Well, we didn’t have to implement austerity and it has been extensively debunked as a solution- the U.K. was sold a comprehensive lie on that front.
Unfortunately I think cat theft is here to stay and is only going to get worse.
There is a finite supply of rare earth metals, either from mining or from second hand catalytic converters, so the demand and rarity are keeping values high, neither of which are going to go away anytime soon.
Irrespective of how we got to this point, the police are overstretched and cat theft isn’t something they have time for.
The vast majority of cars on the road have easily accessible and stealable cats, although Honda has made some progress on this front by moving cats into the engine bay on some new models, making them far more difficult to steal.
There have been some attempts to set up a monitoring system for scrap metal dealers, the reasoning being as it’s proved almost impossible to stop the theft, then stopping the easy sale of the removed cats is another way to stop the problem- but nothing comprehensive has been put in place so far and even if there was such a scheme in the U.K., it would be fairly simple to load a container full and ship it to somewhere with less paperwork.
So both demand is going to stay high and the places to sell the cats on to are here to stay.
So what to do then. All you can do is make your car less appealing than someone else’s and since lights and cameras aren’t a deterrent any more, that means either adding ‘cat lock’ type extra physical security under the car, so there’s more to cut through to get to the cat.
I don’t have a car with a valuable cat on it (the modern car is both old and small enough that the cat isn’t worth much, making it not worth the effort and my 240 is old enough to not have one) but if I had a 940 I’d seriously consider taking the original cat out of the system and replacing it either with a cheap replacement cat or just another silencer, with the original cat kept and refitted for the mot. I appreciate that it’s illegal to drive a car without a cat if one was fitted from new as well as immoral, going against the whole reasoning for having a cat there in the first place, but if the alternative is shelling out £500 or so every so often for a new cat, with the associated aggravation etc, then what choice do people have really?
Cheers
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