the 'two cars stolen' thread by jdc has got me thinking....
what car would you have if you wanted something half decent, but didn't want to show out at all.
i think my choice would be a Toyota Camry V6 and get rid of the V6 badge....or is that still too showy?
jdc cars were/are good cars, but they're not necessarily what you'd imagine a car crook would want are they?
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Audi RS2?
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I supose a crook might want to be 'incognito' and therefore steal an incognito car? Anything that's popular tends to blend in.
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Yes. A debadged BMW 330 with steel wheels and high profile tyres, preferably slightly neglected looking and dirty, with slight but not embarrassing body damage. No leather either. Even put a 318 badge on it.
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Any Citroen, but especially a CX Turbo 2 - by the time any thief has nicked it and pumped up the suspension the local beat bobby on foot would have arrived!
Oops - "local beat bobby on foot "
What's that then?????
--
Phil
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Need to remove one of the twin exhausts!
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"of the 330i "
I gathered that!!!!
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Phil
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Definately German. Get a (6 cylinder) BMW, (8 cylinder) Mercedes or (8 cylinder) Audi and leave those who drive incognito cars alone...:))
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Or just something old.
When you can get an E39 540i for £3k there's not too much point stealing it with that much force when you can do the same thing down the road and end up with a £25k E60.
Failing that, something really low profile like a Peugeot 406 V6 as I suggested before on a similar thread (when the goal was to blend in on housing estates).
Of course it used to be that a Subaru and a Skoda would have been seen as Q-cars that wouldn't attract attention, ironically enough.
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actually didn't the CX Turbo 2 have twin (very thin) pipes?!
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Legacy 3.0R Spec B. Apart from the wheels and very minor external trim differences looks very similar to a base 2 litre. Not even a 3 litre or Spec B badge.
Didn't the CX turbo have two pipes off a single back box?
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something half decent ...
Mondeo ST220
does that fill the half decent criterion?
Hawkeye
-----------------------------
Stranger in a strange land
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Wouldn´t the scrotes nick the ST220 alloy wheels in seconds?
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an old anglia with a flying pig engine shoehorned in
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What, like Vyv off the Young Ones?
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VW Passat 3.2 quattro DSG. The only things which give it away from the outside are the slightly different alloys and the boot badge.
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If you really want to be incognito, imo car must be popular and at least 5 years old and NOT a known fast one.(eg Impreza, Saab Turbo).
So 406 V6, Mondeo V6, Passat 4x4 V6, pre 2000 A4(or an S4 debadged) , Legacy 2.5, pre 2000 XJ6 all fit the bill. Even an early A6 or S8... A nice one suitably unwashed will never scream "steal me NOW"..
Unlike M3s, Impreza, etc..
Just don't leave it on the drive when clean:-)
madf
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The most anonymous car I have seen recently is the new Audi RS6 Avant. Remove the V10 and model badges and it looks like any other A6. If I were paying £60,000 for one I'd be disappointed!
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Or a de-badged Octavia VRS
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Vectra 3.2 V6 Crap colour, fat tyres. Who gives stuff when you are in it. I don't.
MD
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If you really want to be incognito imo car must be popular and at least 5 years old and NOT a known fast one.(eg Impreza Saab Turbo).
I love the idea that people who make their living stealing fast cars don't know which ones are fast but don't look it.
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The perfect solution - A Bristol. That will fool them especially the Escorty looking one !
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What like Vyv off the Young Ones?
m forgot about that
a mate had one went like stink but didnt handle and most certainly couldnt stop, but it was brilliant as a street sleeper with its 550x12"s
long time before the young ones mind
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Passat W8? Only give away really are the badges (easy to remove) and the quad exhaust.
Think have seen one, but was i believe a very quick car.
Can remember what it was called but VW did a brilliant Q car with the Golf 2 circa 1989/ 1990 iirc. Built by the rallye sport division, 5 door shell, little or no bodykit, single lamps and looked like a 1.3 base model albeit with BBS alloys. Over 200bhp and four wheel drive.
Also read they produced a Passat at around the same time with 300 bhp, but made it look like a 1.8 base model.
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Doesn't matter how expensive the car is provided you park it next to something even more valuable!
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The objective is not to be stolen so anything in white or silver with red and green flourescent panels.
Seriously, something like a white 330 would be less appealing than a mettalic one - currently at least though white is making a comeback via Golf GTis and Focus STs both of which will be on the scrotes list.
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If the implied objective is to avoid having the car stolen, then you need to make it very ordinary and preferably altered in some way as to make it totally unwanted. Put a driving school sign on the roof, or advertising.
Wanting to be incognito suggests you are very famous and easily recognised, but you don't want to attract attention. So leave the Roller and chaufeur at home, and pick something small, silver, about 10 years old. And wear a false moustache.
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Aprilia and Cheddar are right (as usual!)
If you want to drive a nice, seriously luxurious and fast car, you don't want incognito. You want as cognito as possible.
If you want to drive an M5, you get it resprayed in lady penelope pink, or polo harlequin. Only the very foolhardy thief touches it. ("Hey Bert - why's everyone looking at us?") If you want to be really cautious, you get a mug-shot of yourself sprayed on the bonnet and sides with the words "If anyone other than this man is driving this car, call the police" emblazoned below it. Massacres the residuals of course, but hey, you can just get it resprayed in whatever colour is currently fashionable when you come to re-sell.
(If I really must answer the OP question, I'd say "Get a Berlingo". Really, really, nice car - and fairly incognito. Only the very discerning thief finds them irresistable. But make sure it is a Multispace, with big windows that allow passers by to see into the boot, not a van. Some thieves would look at a van and say "Hmmmm, you could get a lot of loot in there."
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"If anyone other than this man is driving.."
What happened to the '25' stickers to indicate that the normal driver was, er, more mature? Seemed a good idea (assuming they were difficult to remove) to me, but haven't seen any lately.
A more effective solution (especially if you really are 25) might be to have a large target-style spot on the roof, to make it easier to track from the air. Even the average scroat would think twice about taking something that conspicuous...
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What happened to the '25' stickers to indicate that the normal driver was er more mature? Seemed a good idea (assuming they were difficult to remove) to me but haven't seen any lately.
They went when we replaced traffic policing with photography.
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When I had a Citroen GS, I only locked it when there was something valuable inside! The dash was enough to frighten most people away...
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When I had a Citroen GS I only locked it when there was something valuable inside!
Surely you mean you put valuables in the GS rather than the house - less chance of being stolen from there :-)
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Apologies to Baskerville. In my post above, I should have included him with A & C in the ranks of the shrewd.
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When I eventually get my Fabia VrS back, I am 99% sure I will not want to keep it after what happened, so this thread is very pertinent as one of the next stages I'm sure will be to trade the VrS in for something less sporty.
I'm thinking of something like a C-Max or Focus or Mondeo - something that is decent enough but utterly bland. I looked at a friends C-max over the weekend and was quite impressed by it's combination of smallish size but good space, plus a bit bland looking which, now, is a good thing.
The only citeria I have is for diesel and a bit more space than the Fabia - budget I'm not sure yet as I don't know what I might get for the Fabia, but I will not want to be putting much money in along with the Fabia , so I guess something around the £8-9k region.
I might even take a look at that Roomster thing ! Surely no-one would want to nick that !!
jdc
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jdc
One or two people have suggested that something older might be less desireable to thieves, and that is obviously true.
FWIW, it is also true that you can make some cars look older than they are by putting an older registration on them. It is not legal to put an 06 plate on a 2001 car, but it is legal to put a 51-reg plate on a 2006 car. Since a 2001 Mondeo is identical to a 2006 one, you could get a nearly new Mondeo but make it look like it was 6 years old.
Probably wouldn't make much difference, but might help.
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Maybe go for a late mark 4 Golf (hatch or estate) with the same 130 bhp engine as the Fabia. Apart from TDI in red at the back, it looks like any other Golf.
Good luck!
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If you want to travel incognito with a bit of power under your right foot, what about a mid nineties Mercedes W124 E420. It has a 4.2 litre 280 horsepower engine but, due to Mercedes mean spirited pricing policy, even alloy wheels were optional so looks identical to a 75 horsepower E200D.
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a friend has a c class Mercedes that a bit tatty and been debadged . its a v8 420hp amg model but looks like rubbish
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The comment above about stickers brought to mind an idea that was in vogue around 1990 of local constabulary stickers you put in your window which basically said "Dear Plod, feel free to stop me and ask me where I'm going" ie conspicuous law-abiding that crims would avoid. Don't see them now and wondered of they had any effect?
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yes they worked, unfortunately to bring the situation up to date i would have to go political
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