"Stolen on test drive"

[Mr Trophy]

As per the above, are scum now stealing cars when they're out on "test drive"

It's actually the first I have heard of this?

[Dr Interceptor]

It's been happening for years. A Ford garage made Father leave mother as 'security' when he took a Cossie for a test drive back in the late 80s. The keys to his 2.9 XR4x4 weren't enough apparently!

[Dave Hedgehog]

ask for proof of insurance to drive your car (its an offence to let someone drive your car uninsured anyway)
ask to see his licence, photograph it
photograph him and his car
if he turns up with a dappy mate tell the mate to sling his hook (photograph him)

[Billyray911]

I wouldn't say that it's increasing in popularity,but it's certainly not a new thing.
A new variation on the theme is for a prospective buyer to turn up and to pretend to be looking to see if your car has any fault codes,by plugging in (what the seller thinks is) a code reader into the obd port.
However,all that has happened is that they have just reprogrammed a blank key for your car,via the obd.
A day or so later,they return whilst you are asleep and take your car.Never to be seen again!

[Toaster Pilot]

Billyray911 said:

I wouldn't say that it's increasing in popularity,but it's certainly not a new thing.
A new variation on the theme is for a prospective buyer to turn up and to pretend to be looking to see if your car has any fault codes,by plugging in (what the seller thinks is) a code reader into the obd port.
However,all that has happened is that they have just reprogrammed a blank key for your car,via the obd.
A day or so later,they return whilst you are asleep and take your car.Never to be seen again!

Seriously?

I know people were doing this to steal cars, but I had no idea they'd be so brazen to do it under the eyes of the owner!

[Martin_M]

Don't most places prohibit unaccompanied test drives?

[Dave200]

You've been living under a rock. It has been happening to dealer and private sales for as long as I can remember being interested in cars. HTH.

[TheEnd]

It is one of the oldest tricks, often as simple as getting the engine started, then jumping in and racing away.

[Mastodon2]

A friend of mine worked for a car dealers in the 90s, had a bloke turn up looking to PX his car, which was a black Corrado, against a new Vauxhall, a Cavlier Turbo 4X4. As my mate finished the test drive he made the fatal mistake of not getting the keys off the driver, and as soon as he got out of the car the driver fired it up and drove off. As turned out, when the police arrived to investigate, the Corrado had been stolen a few miles away the night before.

[R1 Indy]

I was talking to a customer (smallish independent car dealer) about this a while ago, he had a £8K car stolen.
He let them take an unoccupied test drive.
They never came back, and the car they arrived in then disappeared!

He said it was a massive hit, as insurance wouldn't cover, as he was not in the car!

[HumbleJim]

Very common, spare key taken from the ring and replaced with a "dummy" key. Return later with correct key. Jump in and drive off, clobber salesman and drive off. Like all theses things the thieves will exploit poor security and inexperienced staff.

[oldnbold]

I was talking to a customer a few years ago who had had his £40k RR stolen during an accompanied test drive.

Ths owner had set off driving and then pulled over to let the buyer take the wheel. As they crossed over behind the car the buyer pulled a gun, demanded the chaps phone and calmy drove away.

Even though he was caught on the cctv at the chaps house when looking over the car, he was never arrested.

[oldnbold]

I was talking to a customer a few years ago who had had his £40k RR stolen during an accompanied test drive.

Ths owner had set off driving and then pulled over to let the buyer take the wheel. As they crossed over behind the car the buyer pulled a gun, demanded the chaps phone and calmy drove away.

Even though he was caught on the cctv at the chaps house when looking over the car, he was never arrested.

[rambo19]

Dave Hedgehog said:

ask for proof of insurance to drive your car (its an offence to let someone drive your car uninsured anyway)
ask to see his licence, photograph it
photograph him and his car
if he turns up with a dappy mate tell the mate to sling his hook (photograph him)

Yep, this.

[Qwert1e]

oldnbold said:

I was talking to a customer a few years ago who had had his £40k RR stolen during an accompanied test drive.

Ths owner had set off driving and then pulled over to let the buyer take the wheel.

Always remove the keys and walk round the car with them.

[Rich_W]

Qwert1e said:

oldnbold said:

I was talking to a customer a few years ago who had had his £40k RR stolen during an accompanied test drive.

Ths owner had set off driving and then pulled over to let the buyer take the wheel.

Always remove the keys and walk round the car with them.

Maybe if you read the WHOLE POST. You'd see that the seller pulled a GUN!

No car on this planet is worth getting shot for!

Saying that, car theft normally results in a slap on the wrist and a holiday to Vegas. Gun crime tends towards serious prison time! SO hardly the best way to steal a car in the UK. And if the police come for you, you'll get the full monty "hard stop" Which you probably don't want

[oldnbold]

Rich_W said:

Qwert1e said:

oldnbold said:

I was talking to a customer a few years ago who had had his £40k RR stolen during an accompanied test drive.

Ths owner had set off driving and then pulled over to let the buyer take the wheel.

Always remove the keys and walk round the car with them.

Maybe if you read the WHOLE POST. You'd see that the seller pulled a GUN!

No car on this planet is worth getting shot for!

Saying that, car theft normally results in a slap on the wrist and a holiday to Vegas. Gun crime tends towards serious prison time! SO hardly the best way to steal a car in the UK. And if the police come for you, you'll get the full monty "hard stop" Which you probably don't want

Because of they way that the "buyer" conducted himself, in taking time to look over the car at the sellers house, asking questions etc, the Police said it was undoubtably stolen to order and straight into a container oversea's.

The thief was a pro, they think he had spotted the CCTV at the sellers house because he made sure no full face views were captured, and the seller told me he was very calm throughout, even when he pulled the gun, no shouting just clear instructions and drove away normally.

[H100S]

Latest I heard was 'customer' wanted to see if it fit down his drive. Pulled up at a random house asked sales person to check as it was a tight fit only to drive off never to be seen again. Don't know if this thief was caught.

Scum.

[Pit Pony]

I was in a back street dealer last year, and when my wife suggested we take a test drive, in a 2001 Cooper, he attached trade plates inside the front and rear windows, and let us go off. We came back 40 mins later, and he seemed extremely relieved to see us again. He had taken no details at all.

Thought we'd just go around the block. I wanted to find a 70 mph zone, and somewhere I could look underneath it, so we drove 6 miles home (3 miles on dual carriage way), drove it onto my little ramps, had a look underneath, and then drove it back.

He seemed even more relieved when my wife started to point out faults he'd need to fix. We bought it, but could easily have taken it and swapped the reg number for one off an identical car.

[Toaster Pilot]

Martin_M said:

Don't most places prohibit unaccompanied test drives?

My trade insurance certainly prohibits it - and I can't imagine what the premium would need to be to cover that properly.