Just a call from the sales guy or his boss to see if it had been found and if so what condition was it in? After all if the insurance have to replace it they might get another order.

Fascinating. We keep our keys in an old Aldi chocolates tin so I tested it like you said. If I hold the tin the car unlocks but if I put the tin on the ground or on the roof of the car it stays locked. Thanks for the advice but why does holding the tin make a difference?

It would be nice to think they would, or even enquire as to how the theft took place so they could warn other customers, but unfortunately that's the short term view of a lot of sales people, they've done their job in getting the sale, everything else is down to the minions to do anything else.

Radio waves work in a similar way to sound waves which for many is easier to understand. The fob uses its battery power to make a radio aerial using electromagnetic field. Imagine this field as a balloon, it can make sound when you hit it, you are making it vibrate. The vibration makes the air move making a sound wave. When a sound wave hits the balloon then it resonates and acts like an ear drum, it listens. When the fob wants to talk to the car it makes the balloon expand and contract a very tiny amount each way, it vibrates it. The movement causes a wave from the balloon and the car hears it. The fob also listens for the car to send its wave and the two have a conversation.

Now put the fob in the tin and the balloon expands to the inside of the tin but cannot go any more. The fob tries to make the balloon vibrate but it is dampened by the tin. The outside of the tin does move but by a tiny amount compared to how much the balloon would have moved. If it really was sound, then it would have increased the frequency and made the sound higher than the car can hear, and as the sound has a higher frequency it will not travel as far. That’s how an ungrounded Faraday cage works by constraining the field that generates or receives the radio waves.

If you still image as sound, then when you are holding the tin then that tiny movement of the sides of the tin makes your skin move. Your skin now acts like the balloon and vibrates but at a lower frequency that the car can hear. The reality is the fob makes an EM field but the tin converts that field to electrical impulses that have nowhere to go. When you hold the tin, those electrical impulses hit your skin, turn you into an aerial and your body produces the EM field which then can send and receive radio waves.

I hope that helps.

Not completely surprising that the dealer isn't interested. Salesman has made the sale, had his commission and the dealer has received any due incentive from Volvo. From their perspective their job is done and it's onto the next sale. Volvos aren't stolen that often and they probably haven't even considered that they might get another order out of the situation. Perhaps they should...

The tracking unit may well be integrated into the car but everything has to be ultimately removable - otherwise how could Volvo replace a faulty unit?

The functions of the tracking is spread around various modules if any are removed the rest of the car isn't going to be working properly.
If I had paid £45000 - £60000 on any car I would not hesitate fitting a dedicated tracker , The best is the AutomatricsMTrack it uses 3 different independent radio systems to detect the car ..They have a 98% recovery rate Here is how it is done:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdGoxDPMv9Y


You can't really expect the dealer to have much interest in a police matter except to replace the car of course .

It certainly does help id5, thank you for such a great explanation which now makes sense!

Thanks for the explanation. I did A-level physics but somehow missed the Faraday cage lecture!

Back in the day I had a Mk1 Ford Escort, you could pretty much unlock the doors and start it with a lollipop stick. So I fitted a Krooklok, 3 days later my car was gone. A couple of days later it was found parked up in a street 5 miles away, with the Krooklok fitted and locked! I thought that was a nice touch from the thief...

I am going to be as careful to look after my car as possible, but, if it ever does get stolen then I simply dont want it back.

Once they have been inside, razzed it down the motorway and driven it over a few kerbs then I will 100 percent prefer to take the cash settlement and buy something else......