[madphilosopher]

Vulnerabilities like this lead to car thefts. Some models of cars are more susceptible than others, and the manufacturers seem unwilling to fix the problem. The insurance companies know which models are more trouble for them, and so they set higher rates for these, which punishes the driver/owner for something outside of their control.

My solution? Require the manufacturers of vulnerable models to pay the insurance on behalf of the driver/owner as long as the vulnerabilities go unfixed.

[emeril]

part of what helps is, at least, before buying a car, to get insurance quotes and then you see the true cost of THAT car

[pinko]

Consumer Reports will also inform you of things like this in advance, if you look. (For this and 100 other reasons, It's worth paying for a digital sub.)

[ActorNightly]

My friends Truck was stolen by some people with a tow truck. Key access doesn't really matter in the long run.

If you want to prevent theft, you have to make stealing "expensive" enough for people not to bother with it.

[brewdad]

Which is harder for the average thief to acquire, a bluetooth "kit" off a shady website or a friggin' tow truck?

[Mister_Snuggles]

Do people not look at the operating costs before buying a vehicle? Do they really just negotiate a monthly payment and get surprised at the amount they have to pay for fuel/maintenance/insurance?

When I bought my most recent car I had a spreadsheet which projected fuel (whether that's gas, electricity, or gas+electricity) and maintenance costs (there was some ball-parking here) for a dozen different models based on our driving habits. Once the list was narrowed down a bit I did some online quotes at my insurance company to add that in.

There were no financial surprises when I bought the car.

[lsy]

This is unnecessarily self-congratulating. The problem is that vulnerabilities are found in cars after they are on the market for a while and already purchased, so existing owners get their rates hiked, but the manufacturer never fixes the issue. No amount of research is going to guarantee your operating cost next year.

[vel0city]

> When I bought my most recent car I had a spreadsheet

Yeah so already different from like 90% of car buyers out there.