There was a well known MX5, who, frustrated by the number of roofs he had to replace following break ins on his driveway in Dublin, fitted a fancy microwave alarm, motion activated CCTV, and took to leaving the door unlocked, US style (at the time, there was a lot of debate on te miata lists whether you locked your car or not).
The predictable happened. Subsequent footage saw the likely suspects casing the neighbourhood in a Starlet, before deciding on the MX5. There was great footage of the pair shoving a screw driver through the roof at various places to try and reach the internal lock release. After failing, they tried the door to find it was unlocked. Cue alarm, and then moments later, the owner coming down in his jimjams with a crowbar, chasing them off, then staring ruefully at his torn roof
It was as a MX5OC meeting that my MX5 was taken for a spot of joyriding, and then torched once they had their fun. But mine was the only one to be attacked that night. Two others, in the row, were broken into, and you could see an evolving methodology of sorts. The first, a prospective member who we never saw again, haf a smashed in quarter light. The next, they had smacked in a screwdriver into the door look, wrecking the handle and mangling the door skin.
Then they had mine. In the smoking ruins of the car, I found a screwdriver that wan’t mine.
From helping out the second victim, who dodn’t have a lot of money, but loved his MX5, we figured out how to get a second hand lock woring with an original key. Yes, probably finished with less leaves than before, and a bit of mixing/matchng/filing the leaves, but we had a functional lock for not a lot of money.
Recently I took a closer look at my long time rattling glove box in the S-Spec I have owned since 2005. I had always imagined it was due to a worn part. The lock assembly is secured to the glovebox moulding by a series of self tappers. Upon dissassembly, every single moulding into which the screws engaged was shattered. The pieces of plastic were nowhere to be seen. Then it made sense. Someone had forced the glove box open, breaking of the lock assembly. In subsequent repairs, someone had got enough “bite” with the screws and the remaining bit of plastic, to get the glovebox to go back together, to avoid replacing the whole glovebox. Over the years, this “repair” had given up (currently I’ve used distinctly non-Mazda longer screws to work for now, until I get around to fitting a new glovebox). When I brought the car in 2005, I knew sometime between its import in 2000 (by TW Whites) and 2005, the Mazda dealer had replaced the passenger door skin and glass (with non-Mazda glass!). Its clear now; the car had suffered a break in (it was owned in London). Clearly the lock on Mk1 glovebxes at leat, offers little to no defence against break in.
So, you’re not going to outsmart them. Just do what you can to slow them down, so they’ll lose interest, or buy you time
