Our father is 94 was told several years ago to stop driving. Our mother and other family members refuse to intervene even though he can no longer make phones calls, fix a sandwich, etc. We children have taken the vehicle but he managed to reclaim it, doctors reported him to bureau of motor vehicles but all to no avail. What to do?
Asking who is POA might not work either, as some people don't have this set up (there are those who refuse to assign a POA, thinking they will be losing all control as soon as they sign it, even though it doesn't kick in until they are not capable!)
What I'm saying is that if you can replace your dad's driving for your mom, this may make solving this problem a little easier if you get one of the enablers appeased. Good luck!
I skimmed through, lots of good advice but some not so good advice on disabling a car.
The car will have to be moved and sold at some point. I don’t advise pulling spark plug and distributor cables. Newer cars don’t have distributors and it’s very easy to get the plug wires mixed up when you try to put them back. Don’t let the air out of the tires either, PIA to get them pumped back up. Removing the battery can be quite a job also. Not necessary.
Easiest way to disable a car:
Find the fuse/relay box under the hood or drivers side under dash. Small black box.
Get the cover off. Usually just snaps off. I need my glasses and a flashlight for this.
You will see different colors of fuses and larger cube like gizmos, these are relays. They just plug in.
Look on the underside of the fuse box lid. There will be an index. Find the one that says STARTER, START SYSTEM, or some such description.
Pull this out. Put it in your pocket or hide in a safe place where grandad won’t find it.
When he tries to start the car it’s dead. No click, no nothing.
you tell him you’ll get it towed. After bedtime, plug in relay, drive car away.
In my dads case I also called the repair shop my dad used and the dealer and clued them in as to what was going on in case dad had the wherewithal to try to get the car fixed or towed.