only 6 keys?

Recently my '94 Saturn was stolen. It was driven and then dumped about 5
miles from my house. No damage done to it, so the police just had me come
and drive it home. The officer on the seen said that '91-98 Saturns have a
high theft rate because they only made about 6 keys for each year. Has
anyone else heard of this?

 

Not true. What is true is that they had a 7 tumbler cylinder that they
only used 6 of them in which limited key combinations possible to
maybe 50 thousand or so tops (in therory anyway and this 6 tumbler
usage may be where the 6 key thing you heard came from) and it was
easier to pick to because of few tumblers. In mid 97 they went to a 9
tumbler design that used all tumblers which increase possible key
combos in to the millions. It is possible to use a 9 tumbler design in
a 7 tumbler car if you change cylinder housing too if you are
concerned about it otherwise you can have all the locked rekeyed
differently or even change the ignition cyclder to a a new 7 tumbler
one with annew key because they are harder to pick when new and a lot
fussier about the keys that will work in them too because when they
are worn they can sometime accept keys that are close to fitting even
though they are not the correct one.

 

I have been at car club events where we have played pranks on each other,
because odds are that someone's key in the group will work in someone else's
car. Seems odd and you'd think that that shouldn't happen, but it does.

But the more important question - who the heck would steal a Saturn???

Lane [ lane (at) evilplastic.com ]

 

Actually according to Sacramento Sheriff Dept. Saturns are the 3rd most
common car theft. Especially early '90s. After my first post I did some
investigation. Most (5 of the 7 listed in the phone book) of the local
locksmith's say they have a "shaved" Saturn blank that will work on most
Saturns. According to Sac. County Sheriff and the N. Sac. County CHP office
most are stolen driven less than 10 miles and dumped. The officer I spoke
with said they had a lady who's Saturn would go missing about once a month.
They always recovered it at the community college, with just the gas to
drive it there missing. Now I have owned this car for 8 years and it's been
a dependable car. But I would have to agree who the heck would steal a
Saturn? I mean the only reason I drive it is, its paid off and has no real
resale value. So I might as well run the wheels off of it until it dies.
Don

 

In Saturn's heydey, it was one of the most stolen cars in some regions,
such as South Florida. The reason was because the engine and body parts
were in high demand because a lot of retirees liked the Saturn, and
sales were very high, and older people are involved in a lot of
accidents. It is very difficult to paint the plastic panels properly
(even Saturn had problems with this) so the body shops would order a
stolen car of a specific model and color. The high failure rate of the
engines made used engine blocks a hot commodity as well.