Hassan chop!

Very reliable cars. Don't be hating, subby.

Most of them were parked on the street, in a parking lot.

Not sure where else they would have been. Is there some secret club folks park there 15 year old Accords in?

$300 worth of platinum? No.

Accords *were* one of the highest theft cars for a long time, though.

AverageAmericanGuy: Very reliable cars. Don't be hating, subby.

Damn straight they are. I just sold my old 97 Honda Accord back in August, and it had 300,000+ miles on it. And it's still probably out there somewhere on the road today.

I was told once that with construtction people there were three things you never believed that you were told.

a) how much money a guy made on his last job

b) how much tail he was getting while on the road

c) how many miles the gallon he was getting in his car

I would assume the same goes for farkers.......

Bigdogdaddy: I was told once that with construtction construction people there were three things you never believed that you were told.

a) how much money a guy made on his last job

b) how much tail he was getting while on the road

c) how many miles the gallon he was getting in his car

I would assume the same goes for farkers.......

In before spelling nazis

My Older Honda Accord Has Been Hit Six Times But Never Has Been Stolen

/Knock On Wood

Were the Accords older than this story?

Can I ask why "older" is capitalized?

Anyways, I've never owned a Honda, but I have a Nissan and a Kia. The Pathfinder is getting on close to 200k...the Kia mid-100k.

I've also owned a Mitsubishi, Pontiac (two of them) and a Plymouth in the past. I'll take the Asian cars any day.

PainInTheASP: They stole them for the catalytic converters only? Wasteful. Gotta be at least a grand in useable parts in each car besides the CC.

/What's a windshield go for these days, three--four hundred bucks?

-More like two. Less if used of course. Longevity= lots of them on the road=high demand for parts. And that's before the [economy in the shiatter] E*(1.7) factored in...

83 cars at $300 in platinum is only about $25,000. That's hardly a full-time job. Why bother.

Hey subs you might want to do a little research next time:

Here are the 10 most stolen vehicles as reported by the NICB - the number in parentheses is the model year most stolen:

Honda Civic (1995)
Honda Accord (1991)
Toyota Camry (1989)
Ford F-150 (1997)
Chevrolet C/K 1500 (1994)
Acura Integra (1994)
Dodge Ram Pickup (2004)
Nissan Sentra (1994)
Toyota Pickup (1988)
Toyota Corolla (2007)

/TMYK

I've heard reports of Honda Accords from this year having master keys floating around. So all they would have to do and put the key in and drive away.

People claim this is BS. But I have read a few police reports in which they mentioned this.

People don't steal cars to get a nice car.

They steal cars to sell the parts.

Pop quiz - Which cars need more replacement parts, old ones or new?

GregoryD: I've heard reports of Honda Accords from this year having master keys floating around. So all they would have to do and put the key in and drive away.

People claim this is BS. But I have read a few police reports in which they mentioned this.

Well that settles it. If a bunch of barber school dropouts have bought into it, it must be true.

/some of the most far-fetched, unbelievable claims I've ever read have been horribly misspelled in police reports

This may come as a surprise to subby, but most auto theft is for spare parts, not to joyride in a Bugatti Veyron. Auto thieves look for common cars that are out of warranty. Also parts for Japanese cars go for a bit more than American parts. Add all that together and your lists of most commonly stolen cars tends to be 1980s-90s and Japanese.

/Cousin works under-cover auto theft.

Mister Peejay: $300 worth of platinum? No.

Accords *were* one of the highest theft cars for a long time, though.

Actually there is a huge market for catalytic converters, people in my fathers neighborhood have had theirs stolen for the scrap.

And those cars are remarkably easy to steal, even someone off the street could be taught how to break in and steal them in about 10 mins

Platinum is $1400/oz.

Also, if you collected all the platinum mined in the world, it fit in a 2 car garage Stuff is much rarer than gold, but because humans are idiots, it's also cheaper.

TyrantII: Platinum is $1400/oz.

Also, if you collected all the platinum mined in the world, it fit in a 2 car garage Stuff is much rarer than gold, but because humans are idiots, it's also cheaper.

I think the collective volume is bigger than that. If it'd been that small we never would have found all of the uses for it that it has, and they wouldn't sell wedding bands made of the stuff.

jaytkay: People don't steal cars to get a nice car.

They steal cars to sell the parts.

Pop quiz - Which cars need more replacement parts, old ones or new?

Not to mention, thanks to the tuner/ricer crowd, parts for these cars are more scarce. They cost, on average 20-30% more than your average Honda vehicle.

/Owns a 96 Civic that I bought at an auction.

This is why I fear for the electric car.

Batteries are a commodity. While I have no use for car engines stripped from vehicles, batteries have no end to their uses. You could make an off-the-grid cabin, massive UPS, your own EV with more range, an electric boat, an electric go-kart or golf cart.

I'm saying, there will be an always-ready-to-buy market for stolen batteries, and they're gonna go for a damn sight more than $300.

This is EXTREMELY unfortunate because the viability of the EV is in paying a LOT more upfront with the intent of saving every year in gasoline, and eventually breaking even or ending out "ahead". It may take 10 years before it pays off and the batts are worn out anyways. It's difficult to make this cost-effectiveness "work" if even the insurance is that much higher.

Excuse me, is this the illegal chop shop?

TWX: TyrantII: Platinum is $1400/oz.

Also, if you collected all the platinum mined in the world, it fit in a 2 car garage Stuff is much rarer than gold, but because humans are idiots, it's also cheaper.

I think the collective volume is bigger than that. If it'd been that small we never would have found all of the uses for it that it has, and they wouldn't sell wedding bands made of the stuff.

*Pure platinum.

Wedding bands are an alloy, so are most of the things it's used in. Pure platinum is very rare (at least in mineable quantities on earth), and like gold made in the explosion of a sun. Because it's further up on the periodic table, less is made in the explosion.

Still gold and platinum are not rare in our solar system (in terms of what we'd need it for, it's still a small amount of the total amount of stuff in the solar system). If we ever develop the tech to mine asteroids we'd have more than we could ever use.

Here's the exact figure I was looking for: All the platinum ever mined throughout history would fill a basement of less than 25 cubic feet.

Of course that's the volume of pure platinum. The volume of all the little trinkets and gadgets with platinum alloys would be considerably bigger.

The platinum in catalytic converters is in the form of coated metal pellets. Typically about 2-3 grams, or $100-200 worth. Takes 28.3 grams to make a oz., or to these bozo's about 9 stolen cars.

Fark: would be a theft ring that specialized in Renault Alliance and Encore cars

markb289: Fark: would be a theft ring that specialized in Renault Alliance and Encore cars

Can your people locate a Fuego for me? I would love to roll around in such a bizarre beast!

NationalHero: markb289: Fark: would be a theft ring that specialized in Renault Alliance and Encore cars

Can your people locate a Fuego for me? I would love to roll around in such a bizarre beast!

[thegarageblog.com image 500x375]

A friend of mine had one of those in college. We pronounced it Few-Go because few did.

PainInTheASP: They stole them for the catalytic converters only? Wasteful. Gotta be at least a grand in useable parts in each car besides the CC.

/What's a windshield go for these days, three--four hundred bucks?

Well they could have at least had the decency to strip the copper out of the electrical wiring too. That has to be $2k in cop dollars.

Also, I'm unaware that platinum / palladium / platinum group metals have been replaced in newer cars for catalytic converters.

In my find a fun in productive way to punish crime, let's send them to Norilsk Russia to mine platinum. No set number of years, they can be 100% free when they have mined as much platinum as they stole. A few days might shorten their lifespans by a couple years though.