Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Keys, please.

So, the anti-theft immobilizer system used on Bimmers in the late Nineties and early Aughties basically involves...stuff. Transponders and rolling codes and things.

I've used a pre-FMVSS car as a daily driver before, a '67 Dodge Coronet. Prior to the 1968 model year, you didn't even have the whole "locking steering column" thing. The ignition switch was on the dashboard and, once you'd turned the key, you could take it out of the ignition and chuck it out the window at 72mph and the car would just keep running until the fuel pump sucked air. Then you'd have to get under the dash with some wire clippers the next time you wanted to go for a drive.

In the Zed Drei, on the other hand, the car is effectively bricked without one of the ten rolling transponder codes the EWS-III can recognize. This does make stealing the car a lot more difficult than it would have been to boost that old B-body Mopar, but it is not without its downsides.
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