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Once again BMW’s X5 has the dubious honour of being the most stolen and recovered car in the UK according to figures just released by Tracker for 2014. This makes it six years in a row for the X5 model. With 3 of the top 5 most stolen and recovered cars being 4 x 4’s any motor trade dealer is going to notice a difference in their insurance premium come renewal.
With the average value of a stolen and recovered car increasing to £25,600 from £23,600 in 2013 and a total of £11 million worth of cars recovered it can clearly be seen that organised crime targets the high end of the market with the complete top 10 cars being prestige models.
Here is Tracker’s complete top 10 most stolen and recovered list for 2014
1. BMW X5
2. Mercedes C Class
3. Range Rover Sport
4. Mercedes Benz E Class
5. Land Rover Discovery
6. BMW M3
7. Range Rover Vogue
8. Audi RS4
9. Mercedes Benz ML
10. Mercedes Benz C63
Looking at the list it can be clearly seen that the luxury end of the car market is the clear target for car thieves but from the average value figure being only £25,600 there is no preference to the age of the car stolen, make and model are the obvious priority. How these cars are being stolen should also be taken into account when considering car security as there has been a rise in the theft of keyless security systems over the past few years.
Police liason at Tracker, Andy Barrs, said “Interestingly, the number of vehicles that are being stolen without keys has steadily risen over the last few years, accounting for 43% in 2014. We believe this is down to the growth in car hacking where criminals target keyless vehicles by bypassing their security systems, using technology they’ve bought on the internet.
“Indeed, experts such as Thatcham Research have warned that as keyless security systems become commonplace in cars, the skills to bypass these will be widely practiced by most criminals and in turn, lower value keyless vehicles will be equally at risk. We recommend that car owners invest in an added layer of security by using tracking devices that harness the latest technology”
For car dealers in the luxury end of the market, these figures always have an impact on motor trade insurance premiums and now all dealers should think about speaking to specialized motor traders insurance brokers such as eQuotedirect Insurance who offer customized policies for each individual motor trade business that absolutely match the requirements of any dealer and consequently pass on big savings over standardized “blanket cover” traders insurance policies.
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