Stick-shift = car theft deterrent
"I just didn't feel like walking," states shiftless carjacker.
Gotta love it. If you own a stick shift car, the chances of having it stolen are less than if you own a car with an automatic transmission. Why?..
Fewer people these days—including thieves—know how to drive a manual transmission.
Case in point, Frank Singleton, a would-be Florida carjacker, who incidentally had just been released from jail, tried to pry a Nissan 350ZX away from a young woman who was visiting the jail, only to find out the car had a stick shift, and he couldn't drive it. As he was trying to figure out to drive it, the police nabbed him. He never got out of the jail's parking lot.
So Singleton, who was facing a minor misdemeanor charge, is now facing some serious time in the slammer, as carjacking has been now added to his rap sheet. Ah, justice is sweet...
On a somewhat related note, I was at a Mitsubishi dealer last week, and asked to test drive a new EVO. The salesman, all of 22 years of age, said sure; which was surprise number one, as car dealers
rarely let anyone test drive EVOs or STIs. Surprise number two came when he asked me if I knew how to drive a stick shift—because he couldn't! Can you imagine that? A car salesman that can't drive a stick?!?!
Full story here and
video here; and yet another similar story
here.
- Permalink | Comments (9)
- Posted by: Bob Holland March 29, 2008, 4:00 AM
- Categories: Trends
I always thought people should be required to learn and take their drivers test on a manual. Once you mastered a stick shift, an automatic is easy to pick up. If you can't learn a stick shift then perhaps driving isn't your thing.
Now I think it might be better to leave things the way they are. If fewer thieves are capable of stealing my car I might even get lower insurance rates.
Ditto, my first thought was, lower my insurance!
this is truly great news in relation to me thinking about the purchase of my next car... now if i can only convince my WIFE to learn stick... hahaha! although it's comforting to know that no one's going to try and run off with my modded legacy... then again, who's going to try and take a legacy!?!
thats not a very good car jacker... the pro's know how to drive stick.
Hmm, we really should lobby to have stick shift cars get lower insurance, given this evidence.
So they usually don't let you test drive EVOs and STIs, even if you want to buy? I'd never buy a car without test driving it first.
I dont have anything to worry about. We own 4 cars which 3 are manuals and the automoatic is in the Odyssey and I dont think anyone would steal a minivan.
Speaking of the STi and the EVO, I test drove a WRX a few weekends ago (I hated the car BTW sorry SubyTrojan)and wanted to drive an STi but I would have had to put down a substantial deposit. No thanks...
" I dont think anyone would steal a minivan"
Actually in British Columbia, the Dodge Caravan has always been high on the theft list. Seems they are popular with the B&E artists. They chuck the back seats and load them up with whatever they stole and ditch the van later.
I'm with huyracing. If he had been a good car thief he probably would not have been in jail in the first place. LOL
The thing is most car thefts are random acts of opportunity, and not done by pros.