Impreza: It's A Steal
Sun Herald
Sunday January 19, 1997
BILL Liao, computer engineer and visitor from Melbourne, was worried about parking his car in Camden Street, Newtown, on Monday night.
He had heard about Sydney's epidemic of Subaru Impreza WRX heists, so he was doubly careful to ensure the car's on-board immobiliser system was armed.
"My wife was paranoid about it," said Mr Liao, "so she checked it too."
At 9.15pm on Monday the couple unloaded their shopping and Mr Liao prepared to return downstairs to retrieve his $3,000 computer tool kit.
At 9.16pm: "I saw my car zoom off. It wouldn't have taken them more than a minute."
Within a few seconds, Mr Liao was running down Camden Street, shouting into his mobile phone to the police. At 9.30pm he was at the station when he heard the police radio report: a chase through King Street, Newtown. Police were in pursuit of two Subaru WRXs.
One of them crashed, leaving a man critically injured. The other Subaru accelerated into the night, the Liaos' baby capsule strapped securely in its back seat.
Police will not confirm the exact numbers but Mr Liao is most likely victim 26 or 27 in recent weeks. Not big numbers in comparison with the list of stolen Holden Commodores, but an extraordinary strike rate for such an exclusive model. Only a few hundred of the $45,000 highperformance machines reside in Sydney. Fewer than 1,300 have been sold in Australia.
Crooks like the WRX because nothing else on the road, not even a Porsche, offers the same combination of blistering performance, easy handling, bulletproof brakes and anonymity.
By comparison, police pursuit cars are lumbering neanderthals.
Every WRX comes with a valuable extra: it doesn't look like a high profile performance car. The reigning world rally championship winner is as subtle as the technology is sophisticated.
No war paint, fat tyres or boy-racer spoilers. Instead, the WRX is a light, nimble, compact package with the sort of deft responses and huge reserves of power, handling and brakes required to hurl it over tight forestry roads. It is, perhaps, the ultimate stealth car.
"I have nothing but good things to say about the Subaru," said Mr Liao, who compares it favourably with his previous Mercedes and Porsche models. "It is a wonderful, easy car to drive. So safe, so strong."
With reports of WRX owners being carjacked at knife point confirmed by senior police investigators, Mr Liao labelled the Sydney epidemic "craziness, almost tragic".
In one case reported to police, thieves brushed bumpers with a WRX in traffic. When the owner got out to investigate the damage, he was threatened, and the thieves drove off in the car. Two more carjackings are on the police blotter, including one at a drive-through restaurant in the outer west and another in Redfern.
"That terrifies me," Mr Liao said. "We usually have our baby in the back seat."
While he stands to be substantially out of pocket over the loss of his car, Mr Liao is more depressed than angry.
"It would give me no satisfaction to see someone killed or injured in my car," he said. "It's not a good expression of anyone's life to die like that. It depresses me. They see Victorian plates and a baby seat and they just don't care. As a result I'm really hurting financially for some kid's fun."
Mr Liao's insurance company values the stolen WRX at $37,000 but the replacement cost will be closer to $45,000. Then there's the missing $3,000 tool kit.
"I've been shopping to see what a near-new WRX will cost me," he said. "And you know what? Both dealers told me they'd had their own cars ripped off. You wonder what the use is of having such a beautiful car if you can't protect it."
THE THIEVES LOCKED OUT
NEARLY two years ago Subaru called in the experts to help protect their Impreza WRX customers from car thieves.
Almost from the moment the model was released in Australia, in March 1994, it was on the hot list. One motoring journalist had a test car stolen in the first week the car was on sale.
In March 1995, Subaru added a Locktight immobiliser system, an Australian anti-theft countermeasure, to every WRX sold. More than 10,000 have already been fitted to rival prestige models with remarkably good results.
"We've installed thousands in the past six years, and apart from one Porsche being lifted on to a low loader in Double Bay, have not heard about a car being stolen if the immobiliser was armed," says Locktight owner Jeff Gibbs.
Gibbs has inspected about 10 stolen and recovered Subarus, at the request of police. He claims, and investigators support him, that none of the cars inspected had its immobiliser system activated.
"It's human error. People forget to arm the system," Mr Gibbs said.
But Bill Liao, whose Impreza was stolen, said: "I'll swear on a stack of bibles and sign a stat dec, the system was armed."
Very recent WRX models are fitted with a immobiliser developed at the factory in Japan, but Subaru Australia is now investigating satellite tracking systems to beat the crooks.
"The problem is unique to Sydney," said Subaru's Nick Senior. "We haven't heard about any cars being stolen in regional areas or in other capitals."
POLICE CHECK IT OUT
SYDNEY'S most wanted set of wheels is the antithesis of the stereotype high-performance car.
Mild on the outside, it is the product of high-technology, not marketing hype.
The engine is just 2.0 litres, a four cylinder, versus police cars' 5.0 litre V8s.
The Subaru WRX is turbocharged but produces very similar power and torque to an everyday six-cylinder sales rep Commodore.
The secret: light weight and extraordinary traction, courtesy of constant four-wheel drive. The steering is pin-point accurate, the brakes capable of standing the compact WRX on its nose.
The genius of the car lies in its absolute ease of driving. The controls are as light as a Ford Laser's but as precise as a racing car's.
Other cars already have more power. Even with 20 or 30 per cent less, the WRX would still out-corner and outmanoeuvre any police chase car.
The cops know it. Which is why the NSW Police have already asked Subaru if it could supply WRXs to the thin blue line.
© 1997 Sun Herald