Ask any car enthusiast

A very sad thread on the r/cars subreddit today. A guy’s dream car - a 2024 Nissan Skyline GT-R - got stolen right out of his garage while he was away on business. The original poster says the R35-generation GT-R has been a dream of his since high school, and he’s worked his butt off to finally make the purchase. Then boom, gone in a flash like that. As a fellow car enthusiast, I empathize greatly. Having your pride and joy stolen is just about the worst nightmare.

Even if yo get it back, it’ll never be and feel the same.

Some of the responders mocked OP for being overly dramatic. A dream car is still a car - this isn’t like the lost of a family member. Besides, being so new, insurance will surely cover the full replacement cost no issues. It’s a loss, yes, but OP will soon be made whole.

For sure from a monetary standpoint the GT-R owner will be made whole. But from a mental perspective, the entire game has changed. To have something so valuable stolen right off your property is an act of violation that’s difficult to erase. A house has turned to not a home. Even if OP were to buy another GT-R, he would always have PTSD-like second thoughts when parking in that garage. Every strange noise emanating from there will jolt him to stressful alert.

It’s not simply about dollars and cents, my friends. Peace of mind is worth infinite.

Insurance on cars such as the GT-R (and other often-stolen vehicles such as the Dodge Charger/Challenger) must be ruinously expensive. It probably costs a whole car payment’s worth per month to cover the risks. Also: it’s seemingly that easy for thieves to clone an electronic car key and drive your car away? I guess anything electronic - like the push-button ignition start that most new cars are equipped with these days - can be hacked, if the incentives are high enough.

If it’s not save even in your own garage… what else can you do, honestly? Press F to pay respects.

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Ave Maria.

I feel you, bro

Last time I was back at my parents’ place, my mother told me someone stole all four wheels off the neighbor’s brand new car. She woke up one morning, peaked across the street, and there it was: a Honda Accord tiled on cinderblocks. Why would someone steal wheels off a plain Honda Accord? Because the Honda sedan is ubiquitous. There’s so many of them on the road that the demand for spare parts (law of large numbers vis a vis collision accidents) must be equally sizable. That means a fresh set of (stolen) wheels (plus nearly new tires) should easily fetch many hundreds of dollars.

I do feel bad for the neighbor. According to mom, it’s some young adult who moved into the downstairs in-law unit across the street. The Honda Accord was the first new car he’s ever bought with his own money. Pretty exciting, right? I can remember that joy when I drove my Subaru WRX STI home from the dealership. So much joyful emotion that I nearly had an anxiety attack. Anyways, it has to suck greatly to see something so new and cherished (and expensive) being messed with by amoral thugs. That undercarriage is forever marred by being jacked up on cinderblocks.

I can empathize with that neighbor, too. It seems that particular block of Visitacion Valley is cursed for new cars. Back when my parents bought a brand new Toyota Corolla for me to begin college (many thanks), another set of thugs threw a cinderblock at the driver-side A pillar, while it too was parked on the street. It was a complete violation of the most precious object me (at the time, anyways). While the damage was fixed promptly, the car never felt the same to me since that incident. Sentimental value vanished alongside the purity of an unmolested new car.

Hopefully that neighbor doesn’t love cars as much as I do. If that Honda Accord is just an appliance to him, he’s going to get over the incident rather quickly.

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People watching.

Not so grand theft auto

A few weeks back, my father’s Toyota Corolla got stolen. Thankfully it wasn’t the strong-arm variety. The car was parked at his work when it got borrowed without permission. A vagrant waltz in through an open door and took, amongst other things, my father’s jacket. In it was unfortunately the car keys. I’m sure my father has learned his lesson of leaving any key unattended and away from him.

First order of business upon learning your car’s been stolen is to call the non-emergency police line to file a report. Then it’s a call to the insurance company so that whatever dangerous stunts the thief may pull, you’re not liable for. Then I guess you just wait to hear back from the police? Surely after a certain period (weeks?) the insurance would deem the car irretrievable, and cut you a check for the present value of the car.

That is, if the car is comprehensively insured.

Having to buy a replacement vehicle would not be the ideal outcome for us, because the car market right now remains insane. Due to the chip shortage, new and used car prices are super inflated. Even if the insurance check is large enough to cover the inflation, finding a car to buy is a challenge in it of itself. Car shopping these days is not fun at all, even if you’ve got the money. There just aren’t that many on the dealer lots to go around.

Lucky for my dad, police found the Corolla abandoned on a street some hours after the report was filed. It was then towed to an impound lot. It took about two weeks for the case to close, then we were able to go retrieve the car. No charge of any impound fees, which is nice and unexpected. The only expense out of this ordeal will be getting a new second key and recoding both at a Toyota dealership.

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Blind leading the blind.