4 Ways You Can Help Prevent Car Theft
4 Ways You Can Help Prevent Car Theft
Posted on September 7, 2022
If you’re spending the next several years paying off an auto loan in Hannon, you want to protect your car from theft or damage. Keeping your car secure and taking basic precautions when leaving can go a long way to doing that.
We asked our Hannon auto loans team to make several actionable suggestions for protecting your car from theft or damage.
Some of these will be obvious and many you will likely do already but we never assume anything so will mention everything that comes to mind.
Including:
Keep your car locked
Let’s get the most obvious suggestion out of the way first. Lock your car at all times. Newer cars will lock themselves after a few minutes but that still leaves a window of opportunity for criminals to take the car or steal its contents.
It may sound obvious but I see it all the time when stopping for gas, going grocery shopping, getting coffee or going into a store.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re leaving your car for 2 hours or 2 minutes, keep it locked.
Keep keys out of sight
Do you use a key bowl by the front door so you can dump your keys along with your coat? We know plenty of people that do and it’s not safe.
A simple wire coat hanger can be stretched out and used to steal keys. We have seen it done on a demonstration and it takes less than a minute.
Keep your keys somewhere convenient by all means, but use a drawer, a container with a lid or somewhere further in the house. Just make sure keys cannot be spotted through windows or door glass.
Park the car in the garage
I wonder what proportion of Canadians use their garages for their cars. We imagine it’s a relatively small percentage.
Driveways may be off road but they are far from safe and if you park your car on the street, it’s fair game for thieves.
Thieves don’t just steal cars or their contents. Catalytic converters, wheels, fuel and license plates are all worth something to someone.
Park in well-lit areas
Make sure there is adequate light wherever possible when parking your car. Whether you’re at work, at home, at the movies or at the store, try to secure a place where there’s good light.
While this won’t deter every thief, it will put off opportunists. Criminals love the dark and will target cars parked in the dark over those parked in the light.
If you put a significant of your hard earned money down on a car and are paying an auto loan each month, you want to do what you can to protect that investment. Insurance only covers so much and prevention is always better than the cure in situations like these!
If you need help or advice on anything to do with auto loans in Hannon, contact Car Nation Canada today, we can help!
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