[Frobius]

The whole worrying about insurance premiums going up because of tonight's programme is a bit far IMHO. Do we honestly think that the insurance underwriters look to watchdog for how to load premiums? Or instead actually look at the statistics. BMWs are getting nicked easily. Fact. People are claiming from their insurance for their nicked cars. Fact. Insurance companies will identify any trends of a particular marque or model being stolen much more than others and adjust premiums to suit. Fact. To think that someone working for Aviva or some such multinational insurer will be watching Watchdog tonight and think, "omg, BMWs are being stolen, I must get into work and add 30% to all their premiums!". Not going to happen. The insurance industry sadly doesn't work like that.

Also, the whole, some pikey will be watching tv tonight, realise that BMWs are easy to steal and suddenly go out and buy the kit and start nicking cars is frankly ridiculous too. If you're a car thief, you're going to know about it. If you want to find out how to nick cars and want to find out which brands are easy to steal, a simple google will point you to this fucking forum amongst others pretty quickly. There's even posts with links on where to get the kit and how to use it on here!! Watchdog is not going to suddenly turn someone into a car thief. If someone has a propensity towards thieving cars in the first place, they're going to know that our cars are easy to steal already - if they don't, they're not suddenly going to change their whole MO off the back of a bbc tv programme!

How man threads and complaints were there about cracked wheels before watchdog took up the story and actually got BMW to start investigating individual cases? Ok they didn't change BMWs mind on their own, but it helped! IMHO, tonight's show can only help make BMW realise that it's not just a minority of owners who are complaining, the show will possibly affect future sales of the brand a lot more than a few hundred people with their internet pitchforks, and that will be something that BMW will want to address.