I left mine in my totaled car, now in the junkyard, but it occurred to me that I don’t see very many of them in the parked cars in NYC, not nearly as many as I used to. Why is that? Crime down? Internal anti-theft devices? Inattention on my part?
You’re talking about “the Club” right? I believe that they have been found to be ineffective as a deterrent. Here is one article:
Also many automakers began in the 90s to add alarms and other anti-theft features as standard equipment.
I think part of it also is it became ‘out of fashion’ and appearing paranoid to use such a device, and with greater electronics build into the seat less underseat room to store it out of the way.
The main reason is that more and more cars use chip technology. The car will not run without the key since the compuetr needs that code to run the ignition; it cannot be hotwired. As a result, the days of the car that could be opened with a strip of sheet metal and driven away with a screwdriver are fading.
For cars that don’t have that, there are immobilizers, which do the same thing but are a lot less intrusive than the club.
Of course, nothing is completely theft-proof.
For those who are too lazy to read the linked article, the Achilles heel of The Club was that although it was made of tough-to-cut hardened steel, your steering wheel isn’t! Consequently thieves could saw through that in seconds and remove The Club…
Which was also a weakness advertised with club companion products such as Amazon.com: The Club SHL 704 Airbag and Steering Wheel Shield : Automotive
which helped spread the word of the shortcomming.
I found that the best use for The Club was always to keep it in the car in case you needed to use it as an *actual *club.
A shamboks or a little league bat you can whip around one handed are better.
One of our local police departments was out today selling the (genuine) Club at a greatly discounted price – an annual thing they’ve done for 20+ years. They were very precise in describing it as a “visual deterent” used in conjunction with alarm or other antitheft systems.
In other words, the Club doesn’t tell a thief he can’t steal the car, only that it will take 30 seconds longer than stealing a different car.
Exactly what my policeman cousin told me years ago.
According to the article at awldune’s link, The Club actually makes a car easier to steal, and thieves preferentially target cars with one installed.
I had read an article 10 years ago saying that over 70% of car thefts are done using the cars key. I imagine this number has risen today with modern anti theft electronics.
Of course a thief can still smash a window and steal stuff from the car
Or you can do what my tenant does, and use one on a 1987 Mitsubishi Tredia (it doesn’t actually lock any more, it just sits on the steering wheel). After rolling on the ground laughing for several minutes, potential thieves move on to other cars.
Don’t laugh too hard, because I’ve known several people whose P.O.S. cars have been stolen. A lot of thieves aren’t looking for resale value, just something that is quick and easy to steal that will provide them transportation, often in order to use in the commission of another crime and to promptly abandon.
Others legitimately own the same model of P.O.S. themselves, and are just looking for free parts.
Usually, when a thief encounters a club like device, he can either move on, or if he wants THAT car (because it’s really expensive; it’s really fast and he’s been dreaming of a joy ride; or more likely the chop shop just got an order for leather heated seats and your car has them) he’ll just hack saw the steering wheel and slip the thing off.
True story, one of my friend’s daughters drove out to college and stopped at a diner for lunch. She got a nice BMW for graduation, along with The CLUB. When she went back out to her car, the majority of her belongings were in a short trail leading to the exit of the parking lot, and the club was quietly resting in her parking spot.
Don’t modern cars lock the steering wheel when the key is removed? Are wheel locks used in addition to this, or on cars that don’t do this?
I think they’ve been overcome by events, so to speak. I still have one, but I don’t bother to use it.
As far as deterrents, I usually remove one of the fuel or ignition relays from the electronics “box” under the hood if I’m going to be away from the car for awhile (in a risky area). I figure it’s unlikely the would-be thief is carrying an exact match, and now my threats are limited to those few who have tow trucks.
Curious what the gear-heads think of this method? Can thieves simply jumper the missing relay? I figure they won’t take the time to diagnose the problem, and would move on.
I think that the time consuming issue would be to know where the trouble is. Unless your method is commonly used and known about. Unless the ODC2 computer has a trouble code for such a faulty relay, even a shop would probably spend quite a bit of time tracing that down.
They have for ages. Apparently it’s just a simple tab on the steering shaft and easily bent out of the way once you wreck the steering shaft cover. It’s like using a bathroom locking door for your exterior door on a house.
The club stops the theif from being able to turn the wheel enough to make the first corner… if it stays on.
Some insurance companies now want you to put in an immobiliser if your POS can be hotwired. This requires a special chip/radio on your keychain to be nearby before the ignition will fire. It too could be bypassed, but requires more specialized knowledge and equipment.
Really fancy cars (and now some not-so-fancy ones) have chip keys - the ignition computer itself checks for a valid key, and only the set that came with your car works. For several I owned, the only way to “add” a key is to reprogram all the keys and the computer at the same time - you can’t just “make an extra key” without the car.
Or if they wanted to keep the wheel intact, another tactic I’ve seen: slip a length of pipe over one prong of the Club, and snap the prong off using the leverage thus gained. When I saw it done, it looked even faster than cutting through the wheel.