i know this is morbid, but i was wondering if there are any stories out there from fellow GS owners about break-ins into your ride?

last month someone tried to break into my GS400. i park on the street all the time at home and at work so i knew it was coming sooner or later.

they went through each door with a slim jim or something similar, and in the process messed up all the stainless steel trim. the worst was the passenger front door, in which they scratched the face of the glass and tried to crowbar the windowframe out from the top, damaging the roof gutter.

i filed a claim with the insurance company. because my car is old (1999), they would only price out used parts. because GS's are rare where i am, there isn't much of a selection at the wrecking yards. furthermore, they wouldn't cover the scratched glass. they considered it "wear"... if it were broken, then they would have replaced it... honestly, i didn't make this up.

after a brief struggle, i contacted darrel at sewell and he gave me prices for the damaged parts (totalling over $500 at this point) for new, which turned out to be cheaper than the used prices my insurance company was quoting me! because sewell is one of the few places that will ship to canada, i went ahead and ordered, waited for the parts to arrive, the insurance company finally approved to pay for the parts, and i made an appointment with the bodyshop.

well, last weekend it happened again. someone came back and tried to pull the windowframe off my passenger front door again. this time he managed to bend the frame back and get almost an inch gap in the top. he then tried to use something to reach down and hit the power door unlock button, but wasn't able to. but in the process, the top of my inside door panel is damaged.

did i mention it was raining? it hasn't been raining for weeks now and of course it has to rain now... so the inside of my car was full of water on the passenger side

so my car is now at the bodyshop, i've got a ford taurus as a loaner (side note: those who complain about how vague the steering is on a GS... you should try driving a taurus )... and i'm waiting for parts again.

just to add insult to injury... with all the windowframe bending, the glass still did not break... and i cannot afford to replace it so i'm still stuck with the scratches

life sucks

 

you need some surveillance on your ride ASAP. that and a VERY sensitive alarm.

 

it does suck. seems like you have someone stalking your car. Happened twice already. i think there may be a third time around if you don't do something about it....park somewhere that your car will be visible from your window and take a video camera or something at least to report to the police. obviously, you'll be sleeping but try to place it somewhere that will get a close up of their face. You'll be surprised who it may turn out to be. A lot of the friendly faces in the neighborhood may not be that friendly.

Or put it in your garage

 

Pager alarm time. Viper 791xv ......... Sorry to hear about this. Damn crooks

 

yes i agree get an alarm Viper 791xv fully loaded.

 

Damn, sorry to hear about this. It does sound like you need to upgrade the alarm though......

Hopefully he gets caught in the act and is either taught a lesson....or thrown in jail.

 

Sorry to hear that man, deffinately suck to have this problem! Im always paranoid everytime i leave my car somewhere, i think it has something to do with me being a previous Integra owner, and a few weeks ago i found out that somebody was actually trying to take my wheels off. My viper xv791 is getting installed tomorrow, thank god! My sister's CD player got stolen out of her car a few days ago, and i live in a very nice gated community, creepy!! Good luck with it man, keep it safe!

 

it's ironic you mentioned what you said. one of my previous cars was an integra type-r, and i sold it because back then because locally, there was at least one type-r being stolen every 2 weeks. the local honda wrecking yard had a dedicated section for stripped stolen/recover type-r shells because there were so many being taken.

just the other week the person who bought my type-r contacted me saying that it got stolen while he was at the rec centre, and he needed receipts from me... but it's been almost 4-5 years and i had thrown everything away

 

i just got more bad news from the bodyshop... they've pulled apart the door and found that as a result of the windowframe being yanked back, the mounting points inside the door are totally warped, and there is a big vertical crack in the door skin seam along the trailing edge. if they can't fix it, they have to get another new door.

more fun with the insurance company... i can't wait

 

Sorry to hear man - but at least this way the car is being put back to its original condition. Maybe the bodyshop will realize that the scratches in the glass could make it unsafe and make the insurance company have to pay for it

Jonny

 

unfortunately the bodyshop has no say regarding the scratches in the glass, other than it cannot be fixed. the insurance company has the typical weasel clause saying that because it's not broken, they don't consider it damage, but instead call it normal "wear"

 

There is a product on the market that removes scratches from glass. It is powder abrasive like "Ajax" but for glass. Some muscle car guys use it for restoration. Forgot the name , but you can probably have them try that product on the glass to remove the scratches.

 

Think it's called Bon Ami:

 

Sorry to hear you are being targeted by a low life thief. When I was working in Automotive, I sold an early pager type alarm to a guy who worked in the restaurant of one of the larger hotels in the area. He had already lost two stereos and wanted to put a stop to it. A couple of weeks after selling him the unit he came in. I almost didn't recognize him, his face was a mess. He told me he was working when his pager alarm went off. He ran into the parking lot and confronted two guys breaking into his car. Not only did he lose another stereo, he got his *** kicked in the process. Hopefully, if you have to confront someone, you will have an "equalizer" along

Good luck, hope you put a stop to it.

 

A 12 guage shotty with bean bag rounds would do the trick...