a lot less Ford trucks would be stolen if Ford had GOOD antitheft measures engineered into their trucks... LOL!
Seriously, Mercedes for one, spends a lot of attention in engineering that prevents Mercedes Benz cars from getting stolen from the customers. Keys that can't be duplicated without elaborate Hollywood plots in movies to make the perfect circumstances happen so that the "codes" and blanks are stolen without Mercedes Benz headquarters becoming aware that their cars are getting stolen.
Anyway, it seems like not a month goes by without news of more Ford trucks getting stolen from the Ford storage lots in Michigan... it would be a bit logical for the CEO to tell the engineers to FIX THE DAMN PROBLEM so thieves can't steal Fords.
Irony! 5 minutes after typing that,
"Ford is offering all new F-Series trucks a mobile app engine immobilizer as part of its new Ford Security Package, so customers can remotely prevent their truck from starting no matter where it is in the world. But even if your truck gets stolen, Ford will still have your back by paying your insurance deductible up to 2500.00."
The new Ford Security Package started with the 2024 F-150 but will eventually make its way to 2025 Super Duty trucks and, eventually, other future Ford models. But it isn’t just a remote engine immobilizer, like cheap ones you can buy on AliExpress—it’s a comprehensive theft prevention package. In the FordPass mobile app, owners of properly equipped F-150s can remotely use the “Start Inhibit” function, previously available to fleets but new for retail customers, which prevents the truck from being started even by someone with an authorized key
So if this actually works? Then thieves won't be able to steal Fords from Ford's storage lot!
AS they are in a lot awaiting transport to a dealer lot, aren't the keys and paperwork in them?
ReplyDeleteI don't work there, so I can't guarantee that I'm right, but, I did work at a dealership as a photographer for the 6 years up to covid, and I'm pretty damn certain no one made a policy of leaving the KEYS in the vehicles so Detroit thieves could steal the expensive Demons, Raptors, etc. Especially after so many vehicles have been stolen for how many months in a row? Easily 4 or 5 years. No way they would STILL BE leaving keys in the vehicles, IF they ever did do that
DeleteWhen I worked at Champion around 1999, we had a quality issue and we had to change spark plugs on hundreds of new Jeep Grand Cherokees that were in the lot outside the assembly plant. I think that all of the vehicles had the keys in them so that they could be moved around and so that we could start them up after we were finished with our work. That was obviously years ago, and at a different location. It sounds to me like Ford has a security issue with their lots, because the thieves are able to get into the lot where the trucks are parked, and then able to drive them out of the lot without much trouble.
DeleteThere are a lot of marshalling lots like these around the assembly plants in the Detroit area and there are hundreds of vehicles in each one. I think it would be a giant headache to try to keep the keys to all of the cars in one location and be able to get the keys for a specific car when you need to start it.
On a separate note, the Grand Cherokees that we were working on each had an 8.5 x 11 paper taped to the driver seat, with about 20 spaces for check-offs of every rework operation that needed to be done before they could be shipped. This reinforced my belief that I would not buy a new vehicle in the first year it was released.