Sophia wrote on Sep 1
st, 2023 at 9:57am:
I would like to ask Geoff what he suggests is best to protect modern vehicles that are in open carports or in street parking which there are plenty of as many places now are so subdivided up with cramping of units and not much room for one car let alone two.
Good thread Sophia.
I'm an amateur (hobbyist) lock-picker, and I have all
the necessary tools for most locks except the expensive
ones—both the lock
and the tools to open it.
Club locks, in general, are more than adequate in a
well-trafficked street during daylight hours, or in a
shopping centre car park for example.
But... outside your house, in the street, or under a carport
they don't have the same in-public sight deterrent
effect—particularly at 3AM in the dark!
Most thieves will ignore the club-type lock itself, and simply
make a saw cut in the steering wheel's metal core,
which is often only 6-8mm diameter mild steel, (or
a magnesium extrusion on a top price vehicle).
You might like to check out this video, which shows a
couple of vulnerabilities of a typical club-style lock.
The short answer is that any/all security devices that use
a lock and key are subject to picking, some ludicrously
easily.
And if your (older?) club lock has one of these
cruciform keyways, you're wasting your time even
putting the lock on the steering wheel. With a little
tool known as a "jiggler", I reckon I could open this
lock in less than 10 seconds.