Do people still steal wheels unless they are something special? Normally it’s the whole car that goes.
Therefore are locking wheel nuts now more trouble than they are worth?
Just got some nice BBS wheels and locks are a must. People do still run off with wheels and wheel trims especially for classics.
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I also have forged BBS wheels, they cost the best part of £1,000 each.
Locking wheel nuts will deter opportunist thieves, but more skilled scag heads won’t be stopped.
Get decent insurance !!!
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The determined ones have full sets of key sockets for all the popular brands especially Fords and Audis. Let’s hope they don’t have Mazda
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Yes wheels still get stolen, even though mine are powder coated I can’t be doing with old locking wheel nuts which easily disintegrate when tightened untightened with power tools. Although I never use power tools everybody else does and I am not the only person who takes my wheels off.
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I’d imagine some new looking expensive tyres on an alloy could attract thieves too. I’ve thought about taking my lockers off but why, at least it’s a deterrent if you’ve got nice alloys and newish tyres?
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I have something like those but with an internal spline. I think that the OEM locking wheel-nuts look hideous especially when they get corroded. I also think that the scallywags most likely have the tools (rounded nut/bolt extractors etc.) to get any OEM locking wheel-nut off anyway. I would also think that the market for four stud alloy wheels is pretty limited as most cars have five stud wheels anyway.
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Maybe not.
Society has become so much better over the decades, and ‘morally, it’s the wrong thing to do’ would enter a potential thief’s mind, and hence dealing with the inner guilt afterwards, would preclude him (or her) doing it.
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Hi John, was this a tongue in cheek comment? 
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First thing I do with any new (to me) car is get rid of the locking wheel nuts.
Unless you have some very expensive, rare wheels, nobody is going to try to steal them. And if you do have expensive, rare wheels on your car, then anybody who is going to steal them will have a plethora of different techniques for removing them - none of which will be stopped by a locking wheel nut.
On the other hand, the risk of not being able to find the key (most likely when you have a puncture by the side of the road at a time that you’re in a hurry, it’s pouring with rain, and you’re in your best clothes…) is just not worth taking.
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I almost couldn’t find mine this morning…
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Put it in the glove box, or the mini storage thing on the center console in an ND. Easy to find then?
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Until you leave your car in for a service, and they put the key back in a completely different place. Or forget to put it back at all..
Yes, I put a note to remind me of that. Don’t they do brake fluid changes via opening the valve and some pump thing now, without having to take the alloys off?
Dunno re ‘locking wheel nuts now more trouble than they are worth’
I’m ex-criminal justice [police/probation/prisons]….and out of date on these areas
BUT imho/experience many offenders have deficient ‘thinking and moral reasoning skills’
e.g. ‘I’ve not been caught so far’ so carry on [without recognising that the more often you engage in criminal behaviour….the more likely you’ll get caught 
]
If offenders really want your stuff they will find a way [some have high IQ and some simply opportunistic]
So anything you can do to stop them [locking wheel nuts??] should put them off viz ‘hurdles they have to get over
As for ‘moral reasoning’…….yep they have that too……but not as described by ND above
More akin to thoughts like ‘not grassing’ [because of the consequences from those they’ve grassed on]
or ‘No victim…..covered by Insurance’
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I had this conversation with my son.
He has a rather tasty BMW 140i with osprey performance mods 440bhp dyno’d and a set of very nice 18” wheels…
His reply when asked ‘why no locking wheel nuts son ?’
“It’s not the 90’s fatha “ 
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I’d jack his car up next time he’s round, then see how quickly he can find the missing wheel 
In my view they’re a deterrent like any other. Whilst any anti-theft device is able to be bypassed, they may well deter the opportunist.
I mostly fit and remove any wheels myself so I can be sure they haven’t been over tightened. And I use mechanics and garages that know not to mis-treat them, which is usually the other argument used that you’ll somehow be left stranded by a recalcitrant locking wheel nut…
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yep good idea.
I just don’t get it , he’s spent over 3 grand on engine, exhaust and brake mods but doesn’t seem to see the need to spend £30 on nuts
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To steal a set of wheels off a car is some effort, so “opportunist” does not really come into it. You have to jack the car up, undo all the relevant fixings, put the car on something, if you want your jack back and also have a suitably large vehicle to take them away in. A set of 20” rims will take up a significant amount of room, even in the back of a pick up truck. As pretty much every new car comes on alloys these day the desire for rims is reduced. Your more likely to lose your headlights or front bumper.
If you have desirable wheels, so something to replaced the wheels on a crashed Range Rover or Porsche Macan which is being returned to life after Copart had it, then wheels are more likely stolen to order and a a locking wheel nut is not going to stop them.
We remove lots of locking wheel nuts because people have lost the key.
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