Hi all, this is my first post .... so be gentle!

Just before Christmas, I had my Skoda Octavia 54 Plate Ambiente FSI nicked from outside my house.

As a result I am interested in making sure that my next Skoda is done up like Fort Knox.

Short of the factory alarm and a mighty big steering wheel deterrent, what else can I fit to my car to make it a theives nightmare? And is there anything you can do to protect a columbus (which Im tempted to fit to my next one).

I see on the international skoda site, there is an option for a gearbox lock... looks like a key lock fitted to the cars gear gaitor. Is this available in the UK, can you retrofit it and how much? Search of the forum yields no joy... or maybe im not looking in the right place!

IMHO, a really good idea would be to find some way to drill a hole through a bit of the circuit board with no copper tracks, and run a high tensile steel wire (insulated) through this hole and anchor it behind the dashboard (!) this way, they couldn't remove the unit without ripping a chunk out of the PCB and rendering the unit useless! - although I guess doing this would present a lot of agg... but Skoda if you are listening, think about integrating that idea into the next Columbus!

Off topic....:

-------------rant----------------

The car was recovered, the police had covered it in fingerprint dust, looked like an explosion in a talcum powder factory.... but neglected two crucial bits of evidence... the "train window breaking hammer" left in the passenger glovebox, and the denim jacket with canary yellow arms (inconspicuous!) left in the passenger footwell, complete with door key in pocket... and ... prison phone card. Clearly if they missed this they werent even bothering to look - just squirted some dust around the car. I believe strongly that if you let the little things slip then the big things arent far behind. Whilst the car was recovered, the cd changer made them a few quid on ebay (probably) and funded some other criminal activity. It seems as if the crooks know how naff the police are, so there isn't much deterrent any more.

Mark Thomas, of who I am a fan, drafted a card, with a statement to read to the police about stop and searches, where he'd meticulously researched all the ins and outs. It seems as if people who have suffered from car crime, dont really have any recourse... so is there any procedure that you can use to make things awkward and insist things are investigated thoroughly? It would be useful to have a "how to" about the things to say to make sure the police do a half decent job of investigating it, and letting them know that you will follow up (IPCC e.t.c.) and ask awkward questions if they just brush it off and dont do their job. Realise this could be a can of worms, but after my p**s poor experience, I have much less faith in them as an organisation than I did before.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/147667-mechanical-drive-locking-system/

Just found someone else looking for similar.