There’s now a great excuse for owning an uncool car. It seems even car thieves have standards – they’re far less likely to target your vehicle if it’s deemed “cheap, with no power and no street cred”.
That’s the verdict of security expert and ex-burglar Michael Fraser, commenting on the recent survey by car insurance comparison site, Confused.com.
Analysing its data from 2006 to the present, Confused.com found that the Ford Ka was the least stolen vehicle of all – less than one in 5,000.
In contrast, one in every 256 VW Touaregs was targeted. And there’s bad news for Toyota Yaris owners – this little city runabout was the most frequently pinched (one in every 244 lost to thieves). The Yaris does seem to buck the trend though – most of the other vehicles at the top of thieves’ wish lists are big and desirable, such as the Porsche 911 and Range Rover Sport.
Is your car a steal?
Overall these findings back up a theory I’ve had for many years. It started when I was so enthusiastic to get to an inner London music concert that, not only did I leave my car unlocked, I left the keys in the ignition. Thankfully for me the car in question was a beaten up Triumph Toledo (not even the more desirable Dolomite), and when I returned seven hours later, both the car and key were still there.
Realising how good it was to have a car nobody else wanted, I stuck with this form of car security – and chose a stream of ugly duckling motors. Morris Marina, Renault 4, Citroen 2CV and my current motor, a little Renault Modus mini-MPV, which is never noticed by thieves as it waits at the train station every day.
So do you choose your car because it has street cred? Or would you consider buying an uncool car so you can be more confident that it wont’ be lost to thieves?