Risk behind owning an M5

redman

Thinking of buying a 6 year old M5 but have always been conscious of the threat of breakins to steal the car or hold ups while out and about.
Now there is a hell of a lot of high powered cars out there and wondering do you think this threat specifically at M5 owners has diminished?

stifz

RELAX.

stealthyspeeder

It all really depends on exactly how much driving your going to be doing in South Africa!?

here.from.day.1

FRANKIE wrote: »

RELAX.

Fabio

Seriously fella, you'll be fine.

macnab

I had the same worry last year when I bought my M5. I was a little paranoid for the first 2 months. It wears off, dont worry no ones going to pull you out of the car, well actually the cops might if you drive too defensively (happened to me...:o) You can debadge the car if you still dont feel comfortable, but the 4 exhausts are still a give away.

kdevitt

Very real threat - happened to the guy who bought one off a member on my site. Was used for a job down in some greyhound track. Any fast 4 door car is a target though, and given that the cars are going nowhere without their keys, they will break in to get them if they really want it.

Personally, I wouldn't actually worry about it - fit something like a clifford blackjax, so they can drive a safe distance at which point the car just dies and is going nowhere.

Hogzy

I presume you will be insuring it so ya you should be ok, High powered cars that are as high powered and expensive as an M5 are usually a deterent for little feckers looking for a joy ride as most cars nowadays worth over 100k have a tracker!

Stevie Dakota

Personally I wouldn't do it, a mate had intruders in his house for the keys to his humble M3. Wife was so traumatised they moved house. Do you have a family and kids? While you might be able to justify it how would your wife/partner feel? I would weigh up how often I could enjoy such a car in Ireland (rarely) v how often I would worry about it getting stolen (often).

Oh, and running costs on the car are staggering if things go wrong which they will.

If you are single and wealthy I would go for it.

Eoin

Hogzy wrote: »

I presume you will be insuring it so ya you should be ok, High powered cars that are as high powered and expensive as an M5 are usually a deterent for little feckers looking for a joy ride as most cars nowadays worth over 100k have a tracker!

On the other hand; extremely fast, subtle 4 door cars like this are perfect for armed robberies.

macnab

Stevie Dakota wrote: »

Personally I wouldn't do it, a mate had intruders in his house for the keys to his humble M3. Wife was so traumatised they moved house. Do you have a family and kids? While you might be able to justify it how would your wife/partner feel? I would weigh up how often I could enjoy such a car in Ireland (rarely) v how often I would worry about it getting stolen (often).

Oh, and running costs on the car a staggering if things go wrong which they will.

If you are single and wealthy I would go for it.

:rolleyes:I had a mate who had intruders in his house for the keys to his even more humble Audi A4 Diesel.
As for enjoying the car.....every time I turn the key in the ignition.
How often do I worry about it being stolen: Never.

@Stevie, repeat after me: "Fear is a rickety bridge built over an imaginary river"

daRobot

The threat of it being taken from your home is very very real.

I see that you live in Cabinteely on your profile. About 7 months ago, an RS4 was taken from "the park" with some serious violence threatened, for an armed robbery. The guy got it back, and put it up for sale (I know this as I test drove it in Grange Motors)

If you've got a dog, garage, gates or decent house security, go for it.

As far as someone trying to hold you up when you're out, i'd think that pretty unlikely.

-Chris-

I wouldn't worry about it.

Leave the keys in the front hall, insure your car properly, sleep soundly at night.

Home invasions do happen for high value cars - I was speaking to a customer last week who had his '07 A6 3.0TDi taken from his house via a break in.

If you drive a car like that you'll have to accept that risk. All you can do is make sure that you and anyone you care about are safe, beyond that it's out of your control.

macnab

Lets not forget that the OP is talking about a 6 year old M5, thats now a sub €30K car so not exactly high value in the greater scheme of things.

E39MSport

I had an attempted Jacking close to Store Street Garda Station a few years ago while sitting in traffic and I was only in a 4th gen H22a prelude. Put the shi** up me for ages. Luckily there was enough room in front of me to turn and I had the doors locked.
He came at me from the blind spot in the mirror with a screwdriver up his sleeve and had an accomplice on the pavement over the road. I nearly ran the btard over when I turned. I now always have the doors locked and leave a cars length in fron of me when in standing traffic.

I wouldn't let it bother you too much though m8. Keep your house alarm on at night and your gates locked. Install a motion sensitive flood light if you haven't got one. They are standard security steps whether you have an M5 in the drive or not. A nice baseball bat might help too ;-)

stealthyspeeder

-Chris- wrote: »

Leave the keys in the front hall, insure your car properly, sleep soundly at night.

I keep a steering lock on the car and keep the keys to this on a different keyring (with a dumy steering wheel lock key on my car keys keying), and a hammer under my bed. Thi helps me sleep soundly at night!

Stevie Dakota

Steering lock, fake keys, hammers under the bed...ah the joys of performance car ownership.

-Chris-

stealthyspeeder wrote: »

I keep a steering lock on the car and keep the keys to this on a different keyring (with a dumy steering wheel lock key on my car keys keying), and a hammer under my bed. Thi helps me sleep soundly at night!

I keep a baseball bat under my bed, I'd expect most people do something similar. I'd be prepared to use it if the situation arose.

I'd far prefer not to be in the situation though, I'd much rather be calling my insurance company to tell them my car's stolen and then taking a taxi to work.

GB15

On another note are you keeping an eye on the Irish market for M5s? There seems to be only 3 e39s for sale at the moment.

Are you fussy about what you want? Mileage, colour, sat nav, etc

macnab

OK all messing aside. M5 ownership truths.
Heres the deal: I was nervous at first but that wears off quick enough.
I leave the car keys on the kitchen worktop, its only a car so if they want it they can have it, preferably without waking me up.
I do not worry about theft at all, its insured.
I promised my wife that I would sell the M5 if security issues were a worry.
They do 17mpg when you get them first because you cant resist putting the boot down.
They will drop to 13mpg if you have a Top Gear moment.
They will do 20mpg+ when you relax into M5 ownership bliss.

Oh BTW I re mortgaged my house to finance some building work, then I saw this car for sale and used the house money to buy. Worth every penny ha ha.

MarkN

As an M car owner I think you'll be more traumatised by how quickly your car will go through rear tyres than how likely you are to be a victim of thieves

Get the anti-hijack turned on, I feel fairly safe with that in the car.

I live in an apartment complex with two sets of electric gates so I feel fairly ok with the car at night.

Obviously I'd be wary about parking etc but you'll soon relax about overall ownership. And you'll never tire of the engine noise.

cianclarke

Stevie Dakota wrote: »

Personally I wouldn't do it, a mate had intruders in his house for the keys to his humble M3. Wife was so traumatised they moved house. Do you have a family and kids? While you might be able to justify it how would your wife/partner feel? I would weigh up how often I could enjoy such a car in Ireland (rarely) v how often I would worry about it getting stolen (often).

Oh, and running costs on the car are staggering if things go wrong which they will.

If you are single and wealthy I would go for it.

SOMEBODY PLEEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!?? Live a little.
I think the advice is normally just don't keep the keys on the bedside locker, but rather on an obvious hook inside the kitchen. After that, you've got insurance..
Pics if you do go ahead with it by the way, fair play for giving the recession the finger.

alpina

Standard security steps & common sense go along way, anyhow you got the power to ditch the avg. f/hatch;)

redman

Thanks for all the feedback, great food for thought, I'll let ya know what I decide.

joeperry

When I park up for the night i input a code into my 528i and even if somebody has the keys the car won't start without the code afaik.

NiSmO

This post has been deleted.

Fishtits

Buy it, insure it, enjoy it and if it goes AWOL claim & move on.

I have a baseball bat in the hall, more for canvassers than car thieves at the moment... :cool:

stealthyspeeder

NiSmO wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I have no family in my flat, one of my flatmates is a hard ass mofo and the other one i dont really like! My bedroom door is locked so i reckon i could get to the hammer before any potential thief got near my keys. Insurance is there for a reason, but that reason is to compensate for a loss which was outside of your control, not to make it easier to be a victem and make rollover little pussycats of us when threatened!

Aside form the financial and safety practialities, I would personally want to cause physical harm to anybody who attempted to steal something valuable from me, my car is my most valuable possesion and would want the oppertunity to defend it even at the risk of my own personal safety.

-Chris-

joeperry wrote: »

When I park up for the night i input a code into my 528i and even if somebody has the keys the car won't start without the code afaik.

...and so they come back into the house, re-scaring everyone, grabbing you by the hair and dragging you around the house until you give up the code.

A very good friend of mine experienced a home invasion when he was younger. He was led around the house with a knife to his throat, forced to point out where the family kept jewellery etc.

I'm not meaning to get too serious in this thread, but for the brave lads out there - it's not a laughing matter, it's nothing to be brave about.
If several guys have entered your home in the middle of the night with the intention of robbing you at knife-point, odds are they're harder than you and they have less to lose than you.

It's just a car.

stealthyspeeder

Its just a car to them too but they dont own it yet!, the last thing they expect/want is a large naked man wielding a hammer at heir heads!!

If my circumstances changed for example with family or if I didnt like the car, I think i wouldnt want any trouble. (also would depend on how big and numerous the men in my house were!)

But for now, there would be blood sweat and tears from all parties involved if my car keys were to be handed over!

unkel

I can't believe how all these posters delude themselves with a false sense of security. Car keys under your pillow, baseball bat under your bed? Are you suicidal or what? Do you not care about your wife / kids?

Matt Simis

unkel wrote: »

I can't believe how all these posters delude themselves with a false sense of security. Car keys under your pillow, baseball bat under your bed? Are you suicidal or what? Do you not care about your wife / kids?

Its bizarre, Im all for fighting for principles, but on my own terms. :pac:
After reading here I think Im going to buy a Key Rack and purposely hang the keys somewhere near the door on it.

NiSmO wrote: »

To people who say they leave a bat in the bedroom your only putting your family in danger what are you going to do if wake you up with a boiling kettle over you with some scum looking for the keys, your bats not going to save you then.

I dunno, depends how many bats you have and how hungry they are.

Voodoomelon

It's unfortunate that threads like this even have to be posted, but I suppose robbery is an issue.
However if I was out looking to get a new set of wheels, especially along the lines of an M5 or similiar, the last thing on my mind would be how do I stop scum from finding the keys.
Don't let criminals dictate what car you get, go out an buy it, drive it and enjoy it.

milltown

While it bugs the bejesus out of me that we even need to think about such things before we buy the nice things we work hard for, it would be very foolish not to weigh everything up. I nearly bought an RS4 a year and a half ago but had to decide against it after hearing that it was for sale because it was stolen in an aggravated burglary, recovered thanks to the tracker fitted, but they didn't want it back anywhere near the house. RS4s are rare enough on our roads but I have heard similar stories about three or four different cars. I've only heard of one such M5 story, the same one Kdevitt mentioned but would presume they attract the same class of tea-leaf.

Things to remember for all the key hiding, bat equipped have-a-go-heroes:
The people who want your car have planned how they are going to get it.
Regardless of how you imagine the scene playing out, they are alert, ruthless and ready for you to wake up.

My opinion is, unless you have dog(s) and above average security, not an Aritech alarm and a PIR floodlight, then the average career scumbag will try get your car if he wants or needs it.

eringobragh

Padraig Nally Justice FTW!!

robtri

In All seriousness lads...

home invasions for keys to bog basic golf's and even worse piles of crap have happened and continue to happen, more than robberies for M5's or M3's...

Look at most armed robberies or other big crimianl jobs, most of them don't use big high end cars, why... well most high end cars, are
(a) too easily remembered
(b) often have tracking devices
and (c) fecking useless as you can't use their power fully on our roads( i.e. most jobs that would need a fast get away, bank jobs, cash in transit robberies ect.. happen during the daytime, and traffic and crap roads make that impossible)

If you want the M5... go for it.... just follow some of the advice here

a good car alarm, tracker, one preferably you can kill the engine when the car is away from the house.

Leave the keys downstairs, somewhere easy for a thief to get, if he gets into your house, (but not somewhere, where somebody with a pole can reach through your letter bax and rob them)

big flood light, motion sensored...

and if possible.. garage it...

pburns

Personally I don't buy a car that I can't leave on the street (taking precautions of it being well, lit, decent area etc.) if the need arises. The hassle of owning something as scumbag-magnetic as an M-car or RS4 would be too much for me. If you've financed yourself to the hilt to buy a car that you can't let out of your sight you're at the stage that the car owns you and not the other way around.

If you live in an apartment behind security gates, have a hardy flatmate or two and never socialise of fornicate outside taxing distance from your home I'd say risk is hugely reduced. I worked with a girl once who said her boyfriend was up at the window every hour to check his TT hadn't been stolen from the SCR. He didn't last long by all accounts!

If you live in a house with family and the car is parked outside, well, it's even more of a concern, no two ways about it.

Who's to say a 330d or Focus ST or any other half-decent car isn't almost as much a target though? Think about these things too much and before you know it you're driving a blue Nissan Almera...

stealthyspeeder

unkel wrote: »

I can't believe how all these posters delude themselves with a false sense of security. Car keys under your pillow, baseball bat under your bed? Are you suicidal or what? Do you not care about your wife / kids?

Your right, somebody should be thinking about the children!!;)

But if you are a large guy in your mid twenties, with no wife or kids, your primary concern (in regard to the situation were talking about) is the safety of your car! Anyone tring to steal my car via a break in and intimidation would want to be suicidal! I dont think I am deluding myself as I am aware that they would come ready for trouble but by being prepared with your home security and making things difficult, the likelihood of their success would be reduced and risk to their safety would be increased.

I would rather have the chance at stopping the theft (even if it meant personal injury) than to wake up and find my car gone.

-Chris-

stealthyspeeder wrote: »

the last thing they expect/want is a large naked man wielding a hammer at heir heads!!

That's not an image I needed in my head, SS!

Why not just post a photo of yourself naked on the front door? It's just as likely to scare any intruders off :p:D

Zube

stealthyspeeder wrote: »

But if you are a large guy in your mid twenties, with no wife or kids, your primary concern (in regard to the situation were talking about) is the safety of your car!

That's if you are a large guy in your mid-twenties who still thinks he's immortal. This strange belief is exactly why young men get such crap insurance quotes, and why mothers hate motorbikes.

Nforce

stealthyspeeder wrote: »

Anyone tring to steal my car via a break in and intimidation would want to be suicidal!

Thing is,though, that it'd be you who'd be winding up behind bars for attacking them! If you were going to have a go you'd be as well to finish them off and be prepared to dispose of all evidence of their arrival in your home.;)

Cue Mr Wolf...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANPsHKpti48

voxpop

I agree to some extent with SS. This idea of leaving the keys at the door to make it easier for the thief is crazy. Why not leave the keys in the car ignition - save them coming into the house at all.

I wouldnt sleep with the car keys under my pillow, but Im not going to make it so easy for someone to rob me, that they dont think twice about it.

Matt Simis

voxpop wrote: »

I agree to some extent with SS. This idea of leaving the keys at the door to make it easier for the thief is crazy. Why not leave the keys in the car ignition - save them coming into the house at all.

I wouldnt sleep with the car keys under my pillow, but Im not going to make it so easy for someone to rob me, that they dont think twice about it.

Leaving the keys in the ignition would mean you void your insurance.

If someone follows you home or spots your car outside the house, they arent "going to think twice", they will assess your security, which in the average home is effectively sumed up by a 5cm thick door or a glass window, and make a fairly fast and simple plan. Do you really think that if they look in and dont see the keys they are going to call off their entire break in plan, usually encompassing another car and several other guys? They will break in, they will look for the keys and if they cant find them they will make you give them up.
Botched robberies do end up with people dying, its not the intention, but the victim can force that outcome with bizarre notions and concrete principles.

Not hiding the keys doesnt make it easy to rob you, it makes it easy for your to avoid "face time" with a scumbag that may have nothing to loose. You have everything to loose, be sensible.

For the record, to the OP, I think being robbed is an uncommon factor for virtually any car, I dont think M5s and RS4s are "more" likely, I just think its reported more as they are standout cars, which makes it seem like a common occurrence. I knew someone who's farther was selling a clapped out '80s Opel Kadett (or whatever it was called back then). Guy comes to the door in the middle of the day, says to the daughter "your dad sent me to test drive the car, can I have the keys". He took them and drove off, never to be seen again.

stealthyspeeder wrote: »

I would rather have the chance at stopping the theft (even if it meant personal injury) than to wake up and find my car gone.

Eh, can you explain in two lines or less WHY you couldnt cope with that?! So next week, you come back here, lost an eye in a knife fight with a Car thief, but your car is Ok (somehow), you still coming up aces on that equation? You sell the car in 2yrs, got bored of it, seems kinda like a waste didnt it..

stealthyspeeder

Zube wrote: »

That's if you are a large guy in your mid-twenties who still thinks he's immortal. This strange belief is exactly why young men get such crap insurance quotes, and why mothers hate motorbikes.

Its also the reason why middle aged men with wives and children are more likely to be the targeted victem of such an attack than a young male who has the potential to retaliate with escalated ferocity.

In my opinion, its a case of having more to lose which makes these older family men, less likely to retaliate (which in my opion is the morally correct thing to do), this in turn makes them more likely to suffer targeting for this type of crime.

voxpop

Matt Simis wrote: »

Leaving the keys in the ignition would mean you void your insurance.

If someone follows you home or spots your car outside the house, they arent "going to think twice", they will assess your security, which in the average home is effectively sumed up by a 5cm thick door or a glass window. Do you really think that if they look in and dont see the keys they are going to call off their entire break in plan, usually encompassing another car and several other guys? They will break in, they will look for the keys and if they cant find them they will make you give them up.
Botched robberies do end up with people dying, its not the intention, but the victim can force that outcome with bizarre notions and concrete principles.

Not hiding the keys doesnt make it easy to rob you, it makes it easy for your to avoid "face time" with a scumbag that may have nothing to loose. You have everything to loose, be sensible.

Matt I see you point - but it really comes across as scaremongering. The picture you are painting sound like something straight out of Hollywood. No offence meant

My point is that the 6 burly guys that you mention, that have been following you and assessing your security will break in and find your keys on the shelf in the sitting room.

However the little scumbags who are out looking for a car to nick - when they look through your letter box and see the keys on the table will be more likely to try and nab them. If the keys are not in plain view, they might just fook off and try up the road.

Matt Simis

voxpop wrote: »

However the little scumbags who are out looking for a car to nick - when they look through your letter box and see the keys on the table will be more likely to try and nab them. If the keys are not in plain view, they might just fook off and try up the road.

I dont think so, I think if they want the car, they want the car. Your talking about opportunists, Im talking about actual organised car thiefs. Its presumed someone scaling a fence to the walled garden/garage of a 2009 BMW M5 owner isnt an opportunist walking up and down his neighbouring housing estate.
Im my experience (unfortunately), the 6 Burly men arent the problem, its the 3 young scummers, mentally out of it from run down homes with no future prospects and a steak knife are the exact ones you have to worry about. 6 Body builders, no one is going to take them on, 3 little scummers are use to fights and will be ready for it (and by you guys admission you would try to take them on, outnumbered and surprised even, complete absence of strategy) and armed with knifes, screwdrivers, tyre irons, syringes etc. My uncle was car jacked, he stopped to help someone pulled over and some little knack jumped out of the bushes into his passenger seat, armed with a syringe filled with "something".

I dont think there is anything Hollywood about assessing a property before breaking in?!

Stevie Dakota

Well said Matt, you've said it in a nutshell. All the have a go heros, print that out and stick it on the fridge.

stealthyspeeder

Matt Simis wrote: »

Eh, can you explain in two lines or less WHY?! So next week, you come back here, lost an eye in a knife fight with a Car thief, but your car is Ok (somehow), you still coming up aces on that equation? You sell the car in 2yrs, got bored of it, seems kinda like a waste didnt it..

Sounds awful high horse but moral rightousness!! I would not want anybody to take what is mine. I would feel dissapointed in myself that I did not make an attempt to stick to certain principals in my life. This dissapointment combined with the loss of my car, would be harder for me to deal with personally than an injury.

Also in the rare event that one is targeted, the chances of the thieves not legging it when confronted aggresively, I feel would be be small. If they did stay to fight for car keys that they heven't even found and were prepared to take on the owner and overpower him, the chances of success in this would make it even smaller. Also by commiting a more serious crime, they are going to attract more police resources for their arrest (so possibly more likely to get caught) and if caught they will go down for a lot longer.

Plus..... if it does go you way, you get to give a theiving scumbag the total kicking he deserves!

All in all, I feel given my personal situation, the potential expected benefits of confrontation and defense outweigh the potential expected detriments in this situation.

Matt Simis

stealthyspeeder wrote: »

Sounds awful high horse but moral rightousness!! I would not want anybody to take what is mine.

Plus..... if it does go you way, you get to give a theiving scumbag the total kicking he deserves!

All in all, I feel given my personal situation, the potential expected benefits of confrontation and defense outweigh the potential expected detriments in this situation.

Its not high horse, its from experience, being in and seeing "normal people" and scummers fight. Im not from a rough area, but it had its rough minority. I stood up for principles (and in that case Id do it again) and get my head kicked in, litterally, by a Golf club wielding gang of little knacks. My face looked like a smashed Aubergine afterwards! Sure, I got a few kicks in, but get realistic man, I was standing toe to toe eyes open and it was hopeless, your will be half asleep and half naked. Its real easy to talk big, but I hope the shock of the moment will work in your favor and you just hand over the keys if it ever happened.

You get over loosing a material possession and reevaluate your principles.

WillieCocker

Whilst i agree with the "It's only a car" mentality, you could change that to a "It's only your freedom" speech, and people the world over die for this.


I agree with stealthyspeeder, if your confident enough and not afraid of getting your hands dirty, by all means be prepared , but be prepared to seriously injure or kill , as the criminals are most of the time.

On the subject of the car, as someone else said don't choose your car based on what someone else might think or do.

voxpop

@Matt - I think you might be arguing a few points over each others here.

Im not saying that you keep the keys upstairs and fight any scummers that come into the house. Im saying that just rolling over and leaving the keys where they are easily gotten is a mistake in my book.

By Hollywood I was referring to the picture you painted of the 6 burly lads following you home and analysing your security before committing the crime. As you pointed out in your last post, most times its not 6 burly lads - but 2 scummers. Opportunistic thieves. Leaving the keys in easy reach at the front door will just egg these guys on. Making it a little more difficult will not force you into a battle with thieves but may deter them just enough to move on.