While You Were Sleeping: 137 Shelbys, Eight Cylinder Porsches and One Lost Car

My new car has Volkswagen's telematics system (Car Net), which includes Stolen Vehicle Assistance. Unfortunately, Car Net can't cut the ignition like GM's OnStar can, but it can provide law enforcement with a live feed of the car's location. I'd rather just not have it stolen in the first place, though, so I'm not willing to risk leaving the key in the car, especially since it's a smart key and can be left on my person. As far as the actual GPS, I'm not sure where it's located. It might be located in the radio unit (which is in the glovebox), since the car has navigation, but Car Net is available in cars that don't have navigation...so maybe the module is somewhere in the roof?

@Kyree It's only a matter of time until your smart key goes into the wash with your pants. But how is an OnStar car smart enough to know it's being stolen but too dumb to prevent it?

@DenverMike I hope not! That'd be expensive. As far as OnStar Stolen Vehicle Assistance goes, it'd be like so: So imagine that you *do* leave your truck warming up in the driveway, unlocked. Some juvenile delinquent decides he no longer wants to ride the school bus and steals your truck. The truck has a valid key. The truck doesn't know the driver is unauthorized, and until they start using biometric access in cars, there's no way that it *would* know an authorized driver from an unauthorized one. When you contact OnStar and report the vehicle stolen, they can work with the police to determine its location. If it's been vacated somewhere, OnStar can locate it and prevent it from being restarted. But let's say that OnStar locates the vehicle in transit, on a highway somewhere. OnStar will remain on the phone with the police, who will determine when it's safe to give OnStar the all-clear to cut the throttle, slowing the truck to a stop and preventing a high-speed chase and damage to your truck, as well as injury to others. But if the car actually determines that someone is trying to gain unauthorized access, it will probably disable the fuel pumps and ignition or something.

@DenverMike I jumped into the Fairmont BC hot springs with my key fob in my swim shorts pocket. Good news, GM ones at least are waterproof.

Probably quite a few. Obviously you don't tell the insurance company this, because they'll deny your claim since you could have easily prevented it from being "stolen". But if they locate the vehicle and the data modules are still operational, it won't be hard to determine how it was accessed and started. What's really stupid is when people commit insurance fraud by setting their cars aflame, because they frequently use accelerants to make sure that the car burns to the ground before the firemen arrive, and those accelerants can be detected.

@Kyree insurance can't deny your claim even if you left it unlocked, windows down, keys in the ignition with engine running in a high crime area while you were at the diner having dinner. Theft is still a crime and you're still victim. It's like saying it's not rape if she was dressed, or barely dressed, like she giving it away. But if you were totally upside down on the loan and you had gap coverage, insurance still needs to pay up. If the cops aren't calling it a false report, insurance is on the hook. People do dumb things. That's partly why there's insurance.

I assume many cars "stolen" with the keys already in them are recovered by police with the keys still in them (and possibly with the thief still in them). I assume the police report would indicate the presence of keys.