Slightly off topic with regards to MINI but I've heard MINI and BMW share the same characteristics when it comes to this so please be aware. Might be worth looking into:


Hi All. Here's the CCTV footage of my BMW 1M stolen without any keys in 3 minutes!

This is a £43,000 BMW 1M Stolen at 3 am in under 3 minutes. They accessed the car's OBD port in the footwell by breaking the glass, reaching in and using a device to reprogram a blank key fob. The car was simply then unlocked and pushed off the drive and driven away. No Alarm went off, and later found out there is a 'void' on the inside of the car, so if you keep your arm close to the inside of the door and the dash, the alarm will not activate. Just enough room to get your arm down to the OBD port where you can re-program a blank key if you have the correct device (which you can buy in the internet!)

YOUTUBE - Search Stolen 1M

BMW don't seem to want to admit they have a problem on their cars. They are still producing cars with the OBD port located in the footwell in the same location. Over 300 cars have been stolen in March 2012 in the West Midlands alone and apparently the Police told me in one night £250,000 worth of cars were stolen in the region.

€8,000 for the programmer from Bulgaria is £6,500, so not everyday stuff.

Basically if some crook has decided he wants your car he will be determined to have it one way or other.
I know of someone that had his car stolen from a locked integral garage with his bedroom right above it.
The car did not have wheels on it and was on axle stands, was parked at the back of the garage with his motorbike parked in front of it and his wifes car in front of the garage on the drive.
Next morning he awoke to find his wifes car and motorbike on the road, garage open and car gone.
He thinks it must have been well planned in advance, and they came with the right wheels to fit the car and shift it, either that, or they just carried it off!
and put it on a trailer.
No one heard, or saw a thing either!!

Slightly off topic with regards to MINI but I've heard MINI and BMW share the same characteristics when it comes to this so please be aware. Might be worth looking into:


Hi All. Here's the CCTV footage of my BMW 1M stolen without any keys in 3 minutes!

This is a £43,000 BMW 1M Stolen at 3 am in under 3 minutes. They accessed the car's OBD port in the footwell by breaking the glass, reaching in and using a device to reprogram a blank key fob. The car was simply then unlocked and pushed off the drive and driven away. No Alarm went off, and later found out there is a 'void' on the inside of the car, so if you keep your arm close to the inside of the door and the dash, the alarm will not activate. Just enough room to get your arm down to the OBD port where you can re-program a blank key if you have the correct device (which you can buy in the internet!)

YOUTUBE - Search Stolen 1M

BMW don't seem to want to admit they have a problem on their cars. They are still producing cars with the OBD port located in the footwell in the same location. Over 300 cars have been stolen in March 2012 in the West Midlands alone and apparently the Police told me in one night £250,000 worth of cars were stolen in the region.



Been looking in to this over the last few weeks and I think this is a big problem its far to easy to get away with your car with out the keys anyone could do it . BMW really need to do something about it. I have read that the ultrasonic sensors in the roof on the BMW and the mini are designed for a left hand drive car. if you look at the sensors you can see that the one on the left side looks at the passenger seat but the one on the right hand side looks towards the center of the car. So if the ODB port was on the left as with the left hand drive car then it would be covered by the ultrasonics as in the UK its on the right its not covered. Bit of cost cutting I suspect so you don't have to make two different ultrasonic units. :mad: