Cloud9...68

Not quite following your reasoning. My belief is that by investing in one set of basic wheel locks, the chances of my wheels getting stolen would be virtually nil, because, as I said, an amateur thief probably move on to a car without them, and a knowledgeable thief who could easily defeat them would know that wheels with the 968's oddball bolt pattern would be worthless to him.

tamathumper

As long as you're not the set he learns that from,...

If he was that smart, he wouldn't be a thief...

Cloud9...68

Yes, I realize I'm making some assumptions about a field I know nothing about, namely, the criminal mind. But I would think (repeating myself, I guess) that someone willing to take the risk of jacking up a car (an extremely low one, in the case of my mostly-track-car converted 968), and removing the wheels, in my case always in a well-lit area with typically lots of people around, they would at least have an inkling as to the reward of such a risky undertaking. In the case of any wheels that fit on a 968, that reward is nearly zero. So, huge risk, no reward. Only a very ignorant person would do something like that, and, big assumption again, anybody that stupid probably doesn't know which way to turn a wrench, let alone how to defeat a wheel lock.

eds_968

my car doesn't have them on it. but I will tell you if they want it they will take them. on my daily work route I have seen numerous late model chevy/gmc/Cadillac/ford late model suv's and trucks and tuner's who have had their wheels stolen and left on paving type stones taken from the owners garden in their front yard. right there in their driveway. at times they leave the wheel locks maybe as a nice try thing or to rub it in laying on the ground the other lugs gone. mind you I have not seen a Porsche this way but I put it out as a warning to anyone who has one of the vehicles its become kind of an epidemic here in Oklahoma. in very well to do neighborhoods as well as the poorer ones

chudson

Sorry Cloud - I didn't make myself clear. What I intended to ask was:

"If you were to find your car missing its wheels and you didn't have locks what would you be asking yourself?" Obviously the answer is "Would they have passed on my car if I had installed locks?"

The posters are correct. If they want your wheels bad enough they'll take them - locks or not. But since we aren't sitting on 26" bling we're probably safe. But I'm still not taking my locks off.

Cloud9...68

Ah, OK, I see, and I agree with you that wheel locks are a good idea to deter the casual thief who isn't smart enough to know that 968 wheels aren't worth bothering with since they fit so few cars.

flat12boxer

This. Generally the thieves stealing wheels are semi pro or pros. They use a team of guys and two vans. Each takes a side of your car and they move like NASCAR pit crews. Street, parking garage, church lot, supermarket, your driveway etc. if they want your wheels it doesn't matter.

The nice thieves will leave the car on cinder blocks. The a**hole ones leave the car about to topple over on pavers or just drop the damn thing on the ground.

A few years back there was a run of several hundred wheel thefts on our area, all mixes of American and foreign, low and high end, new and used. Scary part was people were getting followed home from the gas station, supermarket etc and not knowing it. We got followed from the market and they grabbed the wheels off our new to us 07 jag XK coupe (and it had the base factory 19s, not the killer 20s that were in demand). Left it on pavers with only damage to the dust shields.

Cops told us sometimes they would smash all the windows and windshields if they thought the person was on to them and also wheel locks don't do a thing. The cops told us they have watched thieves just take huge pry bars and bend until the lug or lug bolt shatters.

It's not a fun experience. Don't bother with the locks. Watch your rear view and have an enclosed garage.

jeff968

Just curious, did the jag have wheel locks?

Cloud9...68

Your opening statement that wheel thieves tend to be pros or semi-pros speaks to my point of a thief or group of thieves knowing their market. Why would a thief who's in the very high risk "business" of stealing wheels go to the trouble and risk of taking a set off a car that don't match anything else, and therefore have near zero resale value? What am I missing?

JDS968

Better yet, do the world a favor and leave your car parked in view of your living room and keep a semiauto .308 rifle handy. People like that need to be removed from the population. That kind of antisocial behavior just angers me to no end.

I'd also like to point out that I'm always whining whenever I have to replace tires on those 20" Jag wheels. Especially the 285 treadwidth rears. I always insist that putting ghetto drug dealer wheels on a Jag is stupid. Apparently the drug dealers really DO want them, because you can bet it's not some accountant buying stolen 20" wheels out of the back of a van.

Damian in NJ

What are desirable are the spare wheels-they are prized by the 356 crowd for upgrades.

tamathumper

Seriously?!

flat12boxer

No locks. Car had 42k miles on curb rash free factory 19" base wheels (forgot the model name off hand but they were pretty and not a "look at me wheel" - bitch to clean though because they had a ton of spokes). The worst thing was they had a nearly brand new set of Pirelli P-Zero Rossos on the 19s and those things gripped like a mother! The 20s we replaced them with were take offs that came with Dunlop maxx sports which sucked, so we got pirellis again. However Pirelli either did not make or stopped making Rossos in 20" and I don't think they make the 19 anymore either. The Rosso p zero are so much better than the regular ones.

I don't think you are missing anything. I just think that it depends on the circumstances, and in my case they were extreme. if i am understanding you right though, i don't think a thief would recognize a 968 as a porsche due to the fact there aren't many around. I'd expect them to go after a 911 thinking they are expensive rather than worrying about fitment, or a Honda accord lx set of 16s because a lot of people would want them even though they aren't worth ****. As you know from many crappy classified ads, fitment is the buyer's problem.

You can still be a careful rookie or good amateur and steal a couple sets of wheels here and there then swap meet, craigslist or eBay. In our case the rash of thefts was over a couple of cities, with the largest percentage of single car and whole neighborhood incidents in our city (RI is a very small state, the smallest for those of you that don't know). As I said everything from euro to american, high to low end and new to used cars was targeted.

Just because of the sheer volume and speed with which these guys operated they were not Mickey Mouse guys. Some suspected them of using sales of the stolen wheels to launder money (due to volume of thefts) rather than someone offering bounties for particular sets of wheels. It clearly wasn't particular sets of wheels because they didn't steal the better looking 20s we replaced them with. They also didn't take our 18" 20 spokes off our 06 XJ8 (one front had light curb damage) and didn't touch my 87 and 93 range rovers with 5 spokes. 944 was in storage thank god and our other daily drivers were too beat for their tastes.

Yeah I can see the 20s being a pain in the *** to work with. There is like no sidewall. The big wheels are odd on the sedans, but on the XK they work, I honestly don't think I'd want 16-17-18 on a late model XK. Ride is a bit harsher than the 19s but the 18-19-20 is the norm for a lot of cars and SUVs now.

FrenchToast

The Porsche bolt pattern isn't exactly rare. Uncommon maybe, but not rare, especially with increasing Porsche production numbers. And it isn't specific to Porsche any more. The hub bore may be, but not the pattern.

What's rare are the other Porsche bolt patterns - 4x108, 4x130, and 5xsomething-big.

Unlike many other companies, Porsche has used the same pattern for the past 45+ years. Most companies change the pattern.

There are rarer patterns out there, like 5x127, or 4x98, or something weird like the wide Renault 3-bolt. And there are more common ones then the Porsche pattern, such as 5x100 or 5x114.3, etc.

Older Porsche wheels aren't not-valuable because they are an uncommon fitment, but rather because they're old. Cloud9 - you're not incorrect, just hopefully trying to clarify things. This may fall into the category of "another one of my useless posts".

Regardless of brand, the newest OEM wheels tend to be the most valuable. There are exceptions obviously, but generally speaking recent OEM are usually expensive.

Take care,

Cloud9...68

Well, not exactly. From my understanding, there were two types of 968 spares: One type had heart-shaped holes near the periphery, and the other had oval-shaped holes. The latter are quite rare, and are worth some money. The former aren't worth doo-doo. I know because somebody on another site was looking for one, so I contacted him, but since mine are the common type, he wasn't interested.

Now, if there's anybody out there with the oval-holed type who's interested in making a little money by selling it, I'd be happy to sell you mine as a replacement for a very modest amount...