Holy crap Herschel, sorry to hear about that! Man, I can't even imagine how p!ssed I would be if that happened to me.

The best of luck getting new wheels/tires this week.

 

Hello everyone,
Thanks for the feedback. It is all very helpful.

It seems to be a dealer choice whether or not their cars come with wheel locks or if it is an option. I honestly cannot remember if mine did. I never had the need to discuss it before, and I could not find the lock that I would own in my trunk. So, I am going to assume that I did not.

The cop said that often times thieves have the master locks to common lug nut locks. So even if I have Nissan/Infiniti wheel locks, someone could still have taken my rims.

But on the positive side, everyone I have dealt with has been very helpful and everything went smoothly. Because auto club will not tow a car without wheels, I was screwed. Infiniti of Montclair was nice enough to round up several spares from their cars and drive to my place and install them for me. The tow truck driver showed up very quickly (because Infiniti did not want me driving on their spares the long distance to their dealership).

As soon as I got there, the service agent was ready with the paper work, knew exactly what I wanted, got on the phone with Enterprise, and had me ready to go. There was no waiting or debate about what Infiniti was going to do. There was some damage to the rear of the car, and they are going to fix that.

Within minutes, a nice lady from Enterprise picked me up (I sound like a commercial) and took me to their office. I rented a new Cadillac CTS and drove home. Maybe it was the holiday cheer, or karma returning the favor for the people I have helped in distress, but everything went better than expected considering the situation.

Someone offered tires from their ride, and although I appreciate it, the paperwork between the dealer and the insurance has already started.

One last note: Car and Driver was right. The G35S is a far better car than the Caddy I am driving. No comparison.

Herschel

 

where was this, i have the same car as your but 6MT and live in orange county?!

 

I heard if you have wheel locks they will bust your window or otherwise break-in to see if they can find the wheel lock key in your car. Apparently some people keep them in the glovebox or in the console, etc...

?

 

West Covina, between 10 and 60. Happened around 12:30am this morning, cops were called at 4:30am, came to my door at around 6am.

I have talked to neighbors. Basically, I want to convince the detectives that there is something worth investigating.

 

Excellent point, as I have heard this too.
When I had my Acura, I kept it in my trunk, in the spot designed for it.

I will keep my new wheel lock in my house. I want to make it a deterrent as much as possible, but nothing is full proof.

 

only thing bad with that is say your out doing mall shopping around town or visit some family 30+min away, what happens if u get a flat? u wont be able to take off the tire without a key, best thing to do is hide it somewhere in your car, like tape it under your seat or somewhere not common Ie, glovebox/center consol/where spare is.

BTW as long as they sell lug removers like http://cgi.ebay.com/Locking-Lug-Nut-Remover-Set-NEW_W0QQitemZ260182946831QQihZ016QQcategoryZ303QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem or http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/3-PC-...spagenameZWDVW

Your car wont be safe even with locks.

 

LOL. As soon as I wrote that email, my wife said, "That does you no good if you get a flat on the freeway."

Yeah, I will have to hide it in my car.

 

trunk sounds like a good idea.. but maybe a bit trouble some if you want it truly secure.. u have to turn off the switch in the glove box and lock the glove box with the manual key......... a bit troublesome coz everytime u want to open the trunk u have to use ur manual key on the glove box etc....but I guess with a bit of change to the way we do things might be ok.. if we r leaving un attended for more than a stop at the store, we should then turn off trunk and lock glove box up.....,.... if we r only heading in to buy stuff and its a very busy parking lot.. like costco or walmart etc... then you unlock your trunk first if your r lazy so you can pop it by remote when you approach.. i guess its matter of how far you want to go. Or find a really secure place in the car, under seats etc I think is pretty common now? I think they would think of that right away.. theres only so much space in the car.

 

Hiding wheel lock keys, leaving them at home? Too much paranoia. If it happens it happens no sense swetting everything in life. If thieves want something they get it. I actually just can't believe they would steal the stock rims. They make great winters but never thought they would be a target of thieves. I'd take the insurance money and get something else.

 

after changing the micro cabin air filter, the little bottom panel that pops off under the glove might be a good little hiding spot with some tape

 

Sorry to hear about your car. Wheel locks and car covers and alarms are nice deterrents but the best thing is to park in the garage. A garage is a MUST if you have a car you care about. It prevents break-ins and protects your car from mother nature...

 

this is just my opinion but .. lets say you did have the wheel locks which prevented them from stealing it. from the stealer's perspective i'd guess they wouldnt be too satisfied leading them to maybe bust your windows .. key your car .. slash tires .. break headlights .. etc etc , or all the above. we wouldnt be able to prevent that ? and im guessing that'd be alot worse =[

 

I don't know if wheel locks are all that helpful. After all, you still need to keep the wheel lock key in your car, right? How else would you be able to change a flat if you didn't? So, most thieves know this and would just look in your trunk, or glove box or center console and easily find the key and still steal your rims/tires.

On the other hand, I've had a tire shop impact wrench a set of nuts, including wheel locks onto my rims so tight, when I got a flat and tried to change it, it was virtually impossible to take the nut off. The one w/ the lock on it was especially difficult because the key for the wheel lock extends the leverage point out even further and by the time I was able to get that locked nut to budge, I ended up stripping the bolt.

So, after that crappy experience, the first thing I do now whenever I get a new car is to remove the damn locks and put on the stock nuts. Of course, I always garage my car at home and work so I've never had problems w/ stuff getting stolen.

 

change flats? thats what roadside assistance is for LOL