I've been reading about thieves who steal cars with keyless entry systems by capturing "a signal from a nearby key fob before using the signal to gain entry illegally." Apparently keeping your key in a RFID signal blocking bag, except when you're using it, prevents this. A March 2016 story on wired (sorry, I'm new, I can't include the link) lists the brands of cars that are vulnerable, and the only Toyota car listed is the RAV4. But the article's over a year old. Do I need to worry? Do you carry your Prime key in a RFID signal blocking bag?
I haven't heard or read of any Prime being hijacked like that. In NH you probably don't need to worry (or anywhere else). Just enjoy the car!
I think 20/20 did a special on that last year. The thief puts a reader on your car while it's parked in your driveway and use it to open the doors but they can't use it to drive your car away. They may have invented something to drive it away by now but stop worrying about the what ifs and just enjoy the ride. You're getting about 3X better gas mileage than your average car out there. BTW they were going to rich neighborhoods and hitting high end luxury cars not Prius's. Nexus 6P ?
(a) You can always keep your Prime set to "ECO" mode -- that way when the thief steps on the pedal when stealing your car, you'll easily be able to catch up to him by running! [Sorry, couldn't resist, don't flame me people, I keep it in ECO mode myself all the time!] (b) Perhaps you'll get lucky and get a thief interested in hypermiling. Ok, seriously... I asked a similar question not too long ago. I decided just to forget about it. I suppose on the rare occasion where I'm parking in a very crowded lot with people around, I might glance around to see if people are "hanging around" very close nearby, but I don't think it's worth the trouble (if it gets stolen, that's what you pay for insurance for, after all). One suggestion that I can make to everyone however, is to razor-blade your tag stickers into sections (like a 4-squre grid), so a thief won't be able to peel off the whole thing from your car and steal it for himself. I had my tags ripped off once and the AAA person suggested doing this. Hasn't happened since.
Yeah, so you can go and get him to shoot you. Yes, this mode of theft is -possible-. No, the Prius is not a desirable car. Maybe that's why we haven't heard any forum member reporting the loss of their vehicle. Or maybe only the university students who wanted the press coverage can do it.
Note that they are not recording the signal, but just boosting the intentionally short-range signals to increase the radio range. The one-device system (for opening doors) still requires your fob to be within its button-mode range. The two-device system (for engine starting) still requires one crook to be close to the fob, e.g. at an adjacent restaurant table. I'm still waiting for the first report here of any Prius opened or stolen this way.
On the Gen 4, the drive mode just changes the pedal response. Pushing the pedal to the floor still gets full acceleration.
Aluminum foil works fine. When I was selling my previous Prius, I wanted to keep the spare key in the car, so that it would be there on the close of the sell. That causes problems. The car though that I was there all the time and kept itself read to roll. An aluminum foil wrap solved it.
And why would police engage with thieves, when you could simply file an insurance claim? Police allow car break-ins to become a Seattle growth industry | The Seattle Times [NB: Police in another local jurisdiction soon thereafter did catch these serial thieves. SPD tried to take some credit for that apprehension, even though they didn't contribute, and suffered an additional round of embarrassment.]
Why would you worry about something with such a small chance of happening. IMO, this is what you have car insurance for. Someone could more easily pour gas on your car and light it on fire, but I'm not going to hire a guard to stand by my car with a fire extinguisher. Mike
Oops I think I clicked the wrong button. As I said, I'm new! All this advice (and humor) has been great. Thanks! But Stevepea, I'm confused about your suggestion to razor blade tag stickers. What tag stickers are these? Like state inspection stickers?
I'll go out on a limb here and suggest it's the license plate sticker with the year of your registration located (in my state of Michigan) in the upper right corner of the license plate.
Thanks! You're right. I asked the town clerk about it when I registered the car. The NH sticker comes scored in half for that very reason. She said the sticker gets easier to steal when there's a build-up of them over the years. With my older cars she advised peeling off the stack and applying the new sticker to the license plate itself.
My license plate has a clear plastic cover over the the whole license plate with theft deterrent screws ( you need a special tool to remove the screws, yeah, yeah, I know thieves can obtain the tool, but at least I can slow them down)
This is an increasing problem. It is not just a risk when parked at home. If you park it away from home a thief can tail you while their accomplice stays by the car, then opens it and drives away. The people doing the actual theft are usually low end, like the ones used in ATM duplicate bank card scams. More technically sophisticated criminals farther up the hierarchy usually hire them to do the risky part of the crime. Do a web search on A rash of hacker-style car thefts, the top and bottom models according to "Consumer Reports," We use a cookie tin to hold our Fobs in the kitchen, in addition to turning the Fobs off. Any metal container with a solid metal lid and no gaps should work. Eg. a metal tea tin if it is large enough. If you hold down the lock button on the Fob, then press the Unlock button twice the LED will flash 4 times to confirm that the transmitter in the Fob has stopped using battery power to broadcast a signal. This is in manual in the section about prolonging the life of the Fob battery. You can leave the Fob turned off, or remove the battery, and take the metal key that is inside the fob out to unlock the door. The non standard design of the keys is a pain. I have yet to find a locksmith who is able to duplicate them. Using the original poses a risk of loss and of wear of the key. I would prefer to use a duplicate metal key to open the door and then hold the powered off Fob near the Power button. That is discussed in the manual section about what to do if Fob battery dies.
