From a UK perspective it seems that the majority of US cars have automatic transmission: so car thieves steal automatics.
So would having a manual gearbox in a car make it less likely to be stolen, as the thief would not know how to drive it.
It might deter the casual, joy-riding teenaged car thief, but certainly wouldn’t stop a pro. I don’t think they’d pass up the chance to steal a Porsche 911 just because it had a stick shift.
I would venture to may that most car thieves know how to drive stick. I’ve noticed that the U.S. (or maybe North America) tends to have a greater percentage of automatics than a lot of other countries. But there are still a lot of manual cars out there. Both my cars are manual.
It depends on what the theives want it for. Most cars in the US are a/t and m/t’s usually have a lower resale value (high end sports cars can be an exception) so they will go for cars that would have a higher value (either as the car or parts). If it’s to joyride unless they totally don’t like a stick I really don’t think the theives will mind grinding a few gears along the way.
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- I have read somewhere recently that in the US right now, the current most-stolen car is the Acura Integra, because of people building “rice” cars-- the Integra engine will fit right into another car made by the same company (Honda Celica?? Toyota Supra? -whatever) but is bigger than any engine the other car came with from the factory.
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- I have read somewhere recently that in the US right now, the current most-stolen car is the Acura Integra, because of people building “rice” cars-- the Integra engine will fit right into another car made by the same company (Honda Celica?? Toyota Supra? -whatever) but is bigger than any engine the other car came with from the factory.
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Going off the top of my head, I believe it’s the Honda Civic (perhaps the ultimate in “rice-able” cars) that Integra engines slip right into.
Acura is simply the luxury marque of Honda (it’s no coincidence that the logos look so much alike), and I believe the Civic and Integra are built on pretty much the same base platform.
Haynes, the maker of sometimes-fine repair manuals, publishes a single manual covering the Civic, the Integra, and Honda’s CRV (their lunch-box SUV).
Australia fits the US mould, with most cars these days being automatic.
One of the reasons I drive a manual is because I figure many of the teenage joyriders these days won’t be able to even get it moving. The largest group of “automatic only” drivers seems to be in the younger age brackets - no cite, just the impression I get.
Im’ sure professional thieves can drive manual, but I don’t think they’d be after my little bog-standard Corolla.
don’t kid yourself any bozo can get a stick shift moving if they don’t care about causing damage. Your biggest plus would be lower value (again not always true but generally true) so less tempting.
Well, I wouldn’t give bozos that much credit. I remember when I was learning how to drive a stick, the biggest problem for me was accelerating from a dead stop; not actually shifting between gears.
And, just hearing about other people’s stick-learning experiences, that was their main problem as well – getting it go without the car stalling.
I took my test in a manual, then drove automatics for a decade.
An accident left me with a manual hire car.
Never mind getting started, it was hill starts at traffic lights that stumped me(thanks to those drivers who waited through several cycles of the lights for me to move).
If I’d driven nothing but autos I’d give the old three pedals a wide berth.
Assuming you’re an American:
For joyrides (or people who plan on using your Camaro as a bank robbing get-away car), I’d guess that you have some advantage due to most younger Americans NOT knowing how to drive a stick.
With regards to professional car thieves (the money in this comes from chopping the car and selling it for parts, BTW, because a whole stolen car is simply too hot for most people to want to drive or resell) I sincerely doubt that any of them are ignorant of the operation of a manual transmission.
You’re certainly safer than with a Commodore
Still,when my little bog-standard (and waaaaay rusty) Corolla was stolen a couple of years ago, I discovered that most car thieves steal cars to drive themselves home in or (as in my case) commit a crime with. So they’re really just after whatever they can get into easiest.
After that, I invested in a steering-lock…
Check out the top crime alert on this page: http://police.wustl.edu/crimealerts.html
This is a US example. The thieves couldn’t drive the stick shift and so were forced to abandon the car. It’s only one example of course, but it shows that it does happen.
Clearly the thieves didn’t have the braaaaaaaiiiiiiins to drive a stick shift.
Locking this zombie.
samclem Moderator