Is my car at risk of keyless theft? How to check

People ask us this on the phone every week, and there is a test you can do in your driveway right now that answers it.

The thirty second test

Take your key. Put it in your pocket, or better still leave it in the house. Walk up to your car and try the door handle.

If the car unlocks without you pressing anything, it can be relayed.

That is genuinely all there is to it. If the car recognises the key from a distance, so can a relay device, and a relay device can carry that signal a great deal further than you can walk.

Try the same with the start button. If the engine fires with the key still in your pocket, then anyone who can get the doors open can also drive it away.

Roughly which cars this covers

Keyless entry started appearing on premium cars in the mid 2000s and had spread through most of the market by the mid 2010s. As a rough guide:

• Almost certainly at risk: anything with keyless entry and a start button, made from about 2015 onwards
• Probably at risk: cars from roughly 2010 to 2015 with comfort access or keyless go as an option
• Not at risk from relay specifically: older cars where you physically put a key in a barrel and turn it

That last group is not automatically safe, it just faces different methods. Older cars get taken by different means, and a hidden immobiliser is still worth having.

What makes a car more attractive to a thief

It is not only about value. Cars get targeted because they are easy to move on, easy to break for parts, or easy to take quickly.

Parts demand. Some very ordinary cars are targeted heavily because there is a strong second hand market for their panels, lights and engines.

Predictable security. If a model is known to have a particular weakness, that knowledge spreads quickly.

Where it sits overnight. A car on an open driveway, close to the road, near a main route out of the area, is a softer target than one boxed in behind other vehicles.

Whether it is worth the trouble. This is the one you can change. Almost every thief is weighing effort against reward, and the moment your car looks like more work than the next one, most of them move on.

Vans are a separate problem

If you drive a van, the calculation is different. The vehicle matters, but often what is inside it matters more. A van full of tools is a target regardless of what the badge on the front says, and thieves know exactly which models have weak spots on the load doors.

Van security usually means protecting the load area as well as stopping the vehicle being driven off.

What to do about it

If the test above tells you your car can be relayed, you have three practical options, and they stack.

1. A Faraday pouch tonight. Cheap, immediate, and better than nothing. It relies on everyone in the house using it every time.
2. A hidden immobiliser. An Autowatch Ghost means the car will not start without your code, even with your genuine key in the thief’s hand. This is the one that actually keeps it on the drive.
3. An alarm that tells you. A Pandora system buzzes your phone the second anything happens, so you find out while it is happening.

Ask us about your specific car

Send us the make, model and year and we will tell you honestly what it is exposed to and what it needs. If the answer is that your car is at low risk and you would be wasting your money, we will say so. We would rather tell you that than take it.