I have had plenty of cars where the crank window failed and they can be a pain to fix. Not that I don't wish they would bring crank windows back or anything like that.
While I do love the ventilation those provide, they also provide an easy way for burglars to break into your car.
I had those on one of my cars decades ago and somebody used a screwdriver or maybe a Slim Jim and wedged it into the gap and flipped the lever to open the wing vent.
Then they reached thru and opened the door from the inside, which completely bypassed the fact it was locked. Then they proceeded to remove my new aftermarket radio while scratching and denting the dash around it.
To make it hurt even more, I had put the radio on my very first credit card and hadn't even made my first payment on it yet. So I ended up paying the credit card company for a radio I no longer owned.
Honestly I don't know if this would be an issue these days. If you're worried about someone robbing your locked car they're just going to break your window to get in. They're not going to waste the time to do all of this to get in without damage. Even then you likely need to have something visible worth stealing; otherwise they're just going to move on to check other cars.
Most theft these days is just about opportunity and speed. Stealing a radio just isn't worth it these days in most cases as they're relatively cheap and EVERY fucking car uses a different propriety system. Most of them aren't even easily removable without pretty major disassembly. Even IF you stole one you'd basically have to own a shop that sells them or know of a shop willing to buy stolen radios; otherwise good luck selling it for basically anything.
Back in the day every car could use essentially the same aftermarket radios and every electronics shop sold them. It made sense as an easy item to steal and resell, especially since they were actually expensive. These days you'd probably be better off stealing the tires or siphoning the gas out of a car.
I dunno- on my Audi S4, they just tossed a bowling ball through the passenger window.
It mighta been cheaper if there was a wing window for them to pop open.
This exact same thing happened to me except my car didn't have a wing window, just a triangle glass panel that they smashed to open the door from the inside. Took my radio, dashcam and work toolbelt.
No joke, I used to be able to unlock and open my 90s jeep xj with two butter knives, one with a 90° bend in the last couple inches. I was so quick at it that it was often quicker than unlocking my door with the keys.
835
u/AdSquare3489 10h ago
Look at Dacia in Europe, they are exactly that. Maybe not crank windows, not sure.