I own a MINI with a keyless entry system ... MINI is made by BMW these days, so I was a bit concerned.

My first vision was "Yikes - someone either grabs my signal out of the air or else they have some 'rainbow box' that tries a bunch of freqs/combos really fast so they can essentially walk up to my car, get in, and go."

Turns out they have to break your window and connect to your OBD port... This sucks, but to my mind, it's not a whole lot of difference between that and breaking the window then hot-wiring the car. ... If they could just walk up and get in and drive away as if they had the valid key, I'd be a lot more concerned. ... checks insurance policy ... at least I've got theft insurance.

Steering wheels are a thin steel hoop enclosed in foam you can hacksaw through them in less than a minute.

The basic design flaw is how key duplication/recovery is handled.

On my motorcycle (a Concours 14 with keyless ignition), to program a new key you need an existing key. The disadvantage is, naturally, if you lose all your keys, you need to replace the computer!

But its better than the alternative. On the BMW, all you need to do is plug into the OOBDII port and tell the computer "Here is the new key". This means if you lose all your keys, you don't have to buy a new computer... But it also means that anyone who can break into the car can create a key and drive off.

Your comment is either terribly ignorant or designed to cause offense, because the Honda Civic is the most stolen car [msn.com] (and the Accord is #2, down one spot from the last time I looked.) If it's worth stealing a Civic, it's worth stealing a Mini.

The large amount of software hacking and modifications available for the N54 / N55 engines and the iDrive systems disagree with your "locked" assertion.

Show me another car where you can get a $500 piggyback module that allows you to change engine performance through the steering wheel controls by hijacking signals on the CANbus, or changing gauge function on the fly: http://www.burgertuning.com/jb4_pnp_BMW_performance_tuner.html [burgertuning.com]

These engines are a software hacker's dream.

At some point, the Club was mentioned. The professional thieves laughed and exchanged knowing glances. What we knew was that the Club is a hardened steel device that attaches to the steering wheel and the brake pedal to prevent steering and/or braking. What we found out was that a pro thief would carry a short piece of a hacksaw blade to cut through the plastic steering wheel in a couple seconds. They were then able to release The Club and use it to apply a huge amount of torque to the steering wheel and break the lock on the steering column (which most cars were already equipped with). The pro thieves actually sought out cars with The Club on them because they didn't want to carry a long pry bar that was too hard to conceal.

In the state of California, it is illegal to prevent passing by riding in the passing lane when it is possible to merge to the right, regardless of speed.

Modern vehicles have to pass a 5mph crash test with no damage. Rolling into someone at a light should be fine. I once wrecked (in the "it was already scrap" sense) a late 90's Sunfire at a friend's farm and drove it ~15mph into a tree and it just bounced off. Hardly even scratched the bumper. We were pretty impressed with that car actually. It took a hell of a beating before it gave up. Taught us some interesting things too, like that you can tow a car by the trunk lid but not the hood ;)

They may be going faster than you when they pass, but their behavior can result in an accident where you hit them anyway. This occurs where they are slowing down or you are speeding up, meaning it is possible for the vehicles to collide despite the fact that they are passing you. This frequently occurs when you are overtaking a vehicle in the lane next to you moving more slowly than yours (usually the right lane in the United States), and someone behind that vehicle in that lane comes up and slips into your lane in front of you, relying on you to change your velocity or acceleration in order not to be hit, or allowing an unacceptably thin margin of error.

Maybe the laws in the United States are different, but over here if you're merging you're supposed to yield, not cut everyone to be ahead of the pack. It is not an obligation to move to the passing lane when there are cars trying to merge even if it can be convenient to do so.

AKA, it's a merge lane, not a "go as fast as you can before cutting the next 6 people who were on the highway a longer time than you" lane.