Purely out of curiousity, my friends Silverado SS was stolen last week and we were discussing VATS and the pass key crap.

 

Anything is possible!

But it's not easy! I don't claim to know much but I do know with the right program and access one can shut off the VATS!

There are people that if they want your Vette they will take it, but as far as just hotwireing it like the old days and the movies - I'd say NO!

Thanks,Matt

 

Please someone tell us how our cars can be hotwired so thieves can read up on it and jack all of us. LOL J/K

Cajun

 

I recently read on another forum that in Germany they have come up with the software to remotely startup the "key less" C6..
Now that is scary

 

The Vats is EASILY defeated, and the C5 can be started and driven away with less than $500. damage in under 2 minutes. I don't know all the details but I was at an insurance seminar once and they had a ex car thief turned insurance consultant demo how fast a 2001 C5 can be stolen...from time he walked up and drove the car away was less than 2 minutes..he did break the window with the thing he was TRYING to open it with and he later said that the broken window was not something that normally happened and it would have only taken him a minute longer to get the door anyhow...I went out and promptly had a non factory alarm installed with 3 battery backup, plus a lo-jack installed....You also need to take into account that MANY C5's have had the steering lock disabled as well because of the Column lock issue, that helps security not at all....

~Maverick

 

ravelco.com

check it out....

 

Make sure you have decent insurance.

 

ANY car can be stolen. Some just take more skill than others. Make yourself a harder target and they'll probably pass you over for something else.

The only things I've seen deter thefts (or at least shut off the car before they got too far away) from personal experience is OnStar and Lojack.

Both can recognize an unauthorized start in which an employee will then shut the car off remotely. It can probably be defeated as well, but it will take longer.

Bottom line, the longer it takes for a thief to take your car, the more likely they are to get caught, and the more likely they'll try someone elses car.

 

They aren't "remotely" starting cars, but instead are able to make the car think its "authorized" key fob is in the car ... then all they have to do is push the START button and drive away ....

Keyless entry systems have their "issues" and not only for the Corvette, but for companies such as BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes .... and there is good news and bad news on this issue.

The bad news is that this issue has been covered by everyone from the Wall Street Journal to WIRED magazine. Here's a CNET article on the issue ......

http://news.com.com/Gone+in+60+secon...ml?tag=st.prev

The good news is that if your car does get taken by someone smart enough to understand this ... just hang out at your local "hacker" store (Fry's Electronics for example) and you'll see your car within a couple of hours.

As others have said ... ANY system can be beaten. But now a thief needs one or more of the following if they want to pull this off without jail (gaol - for DeeGee) time....

* An education (and here in Silicon Valley that's worth more than stealing cars)

* Sophisticated hardware and software to accomplish this

* OR ... brute force method ...... tow/drag the car into a shipping container (cuts off GPS and other radio signals) and get the car overseas to sell it.

I'm more worried about door dings when I leave my Vette in a public place than I am about it being stolen.

 

 

Hmm... I've always wanted to see a thief try to steal a car with one of those locking devices for the clutch...... I'm just thinking it would be a SOB to get off... because 1. the car cannot be started, and 2. No gear shifting.

 

I had the best alarm/battery backup/etc money could buy at the time in 2000 on my 87 Grand National.

When I found the shell in Ozone Park Queens they left the alarm brain on the drivers floorboard, mocking me.

The car was stolen within 10 minutes of me parking it next to a security booth in a crowded parking lot at 9 am.

 

If it was legal, this would be my first mod....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDRme0HeXq4

 

If identity can be stolen, why not. I am sure it can not be hot wired like the good old days of splicing and jumping wires ,after all the sensor that reads your key chip is only measured by ohms. so with the right computer hacker away they go

 

When this has been asked (many times) before, of coarse many people said "anything can be stolen"...
It's a sad fact that so many people make their living figuring out how to steal from those who work for a living!
In the past, I asked "why not just leave your windows down, doors unlocked and keys in the ignition then." Do you leave your home doors unlocked because burglars can get into anything they want? That's exactly the attitude that thieves expect and look for.
Whatever manner you use to protect your property, do it in layers, making access harder and more noticeable. The thieves will move on to someone with the oh well attitude...

 

A C6 Z06 was stolen from a local Chevy car lot a couple of weeks ago. The thieves came by on a Friday afternoon to look over the car. They obtained the original key fob to just check out the car - did not drive it off the lot. When they handed back the key fob, it was not the Z06 key. Later that night, they walked up to the car (sitting in front of the lot), hoped in, and drove away. Pretty simple strategy, which could easily be duplicated with a push botton start or with a key.

 

...maybe that's why many dealerships are not as anxious to allow just anyone a Corvette test drive anymore...that's another topic that gets lots of attention...

 

To answer the original question YES a C5 can be "hotwired". The vats system is pretty simple to bypass since it is just a resistor.I could go into a full explanation but I'm sure some people would complain that I'm letting theives know how to steal our cars (even though real theives already know).

I've been in the car audio industry for quite a while and over the years some of the 1st gen vats system have gone bad and we simply just bypass them for the customers when they ask.

 

I had 2 Turbo Buicks stolen. I know for a fact one was towed.

The one that I know was towed was parked for a few weeks because it needed tires, I had the ECM in the garage and you couldn't tell it was not in the car. The other one was parked in the street, had a kill switch. There were stolen from the same house, a few years apart. Unfortunatly neither were found.

I do what I can to protect the C5Z, but if someone steals it, it's insured.

 

I like this one too.