Hey everyone..

What do you guys think, are 2nd gen MINIs hard to "Jimmy"?

My car is in a 3-car garage. Next to me is a POS beater Nissan from like 1990 or something. She always leaves it unlocked. Next to her a Toyota Avalon, 2001-2003 or something?

This morning my neighbor calls me telling me her car was broken into. No unlocked doors (she says), no broken anything. $10 bill and quarters taken.

Other neighbor ash tray all turned inside out, all cash gone.

My MINI (if it happened while it was there) untouched. There's a V1 radar for christ sake in there! Quarters and other goodies... (16GB USB flash drive too, but I'm going to guess petty thieves don't know what to do with it...)

So, think I just got lucky and these fellas just jimmied these two other cars, saw a MINI and said "hell no?". Maybe they thought it could have an alarm (since we have the alarm light on the rev o meter, whether alarm'ed or not)

 

When I was researching cars in 2009, the MINI was one of the hardest cars to steal, and possibly to break into, so that may be why your car was untouched. Because our cars are so hard to steal, insurance on my MINI was cheaper than it would have been on the Nissan Altima Coupe, Toyota Prius, and Honda Civic Coupe. Since we only have one true key hole on our cars, it could be that they decided that it wasn't worth the effort to try and break in.

 

Locks keep honest people honest. It was probably some young kids that were just seeing if anyone left their doors unlocked. I doubt they would really break in but, if the did all you need is a coat hanger and slide that between the windown and rubber gasket and hit the lock or pull the door handle.

 

I'd venture to guess they were kids and the cars that got ripped were probably NOT locked.

 

yes they are hard as hell to break into. I once locked my keys in my car while at daytona. The beach patrol helped me get them out but it took a while. Even with all their gear.

 

You locked your keys in your MINI? Mine will not lock with the keys out of the ignition in the car. I don't have comfort access.

 

Funny, I had a 2011 Explorer with the factory security system. Something happened to it and I couldn't unlock the doors either with the remote or the key itself. I was at home. I called the roadside assistance. The tow truck driver came and slim-jim'd the door open in about 2 sec. Some "security system"!