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MG MGA - Car Stolen

Hi

On another forum some poor guys MGA has been stolen from his garage. Keep your eyes open.
Stolen from garage in Raynes Park MGA Roadster Mkll, Chariot Red biscuit interior and hood. Registration Number 168 BWN, possible damage to rear where thieves forced garage door.

Barry
B Bridgens

I hope they find the car.

It is well worth fitting a Tracker system to your MGA, they are not expensive and with one fitted you can use your smartphone to easily find exactly where your car is at any time.

The tracker sends you a link which you open and it shows you a Google Earth picture of where your car is within about 10 metres.
It will also tell you at what speed your car is travelling, hopefully it will always show 0.00km/h.

You can also hide the tracker unit out of the way so that it is not easily spotted by a car thief.

Cheers
Colyn
Colyn Firth


“I hope they find the car.”

I hope they find the scumbags that stole it!
Dave O'Neill 2

Young people have trouble stealing MGAs downunder. Firtly they cannot find the door handle, then they break the key off trying to start it, then cannot get the handbrake off!
Mike Ellsmore

Hi

As Colin says a tracker will help. A lot of thieves take the car and park it under a cover then watch too see if anyone comes near it having found it using a tracker. If after a day there is nothing suspicious they are off with it.

Barry
B Bridgens

Look for the parts being sold on ebay...
Dominic Clancy

Colyn,
Do you know of a brand or model for the tracking system?
Tyler
C.T. Irwin

Hi Tyler
this is the link to the type of Tracker that I fitted.

You install a new mobile phone Sim-card (you choose your own network) and send it a coded text message, it will reply with GPS co-ordinates and an on-line link to Google Earth which, when you open it, shows a"Streetview" picture of its location.

The tracker will fit into the palm of your hand (I do have big hands though!) and you can easily hide it away.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Streetwize-SWTRACK1-Vehicle-Personal-Tracker/dp/B00MAJBBGG

You would have to check that this tracker will be compatible with the US mobile phone networks but I'm sure that you will be able to buy a US equivalent type.

Hope that helps

Colyn
Colyn Firth

I will second what Colyn has said although I have yet to buy one. I had a wizard mobile car electrics guy come to fix my reversing sensors on my Merc www.topbananamobile.co.uk. He said they are excellent value for money. That said he pointed out they had to be wired to the car electrics and, of course, had to positioned so that they could receive a mobile signal so limited hiding places on an MGA and the like. i.e. no point hiding inside the chassis. But I guess that is true of all systems and cars.

Steve

Steve Gyles

Steve, I also wondered about how effective the tracker would be inside the car, but then I realised that my mobile phone seems to receive a signal virtually everywhere inside in my modern car (MG3), even down in the footwell.

I think the phone signal enters through the windows and then bounces around inside the car.

I must admit that I haven't tested the mobile signal inside the boot yet but it would be easy to check this. Just place a mobile in the closed boot and/or the closed bonnet and call it from another phone, if it rings you know it has signal reception.

With the MGA being an open roadster and having wooden floors I would think it should have even more choices of suitable places to conceal a tracker than a modern car has.

Cheers
Colyn

PS Waxacar who supplied the Tracker have a great aftersales service, the charger on mine was faulty and they immediately sent me a new one FOC






Colyn Firth

Before I toured Europe in the summer I had a SmarTrack Protector Pro Global fitted. Its a fairly expensive CAT6? system and uses multiple networks to ensure mobile and satellite coverage across Europe and beyond. I don't have good mobile signal at home and in the past my cheap tracker kept thinking the car had moved and sent hundreds of texts which was very annoying.
The SmarTrack system could easily track the car at home and was on special offer in the summer. I have a lifetime subscription. The box is tiny and fitted very easily behind some trim. I have to call them if the car is stolen and they have a very high recovery rate.
I have a permanent earth and supply feed behind the dash for my clock which is separate from the master switch isolated earth supply on the car so it was easy to fit.
John Francis

The SmarTrack Tracker looks a really excellent piece of kit John, definitely a quantum leap higher protection than the GPS Tracker I have.

It is around £200 to fit plus approx £150 per year subscription for continuous monitoring.

Colyn
Colyn Firth

Colyn you can get lifetime ownership subscription for £399. Most people go for that option. I paid about £200 to fit. I had an expensive Summer with the Bimini I bought for the sun.
John Francis

As reported in the MGCC Newsletter:

UPDATE: The car has been found via the power of Social Media!
R A Evans

Great news.
I saw that the car had been found when I was looking at an MGA Facebook page (IIRC)

I would love to hear the full story though.

Colyn
Colyn Firth

Colyn, what FB page was that...I thought I was on every possible MGA FB page, but havn't seen that.
Gary Lock

Sorry Gary, I obviously didn't "Recall so Correctly" after all.

I thought I saw on a Facebook page but maybe it was somewhere else, but it was only the same message with no details, ie

"UPDATE: The car has been found via the power of Social Media!"

Cheers
Colyn
Colyn Firth

This thread was discussed between 20/10/2018 and 08/11/2018

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