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What is it about BMWs?
By Brian Clegg
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| A BMW, it seems |
If I’m honest I am not a big fan of BMWs. I can’t imagine every buying one: while I know at least two really nice people who drive them, I experience an awful lot more unpleasant people driving them. They seem to be more pushy, nasty drivers for some reason. And for that matter, there isn’t a BMW model where there isn’t another car I’d rather have.
However, even as a non-fan, I have to have admit that BMWs are superbly engineered – which is why I am so baffled about their attitude to security. Recently in the news there has been a lot of fuss about BMWs with those automatic key fob thingies being easy to break into. Despite being aware of this, apparently BMW don’t feel it’s their responsibility to sort things out. Which isn’t good.
Of itself, this is a one-off concern. But the fact is it’s not the first time BMWs have been identified as being easy to break into. A good number of years ago, my car was broken into in a car park in Windsor. (You may think Windsor is a nice place, but I’ve only had cars broken into twice, both times in Windsor.) The thieves smashed a window to get a few cassette tapes and the (rubbish) car radio. My car wasn’t a BMW – but I learned something interesting that night.
A policewoman came out to examine the scene. In conversation she pointed out that, in a way, it was a pity that my car wasn’t a BMW as they were so easy to break into. Apparently, she said, there was a fault in the automatic locking mechanism, and if you bashed a BMW just there (she indicated on a nearby example) the locks popped open. For her benefit I won’t say whether or not she actually demonstrated it, but it was painfully easy. Of course that was back then – this doesn’t work on today’s cars. But even so, as Lady Bracknell might have said, to mess up one locking mechanism is unfortunate; to mess up two is careless.
Now Appearing is the blog of science writer Brian Clegg (www.brianclegg.net), author of Inflight Science, Before the Big Bang and The God Effect.
2012-09-21 03:47:25
Source: http://brianclegg.blogspot.com/2012/09/what-is-it-about-bmws.html
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