Front end of car stolen.

[Chris Jay]

This happened to a mate of mine, woke up one morning to find someone had pinched the front end of his Vectra VXR.

[vit4]

Drive Blind said:

Park a Merc sprinter or other equivalent size van a few spaces up and you've got all day to strip it, hidden from view.

I was thinking about this and wonder if it might be even more simple than that; I can't imagine that anybody would see a couple of guys working on a car in the car park and conclude that they're nicking bits off of it, even if you know a thing or two. 99.99% of people will merely assume that it's broken down and being fixed. Hide in plain sight.

[Mr2Mike]

Negative Creep said:

You sure they weren't just trying to change the sidelight bulb?

[joe58]

vit4 said:

I was thinking about this and wonder if it might be even more simple than that; I can't imagine that anybody would see a couple of guys working on a car in the car park and conclude that they're nicking bits off of it, even if you know a thing or two. 99.99% of people will merely assume that it's broken down and being fixed. Hide in plain sight.

Indeed, just vinyl up the van in RAC colours or what not and no one would bat an eye.

[Small Car]

And they stole the "locking wheel nuts". Random...

[V8RX7]

Nothing new...

Has happened many times before usually to the sportier models in various ranges

RS Turbos, Cosworths, M3, Impreza etc

However if you have crashed your grey Corsa, you need grey Corsa panels.

[leafspring]

Didn't another PHer have the headlights stolen from their Saab(?) not that long ago?

I recall the thieves were a little less skilled and just ripped the front end apart by force.

[b0rk]

Drive Blind said:

look at the fence in the background, the poor corsa is parked down the far end of a secluded station car park i assume.

Google maps shows the car was at the furthest end of the car park which appears invisible from the road and invisible within the body of the car park what a nice secluded place.

I am however surprised at the lack of fluids visible below/around the car considering the radiator has been removed.

[Nobby Diesel]

Opposite end of the spectrum here.......
A Mk3 Golf (newish at the time) that I owned, had the window smashed and a switch nicked out of the dash.
Can't remember, but probably £50 glass for a £10 switch!

[airbrakes]

leafspring said:

Didn't another PHer have the headlights stolen from their Saab(?) not that long ago?

I recall the thieves were a little less skilled and just ripped the front end apart by force.

A friend of mine had the lights stolen from his facelift Discovery 2 - those Rangie-style "pocket" lights are worth a stupid amount of money, IIRC about 500 quid, and theft of them from D2's and Range Rovers to make ebay facelift kits is absolutely rife. The thieves just cut right through the wiring loom rather than disconnect them, so the poor bloke had to manually solder and splice in the replacements.

Amazingly, despite the police catching the scrote red handed in a dawn raid (the lights, and lots of other stolen car parts, still in his van), it was decided "not in the public interest to prosecute" and he was let go

[peterattheboro]

I'm surprised the DM haven't commented on the value of the car. They always do it Audis that run into people's living rooms.

[RikST]

Very common on Corsa D shape it seems, especially Limited Edition, SXI, VXR and any other sportier variant! Got plenty in at work last month at Copart which were written off all in the same way! Some of the thieves even managed to half inch the Alloys and Engine in some cases! Truely amazing thefts albeit very odd!

[B17NNS]

Negative Creep said:

You sure they weren't just trying to change the sidelight bulb?

[Fleckers]

I think spanners and other tools should be banned

it will stop this sort of thing happening

as others have said, sounds like it was taken to order to fix someone else car

or she does not want the car any more and has had that done so she gets paid out on the insurance

[GadgeS3C]

Surprised they didn't mention the car was a 100mph Corsa...

[northandy]

Up in the north east there have been loads of these recently, all that shape corsa.

[GVK]

The keys comment.. Aren't Corsa keys coded to the immobiliser like most cars since the mid 90s?

[s_zigmond]

I remember a story (though I was never convinced of its truth) where the front end of a type R 8th gen civic was removed. The person who stole it apparently left standard parts in a heap in front of the car in there place.

[Janesy B]

I can't remember where I saw it but a new Corsa VXR was raped for parts on a dealer forecort. I know of someone who had all the ST bits nicked from the Fiesta ST and that seems common, obviously some pleb is going to put ST bits on their 1.25 'style'. Car crime like this doesn't really seem to be treated seriously.

[morsecodeman]

Superhoop said:

The only thing I find odd, is that after going to all that effort, they didn't take the airbags too

Some dodgy body shop is going to get paid by an insurance company for the repair, and parts have probably cost them just enough for a couple of junkies to score

Waled out to my car one morning as as mad as it sound. Airbags, Seat belts, CD Player and Bluetooth kit nicked. Car cost insurance £4.5k to fix. Car never felt the same so I traded it. Its not the fact they nocked the parts its the time it took to get everything sorted. TBH I wished they had taken the car and it was never found!