I have a soft spot for special edition Hondas. Unfortunately, so do a lot of people. They are more coveted by thieves than your Pay Pal password. An Acura Integra Type R or Honda Civic Si usually does a disappearing act when parked on dimly lit street. Apparently not even the latest generation Honda Civic Si is immune from the Honda curse. One car dealership has learned what every modified Honda owner knows; do not park your limited edition 2008 Mugen Honda Civic Si in an open lot. Thus, the 1,000 allotted Mugen Civic Si's slated for the United States are now down to 999. Before it could even reach the hands of an eager enthusiast, one Mugen Si was raided in the night while parked on a dealership lot. The thieves smashed a window, took the wheels, seats, badges, and shift knob, among other misc. items. The car was found by dealership employees perched on two jackstands and the front rotors. Sights like this really break my heart. I hope karma comes back and bites those who did the crime. View the gallery to check out the damage.
[Source: EPhatch.com via 8thcivic.com]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Adam @ Nov 15th 2007 6:36PM
Lesson learned - I hope. That dealer just lost their huge mark-up I guess.
blinkra182 @ Nov 15th 2007 6:39PM
ROFLMAO!
the only thing that makes this funny is that it was still owned by honda, who can easily afford to replace the stolen parts. Even if it were a Dodge, it wouldnt be that funny, since theyre in the financial dumps.
Joe K. @ Nov 15th 2007 7:01PM
As a former employee from a Hummer dealer that had 13 vehicles damaged or stolen in 3 years, its not any cheaper for the dealer to replace parts, especially when they aren't in full supply. It took us 3 weeks to replace the Nav consoles... But it all taught me, you can't have nice things these days. Too many A-holes...
Billy @ Nov 15th 2007 6:43PM
I cant believe something like this doesnt have some special type of locking lug.
ps. Those were some nice tires!!
Farris @ Nov 15th 2007 7:06PM
Yeah really! My Beetle came with locking lugs on it's crappy stock alloys.
Maybe Honda will put locking lugs on the other 999 Mugens.
darkmastyr @ Nov 15th 2007 7:53PM
Locking lug? Please. I lost the key to my lug nuts once. It took maybe 5 minutes on Google to figure out a cheap, easy way around it. Universal keys that shape themselves to fit around the lug nuts are available (which plenty of wheel shops have, as well as a local SEARS), as are 12-point sockets that you can hammer onto the lug nut to twist them out. If you have enough clearance, you can even get away with using vise grips. All of the wheel locks I've seen don't do crap once someone decides they really want your wheels.
WillDaThrill @ Nov 15th 2007 11:01PM
Yeah, lug locks are a feature to make the car seem more secure in some kind of way (when considering tire wheel security). You should just consider them normal lug nuts, I've been since the early 90's when I saw the lug keys for sale at your local Pep Boys.
Justin @ Nov 16th 2007 8:34AM
Story about locking lugs and how they saved me.
One night I was parked in a shady section of Pittsburgh. Came out the next morning, got in the car, and picked up my friend. As we drove I felt a shimmy in the steering column and brake petal. Didn't think much of it at first but it got progressively worse.
Got back to my buddy's driveway and checked out the tires thinking maybe something was bent and causing the violent shaking. Came to find that my front driver's side wheel...all the lugs were gone except for the locking lug. Took the locking lug off and the wheel fell right off the car.
I'm guessing some asshole tried to steal the wheels only to discover part of the way in that the wheels were locked on. That single lug might have saved my life.
Kinburn @ Nov 16th 2007 10:52AM
Good story Justin. You don't even need special universal locknut remover, a impact socket a bit bigger then the locknut removes them easily without leaving marks on the locknut. My husband lost his locknut key once and this is how he got them off.
willem @ Nov 15th 2007 6:44PM
One less rice-burner.
Cornholio @ Nov 15th 2007 10:41PM
You can always count on Willem to add his own special brand of worthless BS comments to threads like this....
What a tool.
Franz @ Nov 15th 2007 6:44PM
That's a shame... I'd keep my eye on ebay. Stuff like that shouldn't be too difficult to find. Mugen seats and wheels? Hope they catch the bastards. It doesn't matter if it's a Ferrari or a Honda. That's just wrong.
blinkra182 @ Nov 15th 2007 6:44PM
god knows those badges are going to add 20hp to someone's civic! ...now, if they can only steal a NOS sticker...
MCS05 @ Nov 15th 2007 6:47PM
it's just a civic, guy. Take it easy.
JJ @ Nov 15th 2007 7:28PM
You're a Moron
Stealing like a chicken sh*t is not okay no matter what your opinion of the particular vehicle is
may the same thing happen to you.
blinkra182 @ Nov 15th 2007 7:45PM
No one said stealing was ok, jackass. but new cars get vandalized every day. what makes this any different or newsworthy? because its limited edition its somehow more heinous? lets face it, id rather see a civic owned by honda like that than, say, someone's personal pride and joy...whether its a ford taurus or bugatti veyron.
Philthy @ Nov 15th 2007 11:46PM
Bothering to gripe about a story you don't deem "newsworthy" enough for a blog is slightly more lame than posting a story of questionable newsworthiness on a blog.
iamhoff @ Nov 15th 2007 6:54PM
Anyone know what dealership/what area of the country this was?
Tom (Honda Salesman) @ Nov 15th 2007 6:58PM
Once the dealer signs off on delivery from Honda its theirs. The dealer would be responsible for the costs and would legally have to disclosed to the buyer that it had been damaged.
I worked at an Acura dealership when the Type-R Integra came out. We made the mistake of leaving it out overnight. The next morning the car was devoid of its badges, spoiler, wheels, and seats. We never made that mistake again.
What a pain in the ass it must be to own one of these.
elprogramer @ Nov 16th 2007 1:11AM
I call them "garages".