Think twice before getting a car with keyless/comfort access!

[Ktmdude]

This doesn’t only apply to the F85/F86. But since the car I am talking about is an F85, I thought I should post it here.

Long story short: The owner of my local dealership offered me a fat discount if he could drive my F85 for the first 10.000 km. I was able to spec the car how I wanted and went with the comfort access option. I love this option, it’s very easy to lock and unlock the car. It might be a bit too easy though. I’ll just let these pictures explain what happened.







Something must have scared away the thieves, because when the guy that was driving my car for the 10.000 km period woke up, every part that was taken off was still lying in his backyard. They basically just extended the keys signal to the car which made them able to open the doors (and start it if they wanted to)! This takes about 30 seconds to do.

So I do not recommend getting this option if your car is parked on the streets a lot or if you do not have a garage. Now I have an aftermarket steering lock installed with seperate key (https://www.bearlock.nl for anyone that is interested). It’s a dutch company, but I’m sure there are a lot of companies like this all over the world.

[Alberta]

How much discount did you have while letting the dealer drive the car for 10 000 km ?
10 000km is really a lot ...

Is this the X5M that you are currently driving ?

[Ktmdude]

I plan on driving this car until 150k km’s so this car is very new to me. I only do 15k km’s a year on this car. Only 1 person was allowed to drive the car and he is an old friend of my father, so I trusted him with the car. He gave me (what I think) is a very big discount. The car has a lot of of options, the price is €147.035 if I configure it now on the BMW website. I only paid €100.575!

Remember, this is the discount I got before this happened. But no damage was done to the car or any part that was taken off by the thieves. It’s in perfect condition! If there would have been damage, it would have been fixed at expense of the dealer ofcourse. If it was stolen, I simply would have my money back or anorher car.

[elisiX]

umm what?!

Firstly, never heard of such an arrangement with a dealer before. Sounds crazy.

And secondly, the nerve of them do pull the car apart in such a wide open area!

Sorry to see this mate, but I'm not sure keyless/comfort access is the issue here.

[Ktmdude]

Originally Posted by elisiX

umm what?!

Firstly, never heard of such an arrangement with a dealer before. Sounds crazy.

And secondly, the nerve of them do pull the car apart in such a wide open area!

Sorry to see this mate, but I'm not sure keyless/comfort access is the issue here.

It’s something regular in Belgium, don’t know about other countries. It’s called a directiewagen (can’t find a translation so maybe that explains why you’ve never heard of it). Fast cars are quite rare in Belgium because of very expensive taxes, when I passed the dealership during that period it was sitting in front like it was an advertisement or something. People weren’t able to test drive it either if you think that’s the case, only one guy was allowed to drive it. He even offered the car a little over 300 km on the odo less than 10k. He just drove it back and forth inbetween his home and the dealership, and when he went on business meetings. He basically does this all year, now he drives one of those V12 7 series for another customer.

The big discount I got only after he lowered the price the 4th time, you just have to be a good negotiator (remember this is all before the car went into production, so not after the incident.)

What do you mean by saying comfort access is not the problem? That the thieves are? Yes indeed, and it’s a very big problem in Europe! A lot of cars get stolen like this!

[elisiX]

Yup, the thieves are the problem!

Sorry to see this mate. It would be gut wrenching.

[Alberta]

Originally Posted by Ktmdude

I plan on driving this car until 150k km’s so this car is very new to me. I only do 15k km’s a year on this car. Only 1 person was allowed to drive the car and he is an old friend of my father, so I trusted him with the car. He gave me (what I think) is a very big discount. The car has a lot of of options, the price is €147.035 if I configure it now on the BMW website. I only paid €100.575!

Remember, this is the discount I got before this happened. But no damage was done to the car or any part that was taken off by the thieves. It’s in perfect condition! If there would have been damage, it would have been fixed at expense of the dealer ofcourse. If it was stolen, I simply would have my money back or anorher car.

The price that you've payed isn't really a good deal.
When a new car leaves the dealer , you can already take off the VAT (21%) , and another 10% for the first year.

So you had a discount of 30% , but you got a used car.
You paid it the right price , but I wouldn't call it a "deal".

I hate those kind of propositions ... RR one day proposed me something like this , I ran away from them and never came back !

Even if you trust the guy , how do you know that he has respected the break in period ? That he waited for the engine to be warm before flooring it ?

Those things a very important , especially if you entend to keep the car 10 years ...

[pachieh]

Yeah, not hard to use an RFID RF extender/amp to unlock your doors with the keys still in the house. Either keep your keys away from the exterior doors of your house when not in use, or get a key fob case that also RFID blocks.

[P1]

I only had to glance at the picture to know this was in Belgium. By the way, I'm Belgian myself (from Brugge). Definitely a massive problem in western Europe. These parts would have already made it to eastern Europe is something hadn't scared them. Still, quite brazen do to this on a somewhat busy road and in the wide open.

Please tell me you have security cameras with such an expensive vehicle on your drive.

[P1]

Hit sent too quickly: this happened to my uncle last year. He was working from home in the middle of the day when he heard noises outside. He walks out front, and see a guy in his 3-series. The guy sees my Uncle, and quickly jumps in a white van with eastern European plates on it. The guy had already taken apart the middle console, that's how quickly they work. After that, he installed cameras and it's been quiet since then.

[Alberta]

We do have a big problem with those thieves.
I still didn't have this happened to me (knock on wood) , I have security at home.

Sometimes they only take a few parts that they can easily sell ... and sometimes they take the car and ship it ASAP to Romania , Slovenia ...

[Ktmdude]

Originally Posted by Can-am

The price that you've payed isn't really a good deal.
When a new car leaves the dealer , you can already take off the VAT (21%) , and another 10% for the first year.

So you had a discount of 30% , but you got a used car.
You paid it the right price , but I wouldn't call it a "deal".

I hate those kind of propositions ... RR one day proposed me something like this , I ran away from them and never came back !

Even if you trust the guy , how do you know that he has respected the break in period ? That he waited for the engine to be warm before flooring it ?

Those things a very important , especially if you entend to keep the car 10 years ...

I think I can trust the guy, he let me drive the car and even keep it on weekends during that period if I wanted to. He also asked me to not floor it during the break in period. I will never now for sure, but it would really surprise me if he mistreated the car. It would be very bad advertisement for the dealership if something like that becomes known to the public.

[Ktmdude]

Originally Posted by P1et

I only had to glance at the picture to know this was in Belgium. By the way, I'm Belgian myself (from Brugge). Definitely a massive problem in western Europe. These parts would have already made it to eastern Europe is something hadn't scared them. Still, quite brazen do to this on a somewhat busy road and in the wide open.

Please tell me you have security cameras with such an expensive vehicle on your drive.

It’s parked in a garage at my house (the car technically wasn’t mine yet so these pictures do not show how it’s parked now). I also have a gate so driving away with the car isn’t an option. I also lock the external steering lock and another car is parked in front of that garage. No security cameras yet but I do have a trusty malinois for the thieves to meet.

[Ktmdude]

Originally Posted by pachieh

Yeah, not hard to use an RFID RF extender/amp to unlock your doors with the keys still in the house. Either keep your keys away from the exterior doors of your house when not in use, or get a key fob case that also RFID blocks.

I heard that if you press the lock button twice on a mercedes, keyless access doesn’t work any longer until you unlock the car with the key fob. BMW should have this as well.

[Alberta]

Originally Posted by Ktmdude

I heard that if you press the lock button twice on a mercedes, keyless access doesn’t work any longer until you unlock the car with the key fob. BMW should have this as well.

Double click on the lock button will deactivate the alarm system on the X5M.

[Alberta]

Originally Posted by Ktmdude

I think I can trust the guy, he let me drive the car and even keep it on weekends during that period if I wanted to. He also asked me to not floor it during the break in period. I will never now for sure, but it would really surprise me if he mistreated the car. It would be very bad advertisement for the dealership if something like that becomes known to the public.

It's the fact of not knowing how the car was driven that bothers me the most with those propositions. Maybe that the car was test-driven by other clients ...

I do not have a lot of trust in dealers , although I'm very satisfied with the one I'm currently going for service.

In which part of the country are you located ?

[Alberta]

Originally Posted by Ktmdude

It’s parked in a garage at my house (the car technically wasn’t mine yet so these pictures do not show how it’s parked now). I also have a gate so driving away with the car isn’t an option. I also lock the external steering lock and another car is parked in front of that garage. No security cameras yet but I do have a trusty malinois for the thieves to meet.

A Malinois is a good choice for security !

Have a German Shepherd ...

[Ktmdude]

Originally Posted by Can-am

It's the fact of not knowing how the car was driven that bothers me the most with those propositions. Maybe that the car was test-driven by other clients ...

I do not have a lot of trust in dealers , although I'm very satisfied with the one I'm currently going for service.

In which part of the country are you located ?

The contract we both signed said he wasn't allowed to let customers use it for test drives, not even other employees than him were allowed to. In my eyes this is a brand new vehicle, which makes me extra satisfied with the price I paid. If there would be anything wrong with it, I still have my warranty.

I'm located in Flanders, close to the Dutch border

[Chadmatic]

If the thieves were able to extend the signal of the key fob, why didn't they just drive the car away?

[P1]

Originally Posted by Ktmdude

The contract we both signed said he wasn't allowed to let customers use it for test drives, not even other employees than him were allowed to. In my eyes this is a brand new vehicle, which makes me extra satisfied with the price I paid. If there would be anything wrong with it, I still have my warranty.

I'm located in Flanders, close to the Dutch border

Please don't tell me this happened in Knokke...

[Ktmdude]

Originally Posted by Chadmatic

If the thieves were able to extend the signal of the key fob, why didn't they just drive the car away?

There was a gate that prevented them from driving away.

[Ktmdude]

Originally Posted by P1et

Please don't tell me this happened in Knokke...

No, not in Knokke. But less than 50 km away though