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[Nick W]

Nick what?

The rusty Renault 5 or the crooklock.

That's a difficult question, as it's almost impossible to decide which is more useless. Now that cordless angle grinders are so ubiquitous, it's not worth getting the Leatherman out if its holster to remove a Krooklook.

[TheBoy]

Nick what?

The rusty Renault 5 or the crooklock.

That's a difficult question, as it's almost impossible to decide which is more useless. Now that cordless angle grinders are so ubiquitous, it's not worth getting the Leatherman out if its holster to remove a Krooklook.

Like a padlock on your shed, its just a deterent of an extra step to go through.

Back in the day on the (dodgy) estate I used to live on, I reckon the kids had some master keys, judging by how quickly they could pick the lock and pull it off.

[Doctor Gollum]

Nick what?

The rusty Renault 5 or the crooklock.

That's a difficult question, as it's almost impossible to decide which is more useless. Now that cordless angle grinders are so ubiquitous, it's not worth getting the Leatherman out if its holster to remove a Krooklook.

Especially when you can unlock the car with a tennis ball

[TheBoy]

I think all cars of a certain era had pointless locks.  I know a Fiat 850 key would happily open a MkI Escort.

By the time of my Astra, the keys were better but the locks were still shite.  Screwdriver was the "key" of choice to the yobs where I lived.  And they weren't the brightest yobs either....

[Marks DTM Calib]

Used to be able to get into and start my old flat mates Capri with a broken chip fork 

[TheBoy]

Used to be able to get into and start my old flat mates Capri with a broken chip fork 

Don't believe you.  Nobody ever had a Capri that could actually start

[YZ250]

Used to be able to get into and start my old flat mates Capri with a broken chip fork 

Don't believe you.  Nobody ever had a Capri that could actually start

My 3.0S Capri was super reliable for the six years that I owned it.    My Cortina MK3 on the other hand, started when it felt fit to do so. You could unlock the door on that with a metal comb. 

[Doctor Gollum]

Thieves don't nick them using keyless entry on the more recent cars, and any car from any manufacturer is prone to relay attack when on the older tech (Fords being the most nicked car). When you look at different countries you get differences, Merc and BMW in Spain, Kia Stinger in Germany.

The challenge is that the JLR products are one of the most desirable and hence they are targeted by the big crime teams, they found a way to hack and decode the CAN interface (they could do this for any make but, most are not worth bothering with as its expensive to do). That said, many of the cars that get nicked are not locked (we have all the stats and meet regularly with the Police car crime team)

This can hack method is being closed (and does not work on the latest models).

Its an arms race, and always will be, we have further tech in the wings for the next gen.

Which begs the question as to why they don't lock themselves when the key leaves the vehicle. Which is presumably what people think is happening rather than simply not locking them.

[Nick W]

Used to be able to get into and start my old flat mates Capri with a broken chip fork 

Don't believe you.  Nobody ever had a Capri that could actually start

Out of the eleven(I think) that I've owned, only one of them didn't start. Fitting an engine would have improved that fault.... Most of them had a fair amount of rust, but that's true of pretty much any car built in the 70s/80s - the local scrapyards put rusty BMW and Mercedes on the bottom of their piles because they knew they were unlikely to sell any of the parts.

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

My friend once owned a 1973 Cortina 2000 GXL MK3.

Virtually any Ford key would unlock the door.

[countrywoman]

Early minis (well any BL models with FS keys) were easy to get into/start if you had any key and knew the jiggle method.

[Rangie]

When I purchased my Vauxhall Velox PB in 1971 , the owner who had it from new said that if you just thump below any of the door handles the closure button pops up so you don't need a key to get in it and he was right. A couple of years later I came out of our local swimming pool and a young mum had locked herself out of her Vauxhall Viva, I got it open exactly the same way, she seemed amazed , she wasn't sure what to say when I jokingly said that I steal cars for a living.

[ronnyd]

I think all cars of a certain era had pointless locks.  I know a Fiat 850 key would happily open a MkI Escort.

By the time of my Astra, the keys were better but the locks were still shite.  Screwdriver was the "key" of choice to the yobs where I lived.  And they weren't the brightest yobs either....

Went to see friends in Haverhill, (shithole) when i had my Mk2 Granny. Got back to it and the local breakwits had tried to break in, and failed.  Christ, they must have been totally thick.
I'm sure i never wrote breakwits.

[STEMO]

I had an Austin Maxi and lived in a rough area of Liverpool. Me and the local thieves came to a kind of arrangement, I stopped locking it and they put it back near enough where they took it from so I could drive to work in the morning. Petrol was cheap enough and I only ever left a quarter of a tank in it.
It wasn't there one morning and I never saw it again 

[ronnyd]

I had an Austin Maxi and lived in a rough area of Liverpool. Me and the local thieves came to a kind of arrangement, I stopped locking it and they put it back near enough where they took it from so I could drive to work in the morning. Petrol was cheap enough and I only ever left a quarter of a tank in it.
It wasn't there one morning and I never saw it again 

How did you get on changing down from third to second Steve?