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And more scarily, which ones do car thieves break into people’s houses when they are asleep and pinch to get to get EVEN FROM BEDROOMS WHEN YOU ARE ASLEEP?? 😳😳
Serious question. My wife had been working in car insurance investigations and it’s a real eye opener.
German cars I'd imagine.
In my local area, BMW’s are targeted for the i console thing. We have a large number of break ins, including my neighbour.
Golf Rs
Golf Rs
that was going to be my guess
Ford St or Rs can be stolen with the key. Audi Rs models especially the estates were a fav for a while
Audi A5 or A3 any models
Loads of abarths have gone. No key required as you can buy special barrel picks from eBay and an OBDII device to defeat the immobiliser. Takes seconds.
In this Part of Germany which is not far from the Polish border it’s T5/T6s and BMWs. Our old T5 got nicked a few years ago and I got a call from the Police in Austria telling me that they had found the engine from our old van in T5 from Slovakia in a random stop check one year later.
Mate of mine fought two guys off in his kitchen when the broke in demanding the keys to his BMW M5. They dragged him into the lounge & pushed him through a glass coffee table. He got up and had a go back, silly I know. They ran & he sold the car a week later. He'd only had it a month.
A guy I know's RS3 got pinched the first night he brought it home. Burglary for the key.
Was used in a bunch of shop/takeaway breakins that night.
Assumption was they pay someone in the dealer for addresses.
Not very GPDR
Lots of stories on forums of high powered Audi / Merc / BMW etc stolen with aggravated particularly estates / hatchbacks. I wouldn’t have a car like that for the security risks.
The clever thief would go for any electric or hybrid.
The elements in those batteries have to be worth a few bob, and no hassle selling on a car...
Transit van I reckon. For the likely contents, not the van.
Lexus and Toyota hybrids have been having their Cats cut out.
The cars not been knicked per-se, mighty annoying all the same.
Never have any worries about my Jag being nicked 😂
Golf R’s and Audi S/RS are all popular with scumbags; fast, discreet and capable of carrying multiple scumbags for armed robberies etc.
BMW M and Merc AMG are likely to be popular as are posh SUV’s like X5’s, Range Rivers etc. Read that classic Land Rovers are quite a target too.
But ultimately the bastards will prey much take anything; a Reliant Robin was stolen in our village.
Well it’s new Audi’s in particular that houses are being burgled for. Lots of stories of really distressed people having their homes broken into for keys.
And Range/Land rovers having keyless fobs cloned at a distance, lots of reports of people being followed home in already stolen cars so well planned in advance.
Lots of stories
Getting my disclaimer in early that one house getting burgled is one too many, but I'm sure it's still very unlikely the average Audi owner gets robbed with menaces, it's just that your wife get exposure to a significant number of those that do.
Golf R’s and Audi / Bmw fast estates
Locally there was a speifht of them steeling anything fun /fast for a joyride
But regardless of wetber it's with menace or sneak theft I'd rather not attract them to my house period.
Golf r does appear to be the current flavour of month.
Rs Audi's were getting stolen to be stripped of their interior. Cars were getting written off just for a pair of fron recaros.
A bloke I work with had two scumbags break into his house to get the keys for the fast Audi on his drive. They didn't get the car but did get a bit of a roughing up and arrested.
We were burgled recently and the glazier who boarded up our door mentioned that a lot of the houses he visits had been done for the Golf R on the drive.
Mate at work his house broken in to recently for the keys to his Dacia Logan and Skoda Citigo. They took both.
I quite fancied a Golf R or Leon Cupra 300 but quickly dismissed the idea due to the likelihood of our house getting broken in to.
Google says that Ford Focus and Fiesta are the most stolen cars in the UK based on a Freedom of Information request to police forces. Meanwhile, Tracker figures thrown into the media cage at feeding time, suggest that of posh cars fitted with Trackers, it's Range Rovers and various BMW and Merc saloons. The most stolen Tracker car was the BMW X5, presumably as the 'best' of both worlds.
The break-in thing happens because modern cars are much harder to steal without a key than they used to be. Except for opportunist ones which happen because someone's broken in and stolen the keys along with anything else they can find.
Personally I'd get a car with crap security - see Fords above - or a car that no-one wants to steal. A mate of mine was broken into for his Merc keys. He replaced it with the dullest, most underpowered Volvo diesel estate imaginable.
Neighbour was broken into a couple of years ago and it was thought they were after the keys to his new Golf GTDI. They were disturbed and scarpered but he had his keys upstairs in his bedroom. The advice from the police was to leave the keys downstairs in plain sight so anyone breaking in for the keys can just take them...cars can be replaced, that's what insurance is for. The last thing you want is to be woken up in the middle of the night by some masked thugs threatening you looking for your keys.
Not an area known for break in's and burglary so it was a targeted effort.Plenty of other nice cars on the other neighbours drives but they specifically wanted the GTDI. He put up a security light and better locks on his doors and not had a problem since.
Seen 3 different BMW X5's up on blocks with no wheels over the last few months, I thought that was a thing of the past...
I have heard though that on BMW if you press
the lock button multiple times it turns off the tilt sensor for ferries etc so I guess they're taking a punt on people being over enthusiastic with the lock button.
My defender now has pedal box fitted, steering wheel disclock, and a London triangle wheel clamp. Oh, and a gps tracker for good measure. Even then I’m not completely confident it won’t go, but at least they’ll have to work for it!!😂
I have heard though that on BMW if you press
the lock button multiple times it turns off the tilt sensor for ferries etc
This is the case for most cars. Hit the lock button a second time and the motion/tilt sensors and deadlocks are disabled. VAG cars seem to have a little button inside too.
From the number of dogs I see in the boot with the alarm going off, many people seem unaware.
Love a good scare story.
How many actual break ins and cars stolen are just because they keys were in view? How many people have actually been threatened to hand there keys over?
Love a good scare story.
How many actual break ins and cars stolen are just because they keys were in view? How many people have actually been threatened to hand there keys over?
Be interesting to see the numbers but houses being broke into for car keys isn’t that new and if you wonder why the car doors lock when you drive off 🙂
Keys wouldn’t be in view,break some glass ferret around for keys an drive away, less possible confrontation and less car stealing skilz required.
Some people aren’t overly concerned with breaking into houses.
Seen 3 different BMW X5’s up on blocks with no wheels over the last few months, I thought that was a thing of the past…
TBH if your leaving 3-5k worth of easily saleable wheels someone will always figure a way to do it.
The advice from the police was to leave the keys downstairs in plain sight so anyone breaking in for the keys can just take them…cars can be replaced, that’s what insurance is for.
Ours are in the hall not far from the front door. It took a while to train my wife not to leave them in her handbag and take it upstairs next to the bed. I’d much rather someone came in, got keys and left rather than finding us and the dog first.
I have heard though that on BMW if you press
the lock button multiple times it turns off the tilt sensor for ferries etc
We have a compound at work where we keep all the Enterprise cars that we store until they’re sold, those only come in with one key, (although you’d be surprised at just how many Motability cars only have one key...), and the key is locked into a metal box that hangs on the driver’s window, after the car is locked. There is one particular make that unlocks as soon as you try the door handle with the key in the box...
Conversely, Renault Kadjar are prone to refusing to open if the key battery goes flat, even using the emergency key hasn’t worked - we’ve had to get the AA/RAC in twice for Kadjar that wouldn’t open.
How many actual break ins and cars stolen are just because they keys were in view? How many people have actually been threatened to hand there keys over?
My estate was done over back in April, as in all the houses! It has a decent amount of people who have lease Mercs, BMW's and Audi/VW's. Three Golf R's, at least 6 Mercs with decent power outputs, over 10 BMW's including 2 M cars and a Mustang all gone in one night! They were back 6 weeks later for the replacements too. One family who had their 2 Merc Estates stolen both times now have a beater Merc estate and a Honda SUV, both cost less than a grand each. None of the other cars on the estate were touched. Other areas of Cardiff were done the same night the second time.
No way would I have one of those cars, seems to be not if but when will it be stolen.
Edited to add most were taken using laptops to read the keys and start the cars, only one or two houses were broken in to. One of the reasons I don't like 'keyless' start and unlock.