• Porsche owners beware – cannabis growers may steal your headlights
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[Quote]Light-fingered … cannabis-growing thieves in Amsterdam appear to favour the Porsche Cayenne's xenon headlights. Photograph: Ben Welsh/Premium/Alamy One would expect the high-power headlights of luxury car brand Porsche to be pretty good at startling deer and blinding other drivers. But according to rumours circulating in Amsterdam, their high-intensity discharge (HID) xenon lamps are good for cultivating cannabis too. At the last count, 35 sets of headlights have been reported stolen from Porsche Cayenne and Panamera models in the Dutch capital in recent months. Oddly, the rest of the country has so far been unaffected. Motoring blogs have blamed this trend on marijuana farmers being unwilling to fork out for the expensive lighting systems needed to maximise their harvest. As well as producing the correct light-to-heat ratio for growing cannabis, the xenon bulbs are highly energy efficient. Even small-scale cannabis farms require vast amounts of electricity, which makes the bulbs attractive for rogue herbalists. But could Porsche really have inadvertently engineered such a useful piece of horticultural kit? One Dutch hydroponic expert, known only as Midnight Gardener, says it is possible. "HID bulbs would work. We sell normal HID bulbs, but the xenon ones must have something extra. It must be kids, or people who are down and out. It makes the whole growing business look bad though." Another factor could be that the lights are simply too easy to steal. Online CCTV footage from late October shows a young man taking less than a minute to flick out the bulbs from a Panamera parked right outside someone's house. Porsche, which is working on ways to make the thefts harder, points out that it is not only its vehicles getting parts pilfered; it says the desirability is for xenon lamps, rather than specifically Porsche lights. "Obviously there are other brands being stolen too," says Hannie Steeman of Porsche Amsterdam, "but we don't know why. The only thing I can say is it that it's a really local thing. It's restricted to Amsterdam." Currently the most popular lights used for growing cannabis are high-pressure sodium bulbs, which produce the optimum intensity and lumens (a measure of visible light) for the plants to flourish. Lumens, explains Midnight Gardener, "are what get you the big tomatoes". He has 12 years' experience in the business, and the news has sparked his curiosity. "I'm going to have to do some research. Maybe these bulbs have a different intensity that's good for growers. I've actually got a Porsche Cayenne out the front. I might take one light off to try … it'll be winking for a few days."[/quote] [URL=http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/shortcuts/2012/dec/09/porsche-owners-beware-cannabis-growers]SOURCE[/URL]
If you drive a Cayenne you may as well have no headlights
This story isn't complete. All Porsche models but the Cayman and the Boxter MY2010 and up are getting their headlights removed. And it's true that it's in Amsterdam only. The headlights are turning op on online marketplaces for around 450 euro's, or 550 dollars. They're stealing them by applying a suction cup to the headlights, and then they just pull them out, breaking the relatively weak plastic holding clips. This weed story is pretty much just sensationalist, I haven't heard anything about it in the dutch news. Also, if you can sell a set of easy to steal headlights for 1100$ a pair, you don't have to grow weed.
[QUOTE=Pr0fane;38776758]Also, if you can sell a set of easy to steal headlights for 1100$ a pair, you don't have to grow weed.[/QUOTE] The people stealing these headlights aren't intending to sell the weed they grow.
All Mercedes-Benz cars have Xenon lights and I'm sure those are more common than Porsches. Not sure why this is specific to Porsche.
[quote] "Obviously there are other brands being stolen too," says Hannie Steeman of Porsche Amsterdam, "but we don't know why. The only thing I can say is it that it's a really local thing. It's restricted to Amsterdam."[/quote]
[QUOTE=Ultraleet;38777251]All Mercedes-Benz cars have Xenon lights and I'm sure those are more common than Porsches. Not sure why this is specific to Porsche.[/QUOTE] I'm guessing it's easier to steal them from a porsche, based on pr0fane's post
HID's are damned expensive. My auto store sells them for $100 and that's just that bulb itself. GG with the lamp assembly, ballasts, harness etc
[QUOTE=sHiBaN;38778018]HID's are damned expensive. My auto store sells them for $100 and that's just that bulb itself. GG with the lamp assembly, ballasts, harness etc[/QUOTE] Seriously dude? I buy mine at DDM Tuning for $30, that includes the lamp, ballast, and harnesses.
[QUOTE=Aetna;38778478]Seriously dude? I buy mine at DDM Tuning for $30, that includes the lamp, ballast, and harnesses.[/QUOTE] Are they quality kits? I can easily pick up some shoddy complete kit for that price that'll crap out after ½ year. It's the good one's that cost more than a decent beater, they're also worth it in the long run.
[QUOTE=Van-man;38780035]Are they quality kits? I can easily pick up some shoddy complete kit for that price that'll crap out after ½ year. It's the good one's that cost more than a decent beater, they're also worth it in the long run.[/QUOTE] I've run the SAME set of DDM tuning HID's for the past 2 years, I've simply transferred them from one car to the next. I had them in a 300zx, an NB Miata, and 2 BMW's, the latter I sold the kit with. They were still running strong at the time of sale.
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