2007 Jeep Wrangler: Would You Steal This Car?

The CJ or other open-top Jeep owners I know have a lockable metal box bolted/welded either in the center console or bed area to guard against cd/ipod theft.

NO!i would not steal any car.

Definitely very easy to gain access, dare I say the plastic almost invites thieves but as noted, there are plenty of aftermarket lockboxes for the JK's and there is always the factory hardtop.
In it's stock form, the Jeeps is a little plain-jane so I think that helps. If it was modified, lifted w/ some offroad rubber than I think it would invite thieves to wonder if there was a fancy gps hiding in the console.
 
I'm a Toyota 4x4 guy but the new Jeep is nice and the only SFA suv available now... so I have to give them major respect for 'keeping the faith' and true to 4 wheelers.

lol, my thoughts exactly SubyTrojan!
I am sure that the stolen Camry's of 2007 are more than the total sales of Wranglers...

My family always leaves their convertibles unlocked. They figure it's not worth it to invite a slashing when someone could hopefully just yank the door open.
 
It goes without saying, you should never leave anything in a car. If you don't want something stolen, don't leave it in something so easily broken into.

The glass windows on my truck were no deterant to some loser who wanted my wife's gym bag. However the plastic windows on my brothers YJ have never been slashed.
 
Like most convertibles, you just learn not to leave things where the garbage of the world might see it.

SubyTrojan,
 
It's a vehicle built for a specific purpose. CR says it does very well for it's intended purpose, but not so good for other purposes. As a result, they rank it one of the 11 worst cars??
 
Yet one more reason CR blows.

^ Agreed. But you might've just rained on the parade of those who didn't click on the link. :(

bn, all cr says, its a one trick pony. If all you do is go off road, then by all means get a jeep. Their perfect for it. But for the vast majority of people the car will be just as they rate it: crap.
 
Look, I can buy the best chain saw on the market, that doesn't mean I should use it to cut my steak, or trim my turkey.
 
Jeep is that chain saw.

Owning a convertible, I've avoided theft (mostly) because I have a hypersensitive alarm system. You so much as look at my car and it'll beep a warning (seriously!).

When I go into downtown for any reason (which includes a trip to the expo before the marathon two years now) I park at a metro stop with free parking and take the metro in. A day pass is only 5 bucks, the parking is pretty secure, and you get feel-good / look-good points for taking the "green" option.

I've had the side windows of my Jeep slashed twice. Not to steal it, but to go through the interior to see if there was anything to steal. Of course there wasn't..
Thing is, thye didn't have to slash it, they could have just unzipped it! Now I just leave it unlocked and I have found that someone has gone through it twice since. But no damage and nothing taken, as I don't leave anything in the car.
Ya, the joys of parking on the streets at night in LA.

After my wife had to spend a couple hundred bucks to get the window on her car fixed after some scumbag decided to break into it to steal her 5 cd's I've gone with leave my car unlocked and just not leaving anything valuable in it. Much perfer to just have someone look around my car and not find anything to take, than to break the window. Plus I figure anyone who's smart enough to be able to bypass all the electronic key engine starting protection stuff is certainly not going to be deterred by a simple door lock, so I don't worry about the car itself being stolen either.

opfreak,
 
I wish that's what they said. If that were the case, I'm cool with them. However, they chose to rank the vehicle as one of the 11 worst, simply because it does what it's designed to do.
 
They chose to group a chainsaw with steak knife and criticize it for not cutting steak. I have issues with that.

That CR article is pretty useless. They seem to have a rating system designed to benefit certain cars. For each of those vehicles, they make a comment about how they are each excellent at something, but unfortunately thats not taken into account in the survey. And they aren't just talking about offroading...

A buddy of mine in college was pissed because thieves broke his windows twice to go through the car. And both times he'd left it unlocked, and hoped someone would steal it (it was ancient and crappy, but in his parents' name and they wouldn't let him sell it).
 
But yeah, when I had my convertible I just made damn sure that nothing worth having was left in the car, or if I had to leave something in the car it was in the trunk, out of sight.

The wrangler is not a one trick pony, it's more of a swiss army knife.
 
Not great at everything but capable and very useful and cool. It may not be as comfortable as an Accord but it can carry 4 people and gear just fine. It gets decent mileage, decent performance, the top comes off (lets see an Accord do that) and it's a great off roader. It has one the best re-sale values and it's a lot of fun to drive. It's great in the snow and they last forever.
 
So it doesn't pamper you much but not all of us put much value on being pampered.

CR ratings reward safety and vehicles that are comfortable all-rounders. They punish specialty vehicles - all but two of the "worst" vehicles were either off road vehicles or super-economy cars; but then CR admits its ratings do not account for off road ability, reliability, or low cost of ownership. If you are looking for a safe automotive appliance, sure, go for the CR reports. If you are looking for a vehicle for a particular purpose, the CR ratings are worth nothing.
 
As to the original post, I too, have twice had the top/windows cut on a convertible that could have been simply unsnapped (Suzuki Samurai). After the second time I gave up having a stereo or anything else in the car.

My wife takes her wrangler - a bright green one at that - into New York City and has never had any problem even though the windows are easy to unzip... having lived in nyc for over 12 years, the best advice i have is not to leave anything of value in your car...or if you do, tuck it away before you stop and park. when i lived there, we used to leave our glove compartment open just to show that there was absolutely nothing anywhere in the car ....

Suby
Followed the link. I found it interesting that 3 of 11 were Jeeps.
 
Even more interesting was the "high" points listed for the Dodge Nitro.
 
Would I steal the Wrangler? Not if I had to keep it. If I owned it, I would hope some one stole it.

I guess if somebody wants a sweet set of 20 guage jumper cables...... my old truck hasn't working locks for years. Nobody bothers with the rust heap to see if it has anything good in it. Although who would want to steal my fishing poles with Abu Garcia reels? Maybe its because I live in the midwest in a rural area but breaking into a Jeep in this area probably, no check that will, get you shot! Most of the serious Jeep Wrangler owners that I know of are gun owners lol and they don't have those sissy saturday night specials that your LA grunges have around.

Not so much for stealing the car, but anything inside it, yes. I would never leave anything valuable in a Wrangler. No fancy stereos, no GPS, no bags of stuff.

My Wrangler has been broken into twice. Once they just unzipped the top and stole my flashlight that was hidden under the seat. After that I never bothered locking it. Then someone stole my gym bag hidden under the back seat. Lucky them, sweat socks, old t shirt and old gym shorts. I think the laugh was on them.

Why is there always a bunch of Jeep bashers on a Jeep tread? Anyway, it's the same problem ANY CONVERTABLE has, not just jeep. AND AS FOR CR, they don't understand the concept of a NICHE vehicle. If it was up to CR only one car would be made in the entire would and it would be boring.

CR bashes any car that doesn't function like an appliance. IMO, CR's car buying guide is not worth the paper its printed on.

Had a buddy once that was a Jeep owner. He always left his doors unlocked to keep people from slashing his window or top. My window has been broken 3 times. I think that if you are low life enough to steal someone elses ride, it does not matter whether you are cutting plastic or smashing glass.