[s-cars] Subject: Dual Coil Ignition/car theft

[Tom Winter]

On 5/6/07 8:46 PM, hmarcnguyen at netscape.net wrote:

> I found this story amusing, so just passing along...

>What did Heiden learn from his ordeal?

>"Don't leave your keys in the ignition," he said. "And if you find it, do not
>leave it."

This makes me think of another story. Friend in San Fran with his very new,
very nice RS6. Goes out on the town. Gets a call from police, "we have your
car."

Location cited is only 4 blocks from where he's at, so he sprints the whole
4 blocks to the scene of the crime, smelling what used to be his clutch the
whole way.

Car stalled in the middle of an intersection. Clutch is toast.

Turns out that someone had broken into his car, and found the spare key he
kept inside. However, they didn't know how to drive stick, and redlined it
for 10 blocks or so in 1st gear, thrashing transmission and clutch!

The happy ending of the story is that when they abandoned the car, they left
his laptop, and all his other stuff. Because they found the key, the didn't
clean out the car where he parked it, but decided to take it all, including
the car!

HOWEVER: Apparently insurance companies have gotten wise to people leaving
valet and spare keys inside their vehicles and won't cover theft damages if
you do this. The first words from his insurance claims adjuster were, "do
you have all your keys?" Of course he said, "yes."

MORAL: If you are going to leave  a key inside your car, hide it someplace
better than the glove box.