They’d run you a fortune now. Most of the cars get crushed and the number plates sold bu the scrap yards only for young hoodlems to buy number plates like PB3ND37
They when't that good to begin with. Most only made it a handfull years. 2 years rust warrenty on most back then haha. But yeah, at least some character on parking lots back then.
"Amazing how even the most common cars from back then are all but a memory now..." Yeah, a bad memory for those of us who actually owned and drove the damn things back in the day. My first car was a bright yellow 1100 cc Ford Escort MKI from 1973. The guy I bought it from in 1976 also had a white 1300 cc 1972 Escort for sale but I didn't have enough money for that so I had to settle for the smaller-engined one. So what? I hear you ask. Well, there was more than just 200 cc in it as I discovered much to my chagrin. The 1300 cc version came with front disc brakes that worked properly in all weathers whilst the 1100 cc had drums all around. In the rain the damn things stopped working and having no brakes in stop-start traffic ages you really fast! Also, regardless of the version, Escort MKIs came with an offset steering wheel though fortunately they didn't suffer from that other chronic issue that most small Euroboxes suffered from, namely rear wheel-arch intrusion in the back seat area as its predecessor the Anglia (as seen on Harry Potter) had. Like virtually all European non-luxury cars it also had a virtually non-existent options list. Whilst Americans could choose between a range of V8 engines, automatic gearboxes, air conditioning and electric windows, etc., a radio or radio-cassette player, factory seat covers, factory rubber floor mats and a passenger side wing mirror was about as exotic as it got in 1970s Blighty. (Though to be fair, heaters were standard on European cars but an extra cost option in America until at least the mid-'70s.) When the Japanese arrived in this country in the late '60s, they made huge inroads into the market very quickly via the simple expedients of a) offering a reliable product that suffers few breakdowns (that has not changed since) and b) offering a radio and a factory-fitted sunroof along with other bits and bobs such as TWO wing mirrors all as standard. In the space of five or six years this country went from zero Japanese cars to Datsuns (Nissans), Toyotas and Hondas everywhere! Also there are other things to take into consideration. For one thing, cars built from the mid-'90s onwards don't rust (unless they've had accident damage repaired). At least where I live in North London, it is not uncommon to see 15-20 year old cars that have been parked on the street most if not all of their lives (because few people have garages) yet still look in very decent condition without any apparent rust or paint fade, etc. Back in the '70s and '80s it was rare to see a 10-year old car still on the road. Most were languishing in a scrapyard somewhere minus their mechanicals and succumbing ever more rapidly to the dreaded tinworm well before their 10th birthday.
Wow 😂 Wanna hear better ? My uncle had a Mazda (Fiesta) from the Late 90s and it would unlock and start my aunt's Ford Fiesta And this from late 90s cars 🤦🏻♂️
A friend had a Ford van and one day we where going out so opened the van and while inside we notice it wasn’t his van 😅😅😅, exactly the same model , same colour , parked in the same road , yup , it was in 2003 . But the van was from the 90s I think :-) .
The fate of all the cars featured in this video: RLM106L (1973 Ford Cortina 1.6 Sedan) - Last V5C issued 26 January 1983, tax due 1 October 1984 RKG499M (1974 Jaguar XJ6 4.2 Series II) - Last V5C issued 30 December 1997, tax due 1 December 1996 (quite good going actually). Possibly exported out of the UK without being declared? I've seen a few like that over here where I am. YKG690M - (1974/75 W114/115) - no record MLB207P (1975 Volkswagen Passat 1.3) - Last V5C issued 29 September 1987, tax due 27 June 1990 MYH35P (1976 Austin Allegro 1.1 Sedan) - Last V5C issued 13 June 1984, tax due 31 January 1985 (surprised it lasted this long really!) SFC1P (1976 Ford Escort 1.3 Sedan) - Last V5C issued 27 January 1988, tax due 1 March 1988 TVX572R (1977 Escort 1.3) - Last V5C issued 30 May 1990, tax due 27 September 1991
For a video shot in 1978, this is a fantastic transfer. Most television footage of the era are crappy 16mm transfers. This appears to have been shot directly to tape...and in 1978, it was most likely the U-matic format as Betacam was not yet a thing.
70,000 cars a year stolen when there was almost no security on them in 1978. Fast forward to 2017 and the figure stands at 89,000 cars stolen in a year despite massive advancements in security. What does that tell you about criminality in modern society?
Hashterix In 1970 there were roughly 10 million cars on the road in the UK, in 2010 there were roughly 30 million cars, the car numbers have tripled but the theft numbers have only gone up slightly in comparison.
BAZARA89 so statistically your car is less likely to be stolen, but it's not like there were a shortage of opportunities in the 70s either. If it's more difficult to steal a car now (better security, ANPR cameras, tracking devices) then that means the thieves are going to greater lengths to get the cars. The number of cars have tripled but the population hasn't.
when I was getting rid of an old Bedford Viva van in the late 70s, which had spent it's life trying to revert back to iron ore, two guys in a Land Rover arrived to cart it off. Before I went to get the keys, the driver had the van door open. When I asked how he opened it so fast, he said he used his Land Rover key; it opened most cars.
@@User-cb4jm I remember even in the early-mid 1990s, people who had very average brand new cars that were going wrong at six months old. Or you'd park a slightly older (maybe 3-4 years old) car at Tesco, come back 20 minutes later and it now doesn't start. Back inside for a payphone to summon help - you probably didn't have a mobile phone and there were no apps to summon breakdown to your exact location. I definitely remember seeing more frequent breakdowns in those days and circa 1992 we even gave random people a lift home after their ancient 1970s Mini broke down. We took them home as other randoms pushed the car off the road onto a verge. Nobody would do that now. I also remember seeing rainbow puddles on the ground and the acrid hot oil smell (and taste) you got when a car was idling. All gone now.
My father used to own a 1968 Ford Cortina Mk.II that he purchased in 1970. One day in the mid-'70s he walked out of the factory he worked in at the end of his shift, walked to the car park, unlocked his car, got in, and was about to drive away when a man knocked on the driver's door. My father rolled down the window and asked him what he wanted, to which the man replied, "What are you doing in my car?" My father said, "I'm not in your car. This is my car." The man insisted that he get out which my father did and sure enough when he looked at the number plate, it was different to the one belonging to his car. With not a little embarassment, he apologised and then located his own car in a different part of the car park. This was par for the course back in the day. My car was a 1973 Ford Escort Mk.I in that period and despite having a completely different type of key, I had no difficulty whatsover unlocking my dad's car with it.
I did the same in a 1983 Vauxhall Astra at a car park, got in, started it up then noticed something wasn't right, the seats were plastic vinyl instead of my nylon fuzzy seats. Got out, walked 20 feet and found my car!
Franco Martini I remember my dad locking himself out of his 1983 Ford Sierra. He knocked on a neighbour's door and borrowed his slightly newer Sierra key and it totally worked. He was able to unlock the door and start the car with it.
cassettes were still quite new as a car audio music format, so they would've been much more attractive to thieves than 8-track cartridges. some cars still only had a radio-only unit (either mono or stereo) fitted from the factory into the 80s (AM/FM or AM-only) and in some cases early 90s (FM)!
What an excellent throwback, thanks! My Mum owned a Mark 2 Capri in the 80s. Eight-year-old me worked out that you could break into it using, as I recall, a normal table knife, which gave me the opportunity to sit in the car any time I wanted and pretend I was driving it (fortunately, eight-year-old me never thought to try the same thing on the ignition). Eight-year-old me was only sad, not surprised, when it was stolen from a car park in Ilford a few months later and never seen again.
Oh Dear! Bet you were a Top Gear thicko watcher believing all the drivel from JOURNALISTS and who never actually owned an Allegro. We had two in our family at the same time - my 1980 Allegro 1750 Equipe and by brothers then mothers 1978 Allegro 1500 LE which were both very RELIABLE cars. Then again we serviced and looked after our own cars and didn't have to bother with lazy useless British mechanics - like most British workers mind you and that is why people prefer getting Poles etc to do work for them these days as things haven't changed much.
Have you ever driven an Austin Allegro? They are really very good and entertaining much better than you would imagine. Infact if you had an Allegro can I have it?
Even in the early 1990s you could start some Vauxhalls by simply flipping the hazard switch up the other way. It was just pathetic when you look back on it now. I work in the IT world and as recently as 2006 nobody gave a crap about security there either. Nowadays cybersecurity is one of the biggest industries on the planet.
I remember these presenters, that was very enjoyable sir thank you. Imagine a world/ society that didn't feel need to lock cars just leave keys in etc.. how depressing things are now, not to mention critical.
The way he stands to unlock the door and boot it's obvious that he has a knob shaped like a master key, he just bangs that batboy into lock and bingo, it open, also works well on medieval chastity belts apparently.
Even in the 90s/early 00s, some cars would have keys that might not start every other car of the same model, but would open their doors. Our old Civic was a common colour and I remember opening someone else's in the car park, I only noticed it wasn't ours when I popped the boot.
Starts out talking and showing how pointless and east to open the locks were, then 1 minute later shocked by how many punters hadn't bothered to lock them.
I had a new SAAB 900 Turbo in 1984 (when they were fine quality pre-General Motors SAAB). The lock was picked. Even the most secure car is no impediment to the professional thief. When I was very young, in 1965, my father's Ford Zodiac was broken into, by the thief forcing the front quarterlight. If only all cars were like Michael Knight's KITT......
Playing on a scrap yard as a kid I opened a locked Citroen 2CV with a teaspoon that I found on the ground next to it. I'm not a thief but I had to try and I was pretty shocked at how poor the security was, I even managed to re-lock the door with the teaspoon handle.
@@RSBritain70s 80s and early 90s cars had pollution problems. Fuel caps leaked gasoline fumes. Engines were not burning gasoline efficiently so when you go to large parking lots, the gasoline odor was overwhelming.
My 74 Escort Mk1 had one of 3 key variations...people in other fords would flag you down if they had locked themselves out and most of the time your key would work.
*_I was prone to stealing cars when younger & there wasnt a car i couldnt get. I had a ford key that turned on first try in bout 1/3 of all cars. I was caught when i was 14 & the owner said he'd not press charges if i got an A in my exams that year, across the board. My dad, after smacking me had me in studying for 7 whole months & i was terrified i'd not get it & my life would be ruined. I got it tnk God, 2 B's but he saw i worked hard. This man saved my life. There was no security on cars unless you built in your own trip switch or removed a fuse each night so it wouldnt start_*
I remember my Dad showing me how he could open and start his company car with a teaspoon handle. It was a 1978 Ford Cortina. We couldn't do it with with my Mum's Allegro or Dolomite though. It was one of the reasons he never bought a Ford with his own money...
And when we look at motoring shows of today - like top gear -- it's let's blow stuff up, do burnouts on outrageously expensive cars... should've been born in the 1950's to enjoy the 1970's.
I love how they just open random doors (and boots) of cars in the car park...all to make a point, I guess. I would think that central locking really changed the locking habits of the public but it was still far too easy to get into a locked 1970s era car! Disgustly easy, actually.
This looks like it was shot on video. They probably had a truck or something there as the equipment wasn't portable back then. Otherwise they used 16mm film for on location filming which was much more portable and tended to look grainier
Haha! From 1:26 I KNEW what the answer was going to be before he even said it! Even back in the early 80s, when mum locked the keys in the old 900GL, a copper nearby who offered to help advised her they hadn’t a chance of breaking into a Saab. The only way they managed to get in without breaking a window was because the boot was unlocked and my sister was tiny enough to crawl through the gap to the front to unlock it from the inside.
My dad had one of those 9-5 estates circa 2003 with the ignition built into the gearstick. IIRC the ignition couldn't be fully turned off unless the car was in reverse and doing so obviously locked the transmission. Very thoughtful Scandi safety feature. He had to explain the system to valet parking attendants because it was unique and barely any of them had ever seen it.
@@halfbakedproductions7887 yeah the reverse gear lock is a classic saab security feature, but also a weakness - because if you let anyone drive your car who doesn't know how to use it, they can force the lock and break it. The first thing I ask any garage who touches my 39 year old saab 900 turbo is "do you know what a reverse lock is" and have them explain it to me to ensure they DO know what it means. Only then are they allowed to touch my car. We don't have valet parking in the UK thankfully, but if we did, there's not a chance in hell I'd let them touch my car.
@@andynightingale7335 I like those big Squire padlocks he reviews. Man, those things certainly look like they've got a pair. Plus they're so tough I reckon they must be made of Nokia 3310 handsets. Tough as old boots, mate!
I worked in a garage in the eighties.when we needed to get into locked cars all we used was a steel ruler with a notch cut out.if that didn't work it was either parcel tape or a piece of welding wire. We were never stuck, we always got into the car. The weak point was not the lock itself, but the connecting rods inside the door. You simply needed to pull or push one of the connecting rods to pop the lock.
I had an E Type in the 70s and found it was better to leave it unlocked, as the bastards would cut the hood to get in . I had an ignition kill switch and a fuel pump kill switch hidden away .. the price of a new hood back then was about 6 weeks wages...
I have bought exactly the same sheepskin coat at 3:30. The only thing is it never seemed to really nail the look here in 2018... I was wondering what was missing, and now it is clear... I need a brown tie!!
This video is worth it just for the comments!! All that has changed now is that they smash the front door in of your house, beat the living daylights out of you after you hand over the car keys and then steal your car. Yep, times have changed.
Mk2 Escorts Popular with a Webasto roof. Somehow strangely cool. The Series 2 Jag should have had central locking but maybe it had packed up already. Lovely car though. If only these owners knew back then how much their cars would be worth today.
Si Raff, don't get me started on the cars I've had and wish I still had. Back in stock 80s and 90s I owned a Jag breakers. To think of all the Series 1s and 2s we broke for spares, even the 3s and XJ40s it now seems like a crime. But I suppose if they were all still on the road they wouldn't be worth asking much. I had a couple of 3 litre MK 1 Granada GXLs, people couldn't give them away. Alfas, Stags, Spitfires, Triumph 2000/2500s and a whole host of others that I loved and eventually sold on for peanuts. Back then older cars weren't worth anything. I would honestly be a millionaire twice over at least if I still had every single one of them. So the Focus idea may not be as mad as it seems.
I once (somewhere in the mid-late 90's) got hold of an ex wedding car XJ6 for £47 and paid with change from a money jar. It had a saggy headlining and one rear window didn't work but otherwise it was great. It cost £10 or 4 star to get to town and back (twin fillers were so cool but so expensive back then) and may have done over 140 on the clock at one point when I had a call from work saying my house was being robbed. I cured the faults and sold it after about a year for a few hundred quid thinking I'd done well from the deal. This is similar to the great deals I had with Escorts, Astra's and so on. If only we knew back then, eh? Even had an Austin 1800 for £20 once.
David Hunt Glad I'm not the only one who wishes they'd kept hold of cars. When I was 18 I bought a 15 year old MK3 Escort XR3 in pristine jet black for £550. During the time I had it the good condition models were becoming harder and harder to find. I ended up selling it after 3 years to a mate and got more than twice what I paid. I regretted selling as soon I saw it going down the road. 3 months later it got wrote off in a crash. I still regret selling it to this day and even have the occasional dream it's parked in my drive lol.
I can remember years ago someone got their car nicked, the police recovered it weeks later and the thieves had fixed it up better than when it was stolen
@@foxyMcFoxface if I were found dead in the boot of an allegro I'd turn in my grave, the shame of it! How embarrassing. Killing someone is one thing, dumping them in the boot of an allegro is disrespectful.
The irony is that Saabs attitude towards producing a product with integrity and the cost of that went with it played a major part in their demise. Saab was a wonderful manufacturer.
Well like I often tell my relatives in Kildare lol you sold out, your europeasants now lol! 2020 the IRA won't exist at all because the Lisbon Treaty merges them into Germany's super military!
Yes, but we had law and order back then instead. Instead of expecting car makers to prevent crime, the police used to do it. What an old fashioned idea!
What a fabulous era when generally you don’t have to lock your doors. What do you think was different about the people back then? No cctv, no locks and yet lower crime....
Perhaps the car thieves were more clever than we think, perhaps they had insight and instead of stealing shitty boat handling slugs, waited 30 years for much tastier, sexier and faster cars to come around. There could lots of 60+ year old boys out there now stealing them.
When this was filmed Skodas came with proper machined Yale style locks. Not that you would want to steal one off course. And the Jaguar pictured had the serial number of the ignition key stamped on the outside of the steering lock in full view.
MrWithnailJRjunior 10 or even 5 years ago I would've agreed, although I have noticed in recent years an increase in car thefts recently- brand new performance cars being taken with just an electronic device. And also the classic car market have been having an extraordinary amount of thefts as well. Doesn't matter what the thief wants they will find a way. Which is why I see brand new ford focus RS' with those disklok steering locks you saw everywhere in the late 90s. We are no better off with immobilisers ans bettrr locks- unless we have physical prevention methods!
My 1976 mkII Escort was hyper-easy to break into - my early 2000s Ford Ka was JUST as easy to break into. I even accidentally opened a mid-2000s model, that I mistook for my car! Terrible locks.
when i had a rusty old Chevette, someone broke in a fitted a stereo. years later i had a mini metro..It was actually set on fire..It caused almost £500 worth of improvements.
I would love to transport captain sideburns and his theif to 2018 , and give them a fully specced BMW with keyless ignition - that app that lets you manouvre the car . Imagine the comedy as you secretly , each time the theif approached the car to locate the locks , found it backing off. He'd wonder what was in his steak and kidney pudding last night lol !. Herbie goes banannas comedy scenes I think lol
Neil Chapman interesting you saying that, front page of the papers a couple of weeks ago with a story about how thieves are still getting into new very expensive cars with some electronic gadgetry. The car companies new all about it and hushed it up. Cheers
My dad had a Morris Marina 78 plate. My friend and I had a bunch of old keys we played with, and 2 or 3 fitted the car door!!!!! My dad use to let us play in it as it was a banger so he didn’t care!!!
My car was already four years old when they did this video. When I drive a new car I really appreciate my '74 Galaxie. Never anybody tries to open her. I guess it's the gas mileage that drives the thieves off, of maybe they can't shift a three on the tree...
Taylor Shaw? You mean Shaw Taylor... It seriously shows that you are a shadow of Thames TV which was a quality broadcaster until forced off the air because of the broadcasting act 1990. You can't even get the name of the presenter right. Shaw Taylor was well known at the time because of Police 5.
I used to have an escort that I used to start it up with nail clippers. I'm not convinced they happened to check all 3 cars and they were unlocked. Wonder what Tony Bastable is doing now, he used to be in a lot of schools programs in the early 70s.
Notice the lack of obnoxious background music, no jump cuts and the quality of the information presented.
TV really has gone to the dogs.
and cats...
@captain mirrorboots _cries in calling millons squared trillion_
@captain mirrorboots Exactly! And when they are corrected, they don't seem to give a shit either!
Proper Tv
But at least cars are more secure these days
To be fair, that's allegro door is fully shut. That's just a typical British leyland panel gap making it look part open...
You spelled "sh*t" wrong.
+Spencer Wilton - _"That's just a typical British leyland panel gap making it look part open"_ - I think I just peed in my pants from laughing :-)
amazing British Technology!
*You win youtube witty comment 2018*
The Allegro owner was probably hoping that someone WOULD nick the bloody thing!
I'd love to find a car park full of these cars today. Amazing how even the most common cars from back then are all but a memory now...
th-cam.com/video/Taf7o9sOFkc/w-d-xo.html
They’d run you a fortune now. Most of the cars get crushed and the number plates sold bu the scrap yards only for young hoodlems to buy number plates like PB3ND37
They're all shite too.
They when't that good to begin with. Most only made it a handfull years. 2 years rust warrenty on most back then haha.
But yeah, at least some character on parking lots back then.
"Amazing how even the most common cars from back then are all but a memory now..." Yeah, a bad memory for those of us who actually owned and drove the damn things back in the day. My first car was a bright yellow 1100 cc Ford Escort MKI from 1973. The guy I bought it from in 1976 also had a white 1300 cc 1972 Escort for sale but I didn't have enough money for that so I had to settle for the smaller-engined one. So what? I hear you ask. Well, there was more than just 200 cc in it as I discovered much to my chagrin. The 1300 cc version came with front disc brakes that worked properly in all weathers whilst the 1100 cc had drums all around. In the rain the damn things stopped working and having no brakes in stop-start traffic ages you really fast!
Also, regardless of the version, Escort MKIs came with an offset steering wheel though fortunately they didn't suffer from that other chronic issue that most small Euroboxes suffered from, namely rear wheel-arch intrusion in the back seat area as its predecessor the Anglia (as seen on Harry Potter) had.
Like virtually all European non-luxury cars it also had a virtually non-existent options list. Whilst Americans could choose between a range of V8 engines, automatic gearboxes, air conditioning and electric windows, etc., a radio or radio-cassette player, factory seat covers, factory rubber floor mats and a passenger side wing mirror was about as exotic as it got in 1970s Blighty. (Though to be fair, heaters were standard on European cars but an extra cost option in America until at least the mid-'70s.) When the Japanese arrived in this country in the late '60s, they made huge inroads into the market very quickly via the simple expedients of a) offering a reliable product that suffers few breakdowns (that has not changed since) and b) offering a radio and a factory-fitted sunroof along with other bits and bobs such as TWO wing mirrors all as standard. In the space of five or six years this country went from zero Japanese cars to Datsuns (Nissans), Toyotas and Hondas everywhere!
Also there are other things to take into consideration. For one thing, cars built from the mid-'90s onwards don't rust (unless they've had accident damage repaired). At least where I live in North London, it is not uncommon to see 15-20 year old cars that have been parked on the street most if not all of their lives (because few people have garages) yet still look in very decent condition without any apparent rust or paint fade, etc. Back in the '70s and '80s it was rare to see a 10-year old car still on the road. Most were languishing in a scrapyard somewhere minus their mechanicals and succumbing ever more rapidly to the dreaded tinworm well before their 10th birthday.
I remember when I was a kid, my brother's Mini key opened my dad's Marina and next-door's Cortina
Wow 😂
Wanna hear better ? My uncle had a Mazda (Fiesta) from the Late 90s and it would unlock and start my aunt's Ford Fiesta
And this from late 90s cars 🤦🏻♂️
@@BavarianM Holy shit!
Omg
@@chroniclesofbap6170 Yeah
We would be all like wtf
A friend had a Ford van and one day we where going out so opened the van and while inside we notice it wasn’t his van 😅😅😅, exactly the same model , same colour , parked in the same road , yup , it was in 2003 . But the van was from the 90s I think :-) .
The fate of all the cars featured in this video:
RLM106L (1973 Ford Cortina 1.6 Sedan) - Last V5C issued 26 January 1983, tax due 1 October 1984
RKG499M (1974 Jaguar XJ6 4.2 Series II) - Last V5C issued 30 December 1997, tax due 1 December 1996 (quite good going actually). Possibly exported out of the UK without being declared? I've seen a few like that over here where I am.
YKG690M - (1974/75 W114/115) - no record
MLB207P (1975 Volkswagen Passat 1.3) - Last V5C issued 29 September 1987, tax due 27 June 1990
MYH35P (1976 Austin Allegro 1.1 Sedan) - Last V5C issued 13 June 1984, tax due 31 January 1985 (surprised it lasted this long really!)
SFC1P (1976 Ford Escort 1.3 Sedan) - Last V5C issued 27 January 1988, tax due 1 March 1988
TVX572R (1977 Escort 1.3) - Last V5C issued 30 May 1990, tax due 27 September 1991
Jolly interesting information.
I was looking all this info up... then afterwards saw your comment.... facepalm
Due for what? Tax? How did you look it up? DVLA website ?
@@kino-cathedral yes and yes
well none of them would be due for tax or mot because their over 25 years old. they are all deemed classic cars and are all exempt
For a video shot in 1978, this is a fantastic transfer. Most television footage of the era are crappy 16mm transfers. This appears to have been shot directly to tape...and in 1978, it was most likely the U-matic format as Betacam was not yet a thing.
Imagine my shock when I saw a TV show from 1984 that also shot outdoors on tape. The picture quality was absolutely spectacular and it felt lifelike.
1:53 Borat in grey suit.
Looking for a pussy magnet.
I know you have this, where do you keep this pussy magnet
The suit is black not.
I like.
Is nice
My god, how things have changed. . . Not just car security, but also the attitude to car owners back then not bothering to lock all doors.
70,000 cars a year stolen when there was almost no security on them in 1978. Fast forward to 2017 and the figure stands at 89,000 cars stolen in a year despite massive advancements in security. What does that tell you about criminality in modern society?
Hashterix In 1970 there were roughly 10 million cars on the road in the UK, in 2010 there were roughly 30 million cars, the car numbers have tripled but the theft numbers have only gone up slightly in comparison.
BAZARA89 so statistically your car is less likely to be stolen, but it's not like there were a shortage of opportunities in the 70s either. If it's more difficult to steal a car now (better security, ANPR cameras, tracking devices) then that means the thieves are going to greater lengths to get the cars. The number of cars have tripled but the population hasn't.
the UK was pretty crime free back then.... we all know what changed
We do?
'why bother to have a door?' Well it keeps the rain out and stops the kids falling on the road.
when I was getting rid of an old Bedford Viva van in the late 70s, which had spent it's life trying to revert back to iron ore, two guys in a Land Rover arrived to cart it off. Before I went to get the keys, the driver had the van door open. When I asked how he opened it so fast, he said he used his Land Rover key; it opened most cars.
Great looking car the Traveller. I loved going in my dads when he had it :)
Saaaaab
Product placement!
saab ftw
Saab
Built by swedes driven by vegtables
(:
George Livingstone I take it u couldn’t afford one
These old Thames TV clips are so interesting to watch.
I love old cars so much less crap to break they're simple easy to fix cheap to maintain and I love the way they drive
Except they were dead or rusting by their 10th birthday vs a late 90s Toyota or Honda that you’ll still see on roads today.
enjoy dying in a crash at 50 km/h
@@User-cb4jm I remember even in the early-mid 1990s, people who had very average brand new cars that were going wrong at six months old. Or you'd park a slightly older (maybe 3-4 years old) car at Tesco, come back 20 minutes later and it now doesn't start. Back inside for a payphone to summon help - you probably didn't have a mobile phone and there were no apps to summon breakdown to your exact location.
I definitely remember seeing more frequent breakdowns in those days and circa 1992 we even gave random people a lift home after their ancient 1970s Mini broke down. We took them home as other randoms pushed the car off the road onto a verge. Nobody would do that now.
I also remember seeing rainbow puddles on the ground and the acrid hot oil smell (and taste) you got when a car was idling. All gone now.
@@User-cb4jm I have a 2001 Yaris and it's been rusting pretty bad in the last few years.
My father used to own a 1968 Ford Cortina Mk.II that he purchased in 1970. One day in the mid-'70s he walked out of the factory he worked in at the end of his shift, walked to the car park, unlocked his car, got in, and was about to drive away when a man knocked on the driver's door. My father rolled down the window and asked him what he wanted, to which the man replied, "What are you doing in my car?" My father said, "I'm not in your car. This is my car." The man insisted that he get out which my father did and sure enough when he looked at the number plate, it was different to the one belonging to his car. With not a little embarassment, he apologised and then located his own car in a different part of the car park.
This was par for the course back in the day. My car was a 1973 Ford Escort Mk.I in that period and despite having a completely different type of key, I had no difficulty whatsover unlocking my dad's car with it.
I did the same in a 1983 Vauxhall Astra at a car park, got in, started it up then noticed something wasn't right, the seats were plastic vinyl instead of my nylon fuzzy seats. Got out, walked 20 feet and found my car!
Ha ha remember it well i could unlock my mk 1 cortina with a lolly stick!!
I guess the newer ford locks that would only lock any car were a running joke...
Franco Martini I remember my dad locking himself out of his 1983 Ford Sierra. He knocked on a neighbour's door and borrowed his slightly newer Sierra key and it totally worked. He was able to unlock the door and start the car with it.
Ford was bad for a very long time with this, I could unlock and start my friends early 90's Mondeo with the key for my Transit Connect.
“My god that’s depressing”
😂😂😂😂
That jaaaag, wow , such a beautiful car 👌👌👌
Lots of cassettes in there 🤣
The damned hipsters would be all over your stuff stealing your cassettes.! 😂
albear972 imagine getting a crime number for an Abba cassette 😂🤣
@@discobiscuit6849 You could get a Police record.
cassettes were still quite new as a car audio music format, so they would've been much more attractive to thieves than 8-track cartridges.
some cars still only had a radio-only unit (either mono or stereo) fitted from the factory into the 80s (AM/FM or AM-only) and in some cases early 90s (FM)!
@@RWL2012 8 tracks were brilliant hahah
1:52 Borat in the background.
Mr. Shankly 😂😂👌🏻👌🏻
Chinqueee...
His brother number 1 car thief in Kazakhstan
I am off to Brent cross.. who wants a fur coat ?
PROTEK123 😂😂😂
Grab those cassettes for me pls
hahahahahaha Used car?...Talk to me!
Not a fan of fur but feel free to bring me literally any car from that era if you'd be so kind xx
Worth a bloody fortune that car park ….
What an excellent throwback, thanks! My Mum owned a Mark 2 Capri in the 80s. Eight-year-old me worked out that you could break into it using, as I recall, a normal table knife, which gave me the opportunity to sit in the car any time I wanted and pretend I was driving it (fortunately, eight-year-old me never thought to try the same thing on the ignition). Eight-year-old me was only sad, not surprised, when it was stolen from a car park in Ilford a few months later and never seen again.
If I owned an all-agro. I'd leave it open with the engine running.
Oh Dear! Bet you were a Top Gear thicko watcher believing all the drivel from JOURNALISTS and who never actually owned an Allegro. We had two in our family at the same time - my 1980 Allegro 1750 Equipe and by brothers then mothers 1978 Allegro 1500 LE which were both very RELIABLE cars. Then again we serviced and looked after our own cars and didn't have to bother with lazy useless British mechanics - like most British workers mind you and that is why people prefer getting Poles etc to do work for them these days as things haven't changed much.
William Woods cmon buddy even thieves have standards
Neil Chapman 😂😂😂
Del Johnson ha ha
Have you ever driven an Austin Allegro? They are really very good and entertaining much better than you would imagine. Infact if you had an Allegro can I have it?
Rocking that moustache and side burns!
My grade two teacher looked like that........
I wonder if my eldest brother watched this in '78. He has hair like that, but alas no sideburns.
Will brown and orange nylon clothes ever come back into fashion
I feel the urge to get a razor and hair clippers out for some reason....
Absolutely no car security in those days! My old man had a Morris Traveller that could be opened with the ring pull of a can!
Even in the early 1990s you could start some Vauxhalls by simply flipping the hazard switch up the other way. It was just pathetic when you look back on it now.
I work in the IT world and as recently as 2006 nobody gave a crap about security there either. Nowadays cybersecurity is one of the biggest industries on the planet.
2019 and now they don’t even need a key to rob them😤
Shout out to the TH-cam recommendation that brought me here😂I’m off to get me a new fur coat and a brief case, anyone need anything?😂
I remember these presenters, that was very enjoyable sir thank you. Imagine a world/ society that didn't feel need to lock cars just leave keys in etc.. how depressing things are now, not to mention critical.
My grandfather used to do that with his Lincoln, up until he stopped driving about 10 years ago. Never had a problem, as far as I know.
the effects of windrush immigration hadnt kicked in at that point ....
Inspector Parsons in his attire could be a copper on The Sweeney
"Gert yah trowzerz on! Yerr Nikked!!!"
The way he stands to unlock the door and boot it's obvious that he has a knob shaped like a master key, he just bangs that batboy into lock and bingo, it open, also works well on medieval chastity belts apparently.
VW-vans (until series 3, I think): one original key unlocks all...
Rock on Billy!
The old car locks were famous for getting stuck and after that u could open them with frankly anything
They are all simple wafer locks, much like file cabinets and stuff.. Can get into them with pretty much anything.
That's good information to know
The presenter towards the end did a crime show way back and I always remember his 'keep em peeled' saying at the end.
Even in the 90s/early 00s, some cars would have keys that might not start every other car of the same model, but would open their doors.
Our old Civic was a common colour and I remember opening someone else's in the car park, I only noticed it wasn't ours when I popped the boot.
Starts out talking and showing how pointless and east to open the locks were, then 1 minute later shocked by how many punters hadn't bothered to lock them.
Little did they know that nearly 50 years later they wouldn't need to physically unlock it.
i use to leave nappies with melted chocolate on the dashboard...never once had my car broken into
Vincent de Guard I'd have broke in just to have a sniff, nothing like baby shit.
I'd have been quite miffed if it were just chocolate
Yea, stop any hitch hikers picking a lift of you also. Good idea.
I had a new SAAB 900 Turbo in 1984 (when they were fine quality pre-General Motors SAAB). The lock was picked. Even the most secure car is no impediment to the professional thief.
When I was very young, in 1965, my father's Ford Zodiac was broken into, by the thief forcing the front quarterlight.
If only all cars were like Michael Knight's KITT......
I lived in the England in 1978 and yes it was a s dull and deary as it looked.
Me too and still is.
The 70's was dull & dreary which didn't help matters.
John Chisholm and always bloody cold and everyone was on strike.
He's right though it was grim.
McVitie Biccie - That made me laugh out loud, thanks! :D
Playing on a scrap yard as a kid I opened a locked Citroen 2CV with a teaspoon that I found on the ground next to it.
I'm not a thief but I had to try and I was pretty shocked at how poor the security was, I even managed to re-lock the door with the teaspoon handle.
People back then were much more relaxed and had faith in humanity.
Nope a lack of central locking meant they were too lazy to constantly unlock the back doors to let kids in.
I still do.
yes ...it was still Britain ..at that stage !!!!
I can't believe how quick he was able to open that locked car (0:56)!
40 years later and it still only takes 5 seconds to break into a car
Oh, the sound of that Escort locking 'thunk', at 0:48 bought back memories ! I actually felt it !!
This is when the whole parking lot smelled like gasoline.
What do you mean
@@RSBritain if you were a driver in 1980s and 90s in northa America, then you would know what I'm talking about.
I was born in the 90s so i wouldnt
@@RSBritain70s 80s and early 90s cars had pollution problems. Fuel caps leaked gasoline fumes. Engines were not burning gasoline efficiently so when you go to large parking lots, the gasoline odor was overwhelming.
Ah i see thanks
My 74 Escort Mk1 had one of 3 key variations...people in other fords would flag you down if they had locked themselves out and most of the time your key would work.
My first car was an escort mark 1 I was always locking my keys inside,all I had to do was borrow anyone's car key and any key would open it lol
Brent Cross looks much the same now !!!
Mark Stafford Yes it hasn't changed at all.
Nobody's going to steal your car if there is no steering wheel. -Mr. Bean.
*_I was prone to stealing cars when younger & there wasnt a car i couldnt get. I had a ford key that turned on first try in bout 1/3 of all cars. I was caught when i was 14 & the owner said he'd not press charges if i got an A in my exams that year, across the board. My dad, after smacking me had me in studying for 7 whole months & i was terrified i'd not get it & my life would be ruined. I got it tnk God, 2 B's but he saw i worked hard. This man saved my life. There was no security on cars unless you built in your own trip switch or removed a fuse each night so it wouldnt start_*
Is that Borat @ 1:53 ?
Kim Jonny LOL
Class comment 👍
I remember my Dad showing me how he could open and start his company car with a teaspoon handle. It was a 1978 Ford Cortina. We couldn't do it with with my Mum's Allegro or Dolomite though. It was one of the reasons he never bought a Ford with his own money...
And when we look at motoring shows of today - like top gear -- it's let's blow stuff up, do burnouts on outrageously expensive cars... should've been born in the 1950's to enjoy the 1970's.
Good to see tony bastable again he was my neighbour and my mother ruth baby/house sat for him...a real face of the seventies
That blue Ford Escort was brand new at the time, but even so looks like a rusty old banger
Shaw Taylor = Police 5, which always ended with him saying 'keep em peeled!' . I'm pretty sure he was a trained actor. His diction was superb.
RIP Saab
😭
I love how they just open random doors (and boots) of cars in the car park...all to make a point, I guess. I would think that central locking really changed the locking habits of the public but it was still far too easy to get into a locked 1970s era car! Disgustly easy, actually.
Why is the picture/camera quality so good in these TV broadcasts whereas contemporary films from the 70s always looked old and grainy?
Depends what type of film they used.
This looks like it was shot on video. They probably had a truck or something there as the equipment wasn't portable back then. Otherwise they used 16mm film for on location filming which was much more portable and tended to look grainier
Haha! From 1:26 I KNEW what the answer was going to be before he even said it! Even back in the early 80s, when mum locked the keys in the old 900GL, a copper nearby who offered to help advised her they hadn’t a chance of breaking into a Saab. The only way they managed to get in without breaking a window was because the boot was unlocked and my sister was tiny enough to crawl through the gap to the front to unlock it from the inside.
My dad had one of those 9-5 estates circa 2003 with the ignition built into the gearstick. IIRC the ignition couldn't be fully turned off unless the car was in reverse and doing so obviously locked the transmission. Very thoughtful Scandi safety feature.
He had to explain the system to valet parking attendants because it was unique and barely any of them had ever seen it.
@@halfbakedproductions7887 yeah the reverse gear lock is a classic saab security feature, but also a weakness - because if you let anyone drive your car who doesn't know how to use it, they can force the lock and break it.
The first thing I ask any garage who touches my 39 year old saab 900 turbo is "do you know what a reverse lock is" and have them explain it to me to ensure they DO know what it means. Only then are they allowed to touch my car.
We don't have valet parking in the UK thankfully, but if we did, there's not a chance in hell I'd let them touch my car.
This lock would take 12 minutes to pick
Lock picking lawyer: hold my beer. 🙄
@FRIENDLY JAPANESE BUSINESSMAN th-cam.com/channels/m9K6rby98W8JigLoZOh6FQ.html
I've got a click on one, and we're in.
@@georgeprout42 'Nothing on 2 ..." , " and thats all I have for you today....."
@@andynightingale7335 I like those big Squire padlocks he reviews. Man, those things certainly look like they've got a pair. Plus they're so tough I reckon they must be made of Nokia 3310 handsets. Tough as old boots, mate!
This would be funny and make sense if this video wasn't over 40 years old.
I worked in a garage in the eighties.when we needed to get into locked cars all we used was a steel ruler with a notch cut out.if that didn't work it was either parcel tape or a piece of welding wire. We were never stuck, we always got into the car. The weak point was not the lock itself, but the connecting rods inside the door. You simply needed to pull or push one of the connecting rods to pop the lock.
I had an E Type in the 70s and found it was better to leave it unlocked, as the bastards would cut the hood to get in . I had an ignition kill switch and a fuel pump kill switch hidden away .. the price of a new hood back then was about 6 weeks wages...
Shaw Taylor ! Hooray !!! keep 'em peeled :)
5:19 Don't call me Shirley!
😂😂😂
I was born into this security-hapless world just 29 days after this report was transmitted. Dear lord.
People were a lot more trusting back then
I have bought exactly the same sheepskin coat at 3:30. The only thing is it never seemed to really nail the look here in 2018... I was wondering what was missing, and now it is clear... I need a brown tie!!
This video is worth it just for the comments!! All that has changed now is that they smash the front door in of your house, beat the living daylights out of you after you hand over the car keys and then steal your car. Yep, times have changed.
At the seaside as a kid a nearby couple were locked out of their car. My dad offered his key due to having the same model , it opened !
Mk2 Escorts Popular with a Webasto roof. Somehow strangely cool. The Series 2 Jag should have had central locking but maybe it had packed up already. Lovely car though. If only these owners knew back then how much their cars would be worth today.
I might just go and buy a base spec Focus then stick it in the back of the garage for 40 years. Can't hurt to try.
Si Raff, don't get me started on the cars I've had and wish I still had. Back in stock 80s and 90s I owned a Jag breakers. To think of all the Series 1s and 2s we broke for spares, even the 3s and XJ40s it now seems like a crime. But I suppose if they were all still on the road they wouldn't be worth asking much.
I had a couple of 3 litre MK 1 Granada GXLs, people couldn't give them away. Alfas, Stags, Spitfires, Triumph 2000/2500s and a whole host of others that I loved and eventually sold on for peanuts. Back then older cars weren't worth anything. I would honestly be a millionaire twice over at least if I still had every single one of them. So the Focus idea may not be as mad as it seems.
I once (somewhere in the mid-late 90's) got hold of an ex wedding car XJ6 for £47 and paid with change from a money jar.
It had a saggy headlining and one rear window didn't work but otherwise it was great. It cost £10 or 4 star to get to town and back (twin fillers were so cool but so expensive back then) and may have done over 140 on the clock at one point when I had a call from work saying my house was being robbed.
I cured the faults and sold it after about a year for a few hundred quid thinking I'd done well from the deal.
This is similar to the great deals I had with Escorts, Astra's and so on.
If only we knew back then, eh?
Even had an Austin 1800 for £20 once.
David Hunt Glad I'm not the only one who wishes they'd kept hold of cars. When I was 18 I bought a 15 year old MK3 Escort XR3 in pristine jet black for £550. During the time I had it the good condition models were becoming harder and harder to find. I ended up selling it after 3 years to a mate and got more than twice what I paid. I regretted selling as soon I saw it going down the road. 3 months later it got wrote off in a crash. I still regret selling it to this day and even have the occasional dream it's parked in my drive lol.
Most of these cars rusted away years ago. That's why the few remaining ones are worth something today.
I can remember years ago someone got their car nicked, the police recovered it weeks later and the thieves had fixed it up better than when it was stolen
Hilarious if they opened a boot and found a body!!!!
Ha ha, some comments here, have you no respect for the dead, I mean about the body being found dead in the boot of an allegro.
@@foxyMcFoxface if I were found dead in the boot of an allegro I'd turn in my grave, the shame of it! How embarrassing. Killing someone is one thing, dumping them in the boot of an allegro is disrespectful.
dave jones
“Hilarious”
Dennis Nielsen hasn’t been caught at this point... neither had Fred West 😬
The irony is that Saabs attitude towards producing a product with integrity and the cost of that went with it played a major part in their demise. Saab was a wonderful manufacturer.
"My goodness, thats fairly depressing"..
Big thumbs up from me! Keep em peeled sunshine 🌞
Those were the days. One only had to worry about the IRA.
Tiocfaidh ar la...
@@philipnelson1543 Tá súil agam mar sin 👍
Well like I often tell my relatives in Kildare lol you sold out, your europeasants now lol! 2020 the IRA won't exist at all because the Lisbon Treaty merges them into Germany's super military!
And Jimmy Saville
@@2490debrick Who's You Lot? I'm a German living in Switzerland. 😂
Wow look at those lovely classics now , the jag was beautiful , must have been a Capri there somewhere lol 😀
4:13
Is that a DATSUN 100A IN THE BACK?!?
that's my summer car
Love those classics!
wow that must have been the golden days for thieves - unlocked cars, no alarms back then, no cameras, how things have changed..
Yes, but we had law and order back then instead. Instead of expecting car makers to prevent crime, the police used to do it. What an old fashioned idea!
woodbine66 is that why they did a program talking about people stealing cars...
I think the Allegro owner was hoping to have the car nicked for the insurance cash for a better car.
What a fabulous era when generally you don’t have to lock your doors. What do you think was different about the people back then? No cctv, no locks and yet lower crime....
Perhaps the car thieves were more clever than we think, perhaps they had insight and instead of stealing shitty boat handling slugs, waited 30 years for much tastier, sexier and faster cars to come around. There could lots of 60+ year old boys out there now stealing them.
if you Think hard about it ....you will eventually stumble upon the answer .....
When this was filmed Skodas came with proper machined Yale style locks. Not that you would want to steal one off course.
And the Jaguar pictured had the serial number of the ignition key stamped on the outside of the steering lock in full view.
Golden era for car thieves
Nicking an allegro? Hardly.
Si Raff they werent that bad to drive. I'd love an allegro now.
MrWithnailJRjunior 10 or even 5 years ago I would've agreed, although I have noticed in recent years an increase in car thefts recently- brand new performance cars being taken with just an electronic device. And also the classic car market have been having an extraordinary amount of thefts as well. Doesn't matter what the thief wants they will find a way. Which is why I see brand new ford focus RS' with those disklok steering locks you saw everywhere in the late 90s. We are no better off with immobilisers ans bettrr locks- unless we have physical prevention methods!
"that's rather depressing"
Amazing reaction.
He looks like George and Mildred’s posh neighbour!
My 1976 mkII Escort was hyper-easy to break into - my early 2000s Ford Ka was JUST as easy to break into.
I even accidentally opened a mid-2000s model, that I mistook for my car! Terrible locks.
jesssuz the shopping centre looks like a fucking prison. It does look depressing there, not much has changed i suppose.
when i had a rusty old Chevette, someone broke in a fitted a stereo. years later i had a mini metro..It was actually set on fire..It caused almost £500 worth of improvements.
Back then cars was easy to crack. Todays cars are easy to hack.
In the first report on car security, with the car thief, ex-thief mind you, it was so easy to get in. The Mini screams steal me.
TVX 572R was due to be taxed September 1991
As a kid of about 10 I got into my dads Vauxhall Viva and started it with a teaspoon.
Is that how you learned to drive?
I would love to transport captain sideburns and his theif to 2018 , and give them a fully specced BMW with keyless ignition - that app that lets you manouvre the car .
Imagine the comedy as you secretly , each time the theif approached the car to locate the locks , found it backing off.
He'd wonder what was in his steak and kidney pudding last night lol !.
Herbie goes banannas comedy scenes I think lol
Jonathan Roberts and then he buys a laptop and it would enable him to steal most modern luxury cars
Neil Chapman he's from 1978? He'd not be able to use it hahaha
Be even funnier if he still opens it as easily as the Escort
Neil Chapman interesting you saying that, front page of the papers a couple of weeks ago with a story about how thieves are still getting into new very expensive cars with some electronic gadgetry. The car companies new all about it and hushed it up. Cheers
TheGodParticle I saw that too. It's an age old problem .
Possibly solved by installing a large python or dangerous dog as gaurdian of the car lol
My dad had a Morris Marina 78 plate. My friend and I had a bunch of old keys we played with, and 2 or 3 fitted the car door!!!!! My dad use to let us play in it as it was a banger so he didn’t care!!!
That child seat in the back, Lol!
My car was already four years old when they did this video. When I drive a new car I really appreciate my '74 Galaxie. Never anybody tries to open her. I guess it's the gas mileage that drives the thieves off, of maybe they can't shift a three on the tree...
They just haven't got the strength to open the doors. Lovely car by the way.
Taylor Shaw? You mean Shaw Taylor... It seriously shows that you are a shadow of Thames TV which was a quality broadcaster until forced off the air because of the broadcasting act 1990. You can't even get the name of the presenter right.
Shaw Taylor was well known at the time because of Police 5.
cjmillsnun keep ‘em peeled
I really loved Thames TV.
I used to have an escort that I used to start it up with nail clippers.
I'm not convinced they happened to check all 3 cars and they were unlocked.
Wonder what Tony Bastable is doing now, he used to be in a lot of schools programs in the early 70s.
i can only imagine how they will react if they see a modern car, especially a tesla car!
As my granny always said to me "Never trust a Police inspector in an oversized sheepskin."
i can imagine in the future you will press a button to unlock your car
marin Abrams or maybe an all electronic locking and unlocking device! (But that's just science fiction).
Ha! Witchcraft.
Or maybe you don’t need a key at all👽
Or maybe a key that automatically unlocks the car when it is in a certain proximity to the key
With that avatar, it really wouldn't be YOUR car now would it?
Loving the unintentional joke at 0:40 considering its a Ford Escort Popular.