Sierra Is The Most Stolen Vehicle, Cause For Concern?

[truck_newbie]

Stumbled unto an interesting msn piece. I know a member here recently had their '19 T1 stolen. 

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/americas-most-stolen-new-cars/ss-BBWY3GN?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout#image=25

 

Cause for concern or is this blown out of proportion? If it is cause for concern, anyone taking extra steps to prevent this besides the usual keeping it locked and parking in "safe" areas?

[txab]

 

[txab]

Keeping it locked and parking in "safe" areas. Park in garage when at home.

[flyingfool]

it's the Chevy dealership Employees who have access to programmers and keys, most likely a parts guy or the mechanic connected to a local thief. 

 

Best thing to do before going in for warrantee work or general maintnance...  is remove your registration and anything in the car with your ID and address from the glovebox this way after they copy your key they will have a hard time locating it. might also want to disable the gps antenna , as this is a direct line to your location when away from home. 

 

YOu also want to get an OBD2 lock out device so they cant reinstall a new ecu and drive off, its harder to reprogram the truck while they're hacking it.

https://www.bem-auto.com/product/universal-tune-saver/4

Edited November 23, 2019 by flyingfool

[davester]

3 hours ago, flyingfool said:

it's the Chevy dealership Employees who have access to programmers and keys, most likely a parts guy or the mechanic connected to a local thief. 

 

Best thing to do before going in for warrantee work or general maintnance...  is remove your registration and anything in the car with your ID and address from the glovebox this way after they copy your key they will have a hard time locating it. might also want to disable the gps antenna , as this is a direct line to your location when away from home. 

 

YOu also want to get an OBD2 lock out device so they cant reinstall a new ecu and drive off, its harder to reprogram the truck while they're hacking it.

https://www.bem-auto.com/product/universal-tune-saver/4

Course, this assumes you've moved since you bought the truck, so GM doesn't know where you live...  Doesn't the work order/invoice you get at the end of the job typically list your name, address and phone....  And then's just googling for the person, and finding geotagged images of their home...

[Thomcat]

Whole concept of theft potential is subjective, chances of theft for any particular vehicle being dependent upon where you live and where you travel. No problem driving or parking in my Constitutional right to carry State. Too dangerous for most thieves here when they can easily shop next door at the People's Republic State where when I'm forced to travel and park long enough for the engine to get cold, I'll take the easily replaced grocery getter Malibu which they are welcome to.

[KARNUT]

Back in the early 2000s my wife drove mostly sports cars. We recently gave our son her Z-28 and she wanted an intagra. We ended up with a type r. She worked next to a busy Hwy at a rehabilitation center. After a short time one day a police man was waiting for her after work. He informed her that little cars like hers we’re getting stolen in record numbers, thanks to the fast and furious movies. He recommended putting the car away until the popularity when down. We bought another car, put that one in the garage. I pulled it out once a month drive it put it back. I still do it got worse. I think there’re on fast and furious 50 now. It now has collector car insurance, in two years it’ll be going to Barrette Jackson. I used to cuss that cop for scaring my wife out of that car. It took up valuable space away from my normal collector cars. I sold my 94 ss impala for room. That car is going to be worth 3 times any collector car that’s been in my garage. My wife points that out often. I quit cussing the police man about 10 years ago. I still miss that impala.


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[tinbad]

From my experience this is an overblown “problem” that is amplified by (social) media. I live near the rougher parts of town and 90% of the crimes here seem to be car break-ins. Looking at Nextdoor seem to confirm that. There’s been 1 home break-in in the 5 years that I’ve lived here and 1 car stolen (an early 2000’s Ford pickup). Most of these crimes don’t seem very premeditated so I doubt there’s a high likelihood of someone going through all the trouble and planning to somehow acquire dealership codes, locate individual customers and hack into their cars. In these premeditated cases it seems more likely that the dealership itself gets hit as they are able to take many cars at once and either part them out or take them abroad (which is still rare but it has happened).
 

If it were ever to happen to me, I personally would never risk my life over a piece of metal. Strapped or not, they can have it and I will be much happier dealing with my vehicle insurance than having my wife collect on my life insurance. Not that I wouldn’t want my wife to get paid, but I’d rather live to see my kids grow up rather than playing Rambo with all the associated risks.

Edited November 24, 2019 by tinbad

[Colossus]

Eh.  It happens.  Usually the Fords and Rams are more popular to steal.  Especially the HD Diesels.  If a thief really wants it they'll find a way to get it.  I use a club, but in the end it is only a theft deterrent device, the thieves who don't have a lot of time will move onto something else.  But those who do have time and tools can defeat a club or any other locking device. 

[pickmeup]

If you steal a Ford you are taking a chance because it most likely will break before you get away.

[econometrics]

Edit: Oops, I had clicked on the wrong slide, which took me to a different article.  

Edited November 25, 2019 by econometrics

[Cpl_Punishment]

I see a different article every week about which vehicle is most stolen. One story said 9 of the top 10 were F-Series from various years. Then there's one saying it's Honda Civics. Or Toyotas and Lexuses. I wouldn't worry too much. 

[Wiggums]

It's probably because a lot of the larger trucks tend to be parked overnight at unsecured job sites where there are no witnesses. In large cities, I don't think thieves want pick-up trucks.

[econometrics]

Trucks are also the #1 selling vehicles in America. That'll skew some metrics. There's more of them to BE stolen. 

[Cpl_Punishment]

1 hour ago, econometrics said:

Trucks are also the #1 selling vehicles in America. That'll skew some metrics. There's more of them to BE stolen. 

I thought something similar while reading the story about how the most stolen trucks in Canada are Super Duties. The story noted that the most stolen trucks are 4x4s and theorized that taking the 4x4 badges off your truck could lower the probability of it being stolen. However, I think that 4x4s are most stolen just because they're so common. Even if every single 2WD truck in the country was stolen, I bet it wouldn't match the number of stolen 4x4 trucks.