[johnny gaijin]

i'm a little overwhelmed with the rigger/hacker rules and am trying to figure out what skills/tests would be needed to boost a vehicle.

[Dakka]

Like many problems in shadowrun this one has multiple solutions.  There are those that say the easiest thing to do is use Spoof with a valid AcessID to tell the car to unlock the doors, and then to drive (or switch to manual operation).  Depending on the make of the car (read GM's prerogative) you can use an autopicker and the Locksmith Locksmith or Hardware for maglocks to get passed the door, and then Hardware to disable the alarm, the Pilot node, and put the car in manual operation.  Privatized police and security forces make this route more difficult as the alarm will most likely alert someone somewhere if they are watching.  If you are looking for a more "permanent" ride and not a quick get away car then Hacking is probably your best bet.  You bypass the firewall with a fake Admin account and then use your Edit progam.  A lot.  Delete the pilot, delete the system software, delete anything and everything on the node and install a new fresh OS and Pilot, pay for a Spoof Chip (Arsenal P.105) and a custom paint job.  The original owner of the car would have a hard time finding it. 

[Kontact]

Seems like they'd make keying in require multiple simultaneous authentication of some sort so that you couldn't just grab someone's ID and then steal their car.  If it was already running, you could use their ID to spoof the car, but that's of limited use.  Hacking in would probably necessitate busting several nodes to make sure that there weren't any incongruous readings from various info-gathering subsystems, at least on any car with grid-guide capability or an anti-theft system.

It should be exponentially more difficult to nick the higher-end autos with fancy stats.. 

[Dahrken]

If you are looking for a more "permanent" ride and not a quick get away car then Hacking is probably your best bet.  You bypass the firewall with a fake Admin account and then use your Edit progam.  A lot.  Delete the pilot, delete the system software, delete anything and everything on the node and install a new fresh OS and Pilot, pay for a Spoof Chip (Arsenal P.105) and a custom paint job.  The original owner of the car would have a hard time finding it.

You are likely to need to hunt and reprogram several stealth tags carrying the car's ID (for anti-theft purpose) and possibly a bunch of standard tags on multiple organs of the car carrying ID for the part for inventory, manufacturing and traceability purpose ("part serial number XXX should be preventively replaced due to manufacturing defect"), because those too can be flagged as stolen.

[The_Gun_Nut]

Seems like they'd make keying in require multiple simultaneous authentication of some sort so that you couldn't just grab someone's ID and then steal their car.  If it was already running, you could use their ID to spoof the car, but that's of limited use.  Hacking in would probably necessitate busting several nodes to make sure that there weren't any incongruous readings from various info-gathering subsystems, at least on any car with grid-guide capability or an anti-theft system.

It should be exponentially more difficult to nick the higher-end autos with fancy stats..

This would be true for the really high-end vehicles or the security conscious.  But given the apathy that the typical person gives to security (whether in SR or IRL), combined with the U.S. gov's prohibition against private persons owning and utilizing encryption software keeps security on the low end, even for the more expensive vehicles (just not the really high end ones).

[Kontact]

Encrypt is a Common prog, not a Hacking prog. 

IRL, even your bluetooth headset uses SSL encryption. (technically TSL...)

[The_Gun_Nut]

It's an illegal prog IRL.