24 January 2010

Hot-wiring Becoming a Dead 'Art'?

Hubby told me a rather interesting story last night that he'd heard from someone he met through work (we're just outside Detroit, so everyone works - or is unemployed from - the auto industry). This guy he knew was overseas for a spell, and the vehicle he had was one with the funny new-fangled key that doesn't look like a key. Sorry I can't explain it better - it actually is important to the story.

This guy had left the vehicle parked on the street when he was in a shady neighborhood or country or something (yes, this is how I tell stories live too - deal with it). When he went to leave, there was a slew of wires hanging from the steering column, but the car was otherwise fine. It turns out that someone had attempted to hot-wire the vehicle, but they were unsuccessful because the electronics detect the new-fangled key. Since the key wasn't with the person attempting the hot-wire, none of the electronics - including the ignition - would engage, no matter what the person tried.

Oh, and the legitimate user of the vehicle? Was still relying on 24 hour towing to get out of the shady area. Apparently even if you have the new-fangled key, the vehicle won't start if the wires are all just tangled together under the steering column...

5 comments:

The Adventures of Grunty and Chubbs said...

Great post title!! Love it!

Grampy said...

I wonder if he tried to put the key in and then hot start it himself?

siteseer said...

you tell a great story :)

Tammy said...

Hey Grampy had a great idea. Good story!

Fighting Mama said...

Haha - the lost art of hotwiring a car - when did things become so high tech! I had remote start installed on my Ford Escape and it required that a key, with the embedded chipset, be within like 20 ft of the vehicle at all times. It was the biggest pain in the a$$ to figure out. Seriously sucks that he had to wait on a tow truck though, and the damage to the car, that couldn't have been cheap to fix. Ugh, these ding dang fancy cars. :(