Scirocco Central

Think you will find the boot being opened on the fob disables the ultra-sonics but not the driver/passenger door alarm. But if the boot is forced open in some way, it triggers the alarm just like the doors.

It also has an anti-lifting alarm as I found today while jacking the Scirocco up.

C.

Yup, twice my Rocco was lifted up and alarm went off.

Thats interesting to know.

I had a couple of quite expensive bits of equipment in the boot of my car so I'm assuming access wasn't gained via there.. Nothing was taken out the boot and a couple of bits were still in the back seats (even though a jacket was taken).

Interesting to know that though!

If they used a code scanner, the glovebox would have been accessible.

Mark_G wrote:If they used a code scanner, the glovebox would have been accessible.

How?

It was locked via key...

Recent (and interesting) article regarding this problem:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... p-out.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jeff

LewisSellers wrote:Thats interesting to know.

I had a couple of quite expensive bits of equipment in the boot of my car so I'm assuming access wasn't gained via there.. Nothing was taken out the boot and a couple of bits were still in the back seats (even though a jacket was taken).

Interesting to know that though!

There's no way they will have entered and or left via the boot. You would have noticed the discarded parcel shelf and the seat backs folded down - cos I'm sure they wouldn't have stopped to put them back again
Likewise if they had scanned your keyfob I doubt they would have gone to the trouble of locking it afterwards.

Did you buy new? I guess you did, as you mention March 2012. Worth asking, just incase you didnt and someone has a spare key for your car.

How many keys did you get from the dealer? I got two with mine, so assume this is standard unless additional are ordered.

Gilez wrote:Did you buy new? I guess you did, as you mention March 2012. Worth asking, just incase you didnt and someone has a spare key for your car.

How many keys did you get from the dealer? I got two with mine, so assume this is standard unless additional are ordered.

Yeah, I bought the car brand new and it wasn't even from the local dealer. I drove about 2 hours to another dealer to buy it as they gave me a much better price. Not likely that they had a key which is strange.

VW called me last night but unfortunately I missed the call. They said they'd like to discuss my break-in so I'll give them a call shortly and see what they have to say...

Keep us posted.

Gilez wrote:Keep us posted.

Spoke to someone on the phone, asked for the mileage of my car, if i'd purchased a previous VW and what the registration was and what I wanted the solution to be... Waiting for a call back. Sounds very ominous.

Hi everyone,

Ok, had an interesting phone call with VW today...

The guy I spoke to was friendly, but didn't really offer solution to my issue. Personally, I think they know about the problem. He apologised first off and said 'It's a little bit of a worry for us what's happening'. Later on in the conversation, I asked him directly if it was a known issue and he said they don't have any issues reported with them and it's not an epidemic or anything. Later on again in the conversation, I mentioned about having a secondary security system fitted in the car and he said:

"As for a secondary security system, there's nothing that we do that's an authorised repair or accessory, to be able to offer any extra security. There's obviously other thing from manufactures that we install on the vehicle, but theres nothing, because we don't feel it's an issue, or because we haven't had many reported incidents of it happening. There's nothing that's in place yet. Obviously if it does come up, we'll be informing you."

They basically said that they can't give me any faith that it won't happen again and that they were aware of other dealers having issues on the market (I assume that was referring to the system that was on Watchdog a couple of weeks back).

I made a point of saying that I'd spoken to the VW dealership and them saying that the signal would have been copied, but didn't really lead to say that that was the only way they'd managed to gain entry. I asked if there was anyway the signal between my key and the car could be changed and if they would have a copy of my key. His response was:

"It basically is fairly straight forward. It sends a signal that is original to your vehicle, when you open the vehicle and that's how it opens. And yes they will have that now."

He's going to get back to me to find out if that can be changed. Cutting a long story short, they basically apologised and said that they can't offer my insurance company or me and faith that it wouldn't happen again and they didn't feel it was a major issue right now.

He's going to call me again on Thursday as they're looking to reimburse me for a couple of items that were stolen out of the car, but apart from that, he didn't really seem to think there was anything they can do.

To be honest, I'm not sure that really cuts it for me... I get the feeling they know about an issue with the car, but I don't really know how to take it from here.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Lewis

Lewis, Sorry to hear about your break in!
NO dealership will ever offer you any reimbursements for stolen items, unless they knew about other break ins with locked VW's! They are definitely hiding the truth! They just do not want to take responsibility...they KNOW that some VW owners would take advantage of the situation if they did.

If they are offering to reimburse for the stolen items, why not for the head unit and damaged glove box, saving your insurance excess and NCB? I'm guessing it's the usual 'gesture of goodwill without accepting liability'?

Hi All,

Yeah, I thought it was probably being covered up a little bit...

They haven't covered for the head unit and damaged glove box because I've already claimed on my insurance. I was broken into on the 11th, sent them a letter on the 12th and only heard back two days ago. Insurance companies require a pretty quick decision so that was the problem.

I'm not overly happy with their response. I'd prefer for them to pay for an additional security system to be fitted rather than the stolen Items...

Cheers,
Lewis

Interesting reading mate. It does sound like they are onto something, but obviously are keeping it under wraps for now.

See if you can get anything else from them in terms of free servicing or something. I appreciate it is not with the dealer, but worth a shot.

It wouldn't hurt you confirming your understanding of the conversation you had back to them in an email either. I would and did with a few issues i had with my dealer and do now with a lot of things. They aren't your friends, so cover yourself in writing.

Gilez wrote:Interesting reading mate. It does sound like they are onto something, but obviously are keeping it under wraps for now.

See if you can get anything else from them in terms of free servicing or something. I appreciate it is not with the dealer, but worth a shot.

It wouldn't hurt you confirming your understanding of the conversation you had back to them in an email either. I would and did with a few issues i had with my dealer and do now with a lot of things. They aren't your friends, so cover yourself in writing.

All our phone calls at the office are recorded so it's quite easy for me to back myself up on things such as the above (that's how I was able to get the direct quotes).

When I bought the car, they threw in 3 years free servicing ha, so that's not really worth it for me! If that wasn't the case, then it would have been quite good to go for.

Really, what I'm aiming for is for them to install a tracking / additional alarm system in my car. Even if that won't stop a similar break in (which I'd try and find an alarm system that would do that), it would atleast reduce my insurance premium next year which has shot up about £400-£500 to around £1350 a year!

The more I think about it, the more I think it's unacceptable for them to tell me there is nothing they can do... I've spent just short of £30k on a car with them (the second VW i've purchased) and they're basically acknowledging whats happened but saying it isn't really their fault.. If someone can break into a car without an obvious sign of entry, I'd say it is their fault!

I'll keep everyone updated on the conversation I have tomorrow...

On another note, does anyone have any idea of Alarm systems that can be put in place for anti theft even if the standard alarm is deactivated? I know VW work with Cobra for the tracker systems (you can have these as optional extras when you spec up the car) so I was trying to find something from them... Ideally, just something that is anti tamper with the radio, or works with a separate key fob even if the car gets unlocked via the original key...

Any suggestions would be great!

Lewis

I can't think of anything that will protect your radio unless you can find a double DIN unit that has a removable faceplate.
What you might try looking at is installing a high frequency piezoelectric sounder (around 110 dB should be good) inside the car - less than a tenner. Rig this up via a cheap separate alarm or other home made activation / trigger system.
These sounders are quite compact and be tucked away inside the car but when they go off they are deafeningly uncomfortable, cause disorientation, unsettle intruders as they can't hear if anyone is coming and can be heard from a reasonable distance away so might alert you too.

ZephyR wrote:I can't think of anything that will protect your radio unless you can find a double DIN unit that has a removable faceplate.
What you might try looking at is installing a high frequency piezoelectric sounder (around 110 dB should be good) inside the car - less than a tenner. Rig this up via a cheap separate alarm or other home made activation / trigger system.
These sounders are quite compact and be tucked away inside the car but when they go off they are deafeningly uncomfortable, cause disorientation, unsettle intruders as they can't hear if anyone is coming and can be heard from a reasonable distance away so might alert you too.

Yeah, I've had the RNS-510 replaced in it now so the removable faceplate thing isn't really a go-er.. The alarm with activation system sounds like a good idea. I wonder if I could hook tear gas up to it too (probably not legal ha). That's a good idea though and would probably be the best solution to catching the ******** too! I'm going to have a chat with VW today and say I'm not happy to just leave it. If It happens more than once, It'll just keep pushing my insurance up