Warning to all late Range Rover owners.

Warning to all late Range Rover owners.

Author
Discussion

Eleven

Original Poster:

26,271 posts

221 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
quotequote all
Hi All

If you own a later Range Rover please read the following.

Mine was stolen at the end of last year, the thieves were caught after a series of identical thefts and were sentenced this week. The police have now told me a bit more about the modus operandi of the criminals involved.

It seems that the vehicles were most probably being stolen to be shipped to Africa in containers in one piece for resale, the thieves were Lithuanian and suspected to be part of a bigger network.

The cars were accessed via the sunroof and the thieves had with them a piece of kit that is available to buy on the Internet for a few thousand Euro. This allowed them to start the vehicles without the original keys. The police tested the equipment on the current model Range Rover and the previous, both were started within 10 seconds.

When mine was stolen Land Rover contacted me to tell me that they don't have a problem with security. However, the tone of the conversation suggested that they knew otherwise. I am told by the police that there has been a security upgrade, however it is understood that owners have not been proactively contacted about it.

I asked the officer in charge what measures he would take to prevent future thefts and he said, "buy a crook lock", and he wasn't joking.

So, in summary, it appears that there is a waiting market for late Range Rovers abroad. The criminals have worked out how to steal them and whilst some of them have been taken out of action there will be others with the knowledge and equipment necessary to continue this activity. Land Rover is aware of the problem and has, I am told, got a fix which they are not proactively installing on customer cars. Mechanical means of theft prevention are suggested.







hilly10

7,067 posts

227 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
quotequote all
These thieving scumbag east Europeans get everywhere. If there is a scam its always them.

S0 What

3,358 posts

171 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
quotequote all
The theft and export of 4X4s AND commercials had been ongoimng for like 30 years, they ehave dedicated teams on the docks for this very occurance, as to the tool they used, check out the spate of BMW thefts occuring over the last 2-3 years and then let the dealer tell you they dont have a problem!!
The tool used will be of factory origen or copyed from a stolen fatory tool.

Uncle John

4,257 posts

190 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
quotequote all
It seems with the advent of keyless entry and ease of access to the ODB port that many modern cars are at risk. This is a problem with Focus RS's and of course the now notorious BMW issue.

Any desirable high value car that is "ordered" from abroad is at risk.


Edit to add that on the Focus RS owners club the perceived wisdom was to buy a disklok, a visual deterrent to get the crooks to walk on.

Edited by Uncle John on Thursday 17th April 17:00

audidoody

8,595 posts

255 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2014
quotequote all
The house was broken into in May 2012 to get the keys to our Merc E-Class (never recovered). We now put a steering lock on the (replacement) car EVERY night. I don't kid myself this is fool-proof, but I am sure that it will disrupt the scum's well-rehearsed modus operandi and cause them to pause and consider going elsewhere

blueSL

597 posts

225 months

Saturday 26th April 2014
quotequote all
@W12JFD - FWIW, cruise is retro-fittable and if the UK dealer says it's not, take it to the dealership opposite the factory in Zuffenhausen. Rather more expensive than spec'ing as an option but do-able.

Eleven

Original Poster:

26,271 posts

221 months

Saturday 26th April 2014
quotequote all
blueSL said:
@W12JFD - FWIW, cruise is retro-fittable and if the UK dealer says it's not, take it to the dealership opposite the factory in Zuffenhausen. Rather more expensive than spec'ing as an option but do-able.
Wrong thread?

cayman-black

12,602 posts

215 months

Sunday 27th April 2014
quotequote all
blueSL said:
@W12JFD - FWIW, cruise is retro-fittable and if the UK dealer says it's not, take it to the dealership opposite the factory in Zuffenhausen. Rather more expensive than spec'ing as an option but do-able.
Is that the land rover dealer facing the Porsche Factory?