Reader question:

My car was broken into the other night and the air bags were stolen! It was crazy. I mean, who steals air bags? What would you do with them? But the problem is that now I might get charged more for my comprehensive car insurance coverage, and I want to avoid this and protect my car. How?

Glen

Glad you asked, Glen.

Amazingly enough, over the past year almost a hundred thousand air bags were stolen out of people’s cars across the United States. It comes as a surprise to me, too. I assume they sell them, or recycle he fabric… I don’t really know, but whenever there are people out there who want to steal your things, it’s important to protect them. Most people only think about protecting the car itself, and might assume that the chances it gets stolen are slim, but there are so many options for thieves.

If you want to save on your comprehensive coverage, the best way to go is to get a car insurance theft device. You can get one installed on your vehicle, and not only will this protect your car, but it will also get you a discount with some companies, and at any rate better prices. Some car insurance companies won’t even sell you comprehensive coverage if you don’t have some kind of anti theft device installed on your vehicle.

Here are the types of anti theft devices that you can get on your car, although not all of them will be accepted by car insurance companies:

• Mechanical. These kinds are the cheapest and easiest to get and to install. What they do is freeze up the steering wheel so that even if the thief manages to start the car, he won’t be able to move.
• Alarms. These usually come with cars and cause a lot of noise. They aren’t much use for anything other than drawing attention, so not enough if your car spends a lot of time in parking garages.
• Electronic immobilizer. This is where no matter what the thief does, he can’t get the car started. These are preferred by car insurance companies.

Among the above anti theft devices, they fall into two types, which are either active or passive. Passive devices have to be activated by the driver every time she gets out of the car, whereas active devices are always on. Most car insurance companies require you to get an active device.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.