Jun0129

Sad to report that this morning, family member's W203 C240 was stolen... Standard police filing procedures have been filed and I hope there will be some good news soon...

What came shocking to me was how the car was stolen off the parking lot. According to my brother who got to watch the surveilence camera footage, these theives just popped open the hood, fiddled around the engine bay area, then drove off with the vehicle 10 minutes later...

I'm not as familiar with car mechanics, but is this even possible?

It'd be great if fellow forum members can provide some comments on this; appreciate it!

[The incident occurred in Taiwan]

slammer111

Were any of your keys stolen as well? I always thought it would be impossible since the ECU is tied directly to the VIN.

Jun0129

No keys were stolen, replicated, lost, nor reproduced as I can recall...

The only occasion where the key is out of our reach would be when the vehicle goes back to the Mercedes dealership for services...

Bizarre incident...

W203E35

Hmmm pretty interesting. I never knew you can steal a Benz.

Does the Front SAM control the door locks and alarms? Does it control starting of the car?
If so maybe they used a device to tap into the Front SAM and unlock the doors and start the vehicle.

An adapter that goes between the Front SAM and Cable which the adapter is connected to a device.

Maybe something like this:

91RS

Wow, 10 minutes? They have have been brave and REALLY wanted that car. They were definately real amatures, no good thief would risk getting caught spending 10 minutes to steal a car, especially only a C-class. Hope the police can find it for you!

slammer111

Sure they're amateurish for taking so long, but the fact they were even able to bypass a modern W203 ECU shows skill imo. I was always under the impression that modern MBs are 100% impossible to steal (not talking about stolen keys) unless you haul it onto a truck.

tommy

Yes, they obviously know what they're doing. And I guess didn't watch Gone in 60 Seconds to know that what they did is not possible.

Good luck with the recovery; on average, you really won't want to get the car back after they're done with it.

howardyudoing

insurance ftw.

C43AMG

And you have a video tape to go with the claim !

TemjinX2

weird...dont understand why they would steal a c240 though. The engine has no aftermarket value and parting out mercedes parts are more difficult to fence then japanese import parts.

Sorry to hear that though.

mleskovar

Something is fishy here...."fiddled around the engine bay area, then drove off". Unlocked doors, steering wheel, transmission, and bypassed ECU handshake? I don't know if it's possible or not but why would anyone go through the effort required to steal an older C240?

Jack_2001C240

I think the theft rate for the C240 is very low in North America. There are many "faster", newer, or larger body size Mercedes out there. But this theft happened in Taiwan. Maybe the C240 is more highly regarded there.

BigBodyBenzC240

I am thinking these guys only saw the Mercedes sign and automatically assumed it had value. I am just stumped on how they pulled it off. Maybe they used the new Iphone app to unlock it like they have for the W204, haha. But yeah insurance is def FTW on this one.

FrankW

you all realize this is happened in Taiwan right?

the typical American thinking of value doesn't apply.

C240 in Taiwan cost around $60k USD when new AND a used C240 still goes for around $20k USD. all W203 parts are still in great demands in Taiwan. 10min sounds like a long time, but it's not. stealing MB post 98 requires a lot of skill or they have connection to your keys. I do believe there is a master tool that can start the car btw circulating within MB themselves.

mleskovar

Yes...my point being if you're going to go through all that trouble to steal a car why not steal one that's newer and $120 USD Maybe they just wanted some specific parts from it. I still haven't heard of any EIS being defeated without a bootleg key.

FrankW

why would you steal something that's harder to get rid of

Glyn M Ruck

Come on guys - A C240 is still a valuable machine in Asia. In countries where people buy E200 Kompressors a little 6 is quite highly regarded.

This is Taiwan - not toss out America.

Do you realise that my C240 still has a book value of US$ 26,000+ in South Africa.

acr2001

Can we focus on how this is done? I was always of the opinion that a modern Mercedes is one of the hardest cars to steal.

I have heard that "the ECU" can be swapped out for "a hacked one" allowing the car to be stolen. What the person meant by "the ECU" and what they meant by "hacked" is up for debate. This is obviously something that would be done under the hood.

mleskovar

Wrong again....it would be easier to sell a newer, more expensive car for the same money.....no? Back on topic...how could this be done from under the hood in 10 minutes? Replace the ecu with another coded to accept a key you supply?

Jun0129

Thanks guys for the feedback!

Mercedes Benz has this god-like status in Taiwan and W203 is still one of the highly sought after used MB vehicles on the market.

I'm still trying to get a copy of the video to get a visual on how it's possible to steal the car from tampering with the engine bay area only?!

According to the local cops, they claim property to the video and thus far, has not granted us a duplicated copy. The video was shot by one of those surveilence cameras setup by local authorities (this is common in Taiwan, where government set up cameras on street corners for "crime-fighting" purposes).

When my family first informed me about the theft, I thought perhaps they simply jacked the car with a fork-lift (this has been done in Taiwan, where they just fork-lift the car directly into a container; very movie-like). But when I heard they stole it from tampering with the engine bay, I was shocked.

Can an ECU swap really do the job (door unlocking and engine starting) though?

FrankW

once again...this is TAIWAN!...those thinking doesn't apply as I said before.

for example the cost of a SL550 is $200+ K and is RARE in Taiwan. not to mention how rare are the AMGs. even when you do steal one, trying to sell it is like having a billboard attached to your *** and walking down time-square doesn't matter how much you sell it for.

FrankW

you have a better chance of winning the lotto then hoping the 條伯伯 will get your car back. LOL I simply do not trust the "afraid of anything" po-po in Taiwan. all they do is give you some bogus parking violation tickets.

new ECU can work on any car, but you'll need to coded to the corresponding keys. If he has a un-coded key...that may be possible. They are PRO if they can steal a MB, BMW, or AUDI or other recent high end car that requires electronic codes.

there has been cases where the "used" car dealerships that sold the car will break into the car and strip it of ecu, tcu, etc important electronics and then actually have another 黑店 calls you and selling you "your" parts back for half the price of new parts.

TemjinX2

true, when its a different country you can't really apply US values to them. I was still shocked when I found out camry's go for $40k in vietnam.

Thankfully or unfortunately, low resale value, no aftermarket support and greater difficulty in fencing stolen w203 parts make our cars low priority targets for theft compared to other cars in the US.

TemjinX2

I disagree. Most thieves steal cars they know can turn quickly due to greater demand for there parts.

For example 92-99 civics and 02-04 rsx's are often stolen more often to newer civics even though the kbb on the newer civics are often two four time the value of those older civics because the parts from the older civics are in greater demand in the gray market.

Same reason why camry's and F150's are the most stolen cars in the US.

W203E35

+1

I'm pretty interested on how this would work. Does my crazy idea above make any sense or am I wayy off (have I been watching too many James Bond movies)?