Why is it so common to see shift knobs missing on cars for sale? Is it to prevent theft or to show the interior more open??? It seems like an abnormally high amount of cars for sale have the shift knob missing when the pictures were taken for the ads and I can't for the life of me figure out why.

 

i've never seen one without it.

 

Yeah if someone knows please share. I have seen a lot of cars like that.

 

so the knobs don't get stolen over night or during a test drive.

 

its mostly on brand new cars right? my guess is that it is just to emphasize that it hasn't been used yet and is brand spanking new... only few ways to show and emphasize this.

i just can't think of any other reason.

 

mostly used cars, i havent seen any new cars without them.

 

then my guess is wrong. only time i've seen this is on the brand new cars at the Chicago Auto Shows...

so then maybe you are right, so that they don't get stolen...among many other things tho...

 

oh yeah that right, every single car show i go to they take it off on the new cars. also not to get stolen during the show since most cars you can sit down without anyone over your shoulder.

 

i know they do this at shows to prevent theft

 

Are these stick or auto? I don't get how removing the shift knob would really do much

Edit: now I'm the dumb one. Theft of the knob not the car

 

I know that just about any car in the dealer auction that has a knob or anything in the car that can be removed is usually either stolen by someone in the auction or the owner of the vehicle holds on to it and gives it to the person who buys the car. It's ridiculous what kind of corruption there is with the employees at the auctions...

 

Observe the comments on the bottom left:

 

I've only seen this at car shows. I've unscrewed a few knobs myself at car shows, but I just screw them back on because a)they're not mine to take and b) what would I do with a shift knob from a suzuki? lol

 

Both.

 

I've only seen it at car shows. Never on a lot.

 

x 5 (?), and that is for the manual shift cars only-- I thought it was to deter spectators from dry-shifting the cars at the car show.

 

Looking through autotrader and ebay there are a lot of cars, automatics, that have the missing shift knob. Sad if it's only done to prevent theft, seriously, its a shift knob!

 

Saw that just an hour ago at a Honda dealership. Knob missing on a 2009 Civic Si in the showroom....undoubtedly to prevent five finger discounts.

 

Here, they are removed because things get stolen at the auction house.....

 

i have seen a ton of these on the net like this and also wondered

 

When I bought my S2000 and my Si, the dealer had to put the knob on when I took delivery of the cars. Both were brand new. As said before, that was done to prevent the 5 finger discount.

 

it's always nice to buy from manufacturer sales because they give you the knob, second key and all the books after the sale so there is no chance of it being stolen.

I was selling an RX330 at a manheim auction a couple of years ago and someone stole the window moldings from the rear windows. I was so pissed....

Nav cd's always need to be taken out as well or they will def be stolen.