if someone does want to steal your car.
According to Top Gear magazine, the cars most frequently stolen in Australia are:
1) Holden Commodore Executive four-door sedan, 1999 model
2) Holden Commodore Berlina four-door sedan, 1998 model
3) Ford Falcon Forte four-door sedan, 1999 model
4) Holden Commodore Executive four-door sedan, 1998 model
5) Hyundai Excel Sprint hatchback, 1996 model
6) Holden Commodore Executive four-door sedan, 1996 model
7) Holden Commodore Executive four-door sedan, 1990 model
8) Holden Commodore Executive stationwagon, 1996 model
9) Toyota RAV Cruiser 4×4/SUV, 2002 model
10) Hyundai Excel Sprint hatchback, 1999 model.
Not sure what Top Gear based their research on, but similar research was done across the Tasman by an insurance company, who looked at all the insurance claims for stolen vehicles over five or so years to compile their list. The list of cars most stolen in New Zealand reads a little differently, which could prove food for thought for social scientists trying to analyse the cultural differences between here and there, although the trans-Tasman list is less specific. The cars stolen most often in New Zealand are:
1) Honda Torneo
2) Nissan Elgrande
3) Subaru Impreza
4) Subaru Forester
5) Subaru Legacy
6) Nissan Skyline
7) Nissan Presea
8) Mitsubishi Libero
9) Nissan Cefiro
10) Nissan Sunny.
The New Zealand research also found that most of the cars were stolen from public car parks, and that almost half the drivers/insurance claimants interviewed for the research didn’t lock their cars around their home, and about 10% didn’t lock their cars up AT ALL no matter where it was parked.
So how do you prevent your car from being stolen, especially if you’ve got one of those oh-so-popular Holden Commodore Executives? You should be able to foil the average car-jacker by taking a few simple steps.
- Don’t leave your engine running while you just nip out to buy a paper and some milk. This wastes petrol and also is very tempting to an opportunist thief.
- Always lock your car when you’re out of it, even at home. Otherwise, you could end up doing what another friend of mine did recently: left the keys in the car and the garage open because he was going to go out again later, but then changed his mind and forgot about it. One call from the cops in the middle of the night saying they’d found it on a country road with the hazard lights on (??!!) and signs of someone having tried to start a fire in it. At least he got the car back.
- Keep all your valuables out of sight. This includes the car keys. If you have to leave them in the car, hide them under a sweatshirt, a book or an old chip packet, or shove them in the glove box or some other storage area.
- Park in a well-lit street or in a public car-park that allows for good visibility. Yes, most cars are taken from car-parks, but don’t make things too easy for a thief by parking in a dark alley or behind bushes.
- Install a car alarm and/or have some visible security device in place.
And the most annoying car alarm I’ve ever heard? It would have to be one that produced a deep, growly voice warning “Don’t touch my car!” when anyone walked within three metres of it. I saw this at a camping ground, and it was a magnet for kids, who went up to it and poked it just to see what would happen next.
Car Polish Survey
The US consumer survey magazine “Consumer Reports.org” has publsished a wide-ranging research document on car polishes. It makes intriguing reading and the main research results are re-produced below:-
(click on thumbnail to enlarge)
Why You Can't Beat The Price Rip Off
Over the past couple of months, we’ve undertaken the biggest car prices comparison survey ever published.
The clear and incontrovertible conclusion is that we pay far more for our new cars than can be justified.
Of course, we are not alone in this, as many products are more expensive in Australia, and we’ve heard numerous stories about how people have circumvented this by buying direct from overseas using the internet.
So why can’t you do this with a new car? Well, the Motor Vehicle Standards Act (1989) effectively prevents you! These import rules were initially designed for a genuine road safety agenda, but that is now largely irrelevant and is, in effect, acting as a measure of protection for the local importing and manufacturing industry.
Any new car that does not comply with all the provisions of the Act cannot be imported for use on Australian roads, and that means any new car personally imported.
But there are exemptions.
The Personal Import Scheme is a specific exemption from the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Standards Act (1989), but it still has its own administrative rules. The guidelines governing these rules for Personal Imports are essentially that you have owned and demonstratively used a car overseas for a minimum of 12 months before seeking Personal Import Approval. There are close checks made on these claims too, both in terms of ownership and use throughout the twelve month period.
The other major exemption is for cars built prior to January 1st, 1989. These can be imported unrestricted under other ‘special exemption’ provisions – but that date is fixed – it doesn’t move forward from year to year, and there is little likelihood that any changes will be made. You will still have to pay various taxes, including GST when you import the vehicle.
So what about grey imports?
A grey import is a vehicle that is legally imported outside the manufacturer’s legitimate import process. It stems from government decisions taken some twenty years ago that permitted Australians to buy vehicles from overseas that were never sold over here. But once they arrive in Australia they are subjected to a compliance process to conform to Australian Design Rules, and this can sometimes be complicated, tedious and expensive. Such hurdles mean that whilst these cars can represent excellent value, they are mainly restricted to an enthusiast market of limited numbers.
So the bottom line is: if you want to buy a new car and save money by buying it overseas, you have to stay there at least 12 months before you have a chance of bringing it here with you! (Mind you, when you look at the massive price differences in our survey, you may well consider it worthwhile!)
Postscript:- Since our last article on price comparisons was published, the US Dollar and UK Pound Sterling exchange rates have fluctuated significantly. Clearly, this affects any conclusion on price comparisons particularly as importers defended price differentials by ‘hiding behind exchange rates. So we looked at our price comparison tables and re-jigged a couple of examples using the very worst rates that we had working against us to see if prices reverted to a close comparison. Guess what? They didn’t. As you can see below there is a small difference, but in no way does it diminish our claims that we still suffer a huge price disadvantage that should be acknowledged by the motor manufacturers and importers NOW! Furthermore exchange rates have now reverted back to closely resemble the prices quoted in our survey.
Car Price Comparison at Least Favourable Exchange Rates
Vehicle Aust Price US Price UK Price
Mercedes Mb 300 $93,859.00 $48,840.00 $68,801.00
Subaru WRX STI $66,928.00 $35,815.00 $54,225.00
Just How Safe Is Your New Car?
Most modern cars have safety features that weren’t even thought of when this writer was a child. Back then, most cars had safety belts front and back – although a few didn’t have any in the back seat – and most of those seatbelts had adjustment features similar to bra straps, although the posh new ones had those automatically adjustable ones that seized up if you tried to pull them on in a hurry or if you tried to put them on while going around a corner. You couldn’t find an airbag anywhere in any of the cars that I rode in as a child, or even in the ones that I learned to drive in, and I don’t think any of them had ABS brakes,
either.
Well, times have certainly changed and cars have more and more safety features: ABS brakes, pretensioned seatbelts, anti-submarining seat design, crumple zones, brake assistance, stability control and all the rest of it. A few marques have even turned the level of safety into a marketing edge: while some tout their superior speed and power over the competition, other manufacturers – most notably Saab and Volvo, with others like Renault, Citroën and Toyota catching on – push the safety of their vehicles as their most notable feature.
But how safe, exactly, is your new car or the car you’re thinking about buying? One way to find out is to visit http://www.howsafeisyourcar.com.au/, which is a website set up by the Transport Accident Commission of the Victorian state
government. This site draws on ANCAP statistics to rate new cars hitting the Australian market and also USCR (Used Car Safety Ratings) figures. This saves you the hassle of trawling through oodles of crash testing videos and figures, allowing you to find the make and model of vehicle you’re interested in and see how it scores. You’ll get the overall star rating (five is the best, for those who aren’t familiar with the ANCAP system or its European equivalent, Euro NCAP) plus a more detailed breakdown detailing how the car performed in the frontal offset test (where the car is rammed into a pillar that hits the driver’s side at 64 km/h, simulating the typical front-on accident), the side impact crash test (where a heavy trolley is smacked into the side of a car at 50 km/h to simulate a T-bone collision) and the pole test (which is optional but simulates side-swiping a tree by ramming a concrete pole into the side of the test vehicle at 29 km/H). You are also given a breakdown on how well the driver and front passenger are protected, using a colour-coded diagram. Last, but definitely not least, you also get a checklist of all the safety features that are present (or should be) on the vehicle. And, because safety isn’t just about drivers but about pedestrians and air quality, you also can see the rating for pedestrian safety and the “green vehicle guide” (fuel consumption, carbon emissions, etc.). Those who really want to see the full details also have the option of downloading a pdf with the full report.
The maximum number of points that can be scored on each of the main tests (frontal offset and side impact) is 16, and a car has to score 12.5 or more in both of them to get a five-star rating. More points can be picked up via the pole test and by having seatbelt warnings. A score of 32.5 gets a five-star rating, as long as one of those points came from the pole test. A modern ehicle (i.e. one made after 2008) has to have electronic stability control as well in order to get the full five stars.
To give an example of how the system works, let’s have a look at how a couple of recent models that earned five stars at this site performed: the 2011 Holden Barina, the 2011 BMW X3 and the 2011 Audi A6.
The Holden Barina scored 35.43 out of 37 points as follows:
- Side impact test: 16/16
- Frontal offset test: 15.43 out of 16
- Pole test: 2/2
- Other points: 2/3
The BMW X3 scored 34.58 out of 37 points as follows:
- Side impact test: 16/16
- Frontal offset test: 14.58/16
- Pole test: 2/2
- Other points: 2/3
The Audi A6 scored 34.91 out of 37 as follows:
- Side impact test: 15/16
- Frontal offset test: 14.91/16
- Pole test: 2/2
- Other points: 3/3
Every new car that we have listed here at Private Fleet can be checked out for safety, as well as a few that we don’t list (not that there’s many of those!). The site also lists a large range of older cars that are likely to be bought in the second-hand market
(going back to 1990). Have a go yourself at the website to find out just how safe the car you learnt to drive on scored
safety-wise and wonder how you managed to survive. The Ford Falcon and the VW Beetle I had my first lessons weren’t in the list – the ones I got to drive were older than the 1990 model, but I won’t say more than that so I don’t give away my age too
much.
Level 2, 9 Help Street