Which cars get targeted most, and how to check yours

We get asked whether a particular model is “one of the ones they go for”. It is a fair question, but it is worth being careful about where the answer comes from.

A note on figures

You will find plenty of “most stolen cars” lists online. Many are recycled from old data, or from a single insurer’s claims, or from a press release with something to sell.

We are not going to publish numbers we cannot stand behind. For genuine data, go to:

• DVLA and Home Office statistics for vehicle crime, published nationally
• Your local police force’s data, which for most of our customers means Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Cheshire or Lancashire Police
• Thatcham Research, who assess security by model

Those will tell you more than we can, and they update.

What actually makes a car a target

More useful than a league table is understanding why a car gets picked, because that is what you can act on.

Parts demand. Some very ordinary cars are targeted heavily because there is a strong second hand market for their panels, lights and engines. Value to you and value to a thief are not the same thing.

A known weakness. If a particular model has a security flaw, that knowledge spreads through the people who exploit it. Manufacturers do patch these, but a car built before the fix stays vulnerable.

Keyless entry. Anything you can unlock and start with the key in your pocket can be relayed. That is the single biggest factor for most cars on the road today.

Ease of moving it on. Common models are easier to disguise and sell than rare ones.

What you can actually change

You cannot change what you drive, or what parts are worth. You can change these:

Where it sits overnight. Off the road, boxed in, away from an easy route out, and under a light if possible. Thieves want to be quick and unobserved.

Whether the key signal is reachable. A Faraday pouch, used properly, removes the easiest attack. We have written honestly about their limits.

Whether the car will actually move. This is the big one. A hidden immobiliser means it does not matter how they got in — the engine will not run without your code.

How much trouble it looks like. An alarm that reacts, rather than a sticker that does not, changes the sum. Almost every thief is weighing effort against reward. The moment your car looks like more work than the one down the road, most of them move on.

The local picture

We work across Liverpool, Manchester, Wirral, Cheshire and up into Lancashire, and the pattern we see is consistent with what you would expect: keyless cars taken off driveways overnight, quietly, with no damage.

What we do not see much of any more is the smashed window. That style of theft has largely gone, replaced by something that leaves no trace at all.

The practical answer

Rather than working out whether your model is on a list, ask a simpler question: can my car be started without my key?

If yes, it is worth protecting regardless of what the badge says. If no, your risks are different but not zero.

Send us the make, model and year and we will tell you honestly what it is exposed to — including when we think you do not need us.