A new car not desirable to thieves - london

[swanseaboydan]

My brother had his Audi A6 stolen last night in East Finchley- london. I’m amazed, not exactly the type of car they usually go for apparently. ( i imagine they used it to cruise around in whilst looking for range rovers to pinch )
He wants to replace it with a 4 x 4 used car up to 15k but ideally a car that car theieves don’t target and therefore has lower insurance. Any ideas ? Needs to be automatic. I was thinking of a used Volvo xc60 - that sort of this. Maybe an Audi q5.
Anyone know which cars are cheaper to insure?
Thanks
Dan

[A500leroy]

They tend to avoid 3 doors

[alscar]

Based on those two choices I would make an educated guess that it will be the Volvo that’s cheaper to insure but unfortunately with that very recent theft claim neither will probably be that cheap !

[Pebbles167]

Ssangyong Rexton

You can get a late facelift first gen one cheap, they look and drive alright since they are based on a Merc M class.

Hardly desirable though, doubt anyone would nick it.

[Ryyy]

I would have thought any of the vag/german/premium range would be desirable to thieves. I think antara,sandero,crv,qashqai,tucson would be well under their radar.

[V 02]

Fords, VAG’s, Koreans and the Nissan Qashqai are all attractive to thieves. As is anything with keyless entry.


I would be leaning towards a Honda, Peugeot/Citroen or aVauxhall. A Toyota hybrid would be a good choice if you can get them catlocked.

If you street park your car, a steering wheel lock is a good extra deterrent.

[ChocolateFrog]

Wonder how much colour plays a part in the thieves choice.

Would they be less likely to nick a car in a bright or rare colour.

Most people wouldn't spot a silver Audi if it was the only car on the street.

[BikeSausage]

Re the Volvo option, why an XC60 after coming from an estate? Why not a V60 or V90? Both available with 4WD.

I have a 2022 V90 Cross Country, probably a £65k car at the time. It’s often accompanied on the drive by my Alpina B5 Touring, worth more. I live on a long urban road with plenty of RRS, RRSSs, and the usual flocks of SUVs. The road’s WhatsApp group reports many actual and attempted car thefts per week and they are nearly always SUVs, majority black and majority RR / Defender brand followed by German SUVs.

My cars have never knowingly been targeted (I have cameras), despite the financial cost being similar to high end SUVs. I just think they’re not as nickable as SUVs which is fine by me. Thieves are shallow and generally follow fashion based on what their clients want, and SUVs are “fashion”.

Whilst we should all buy the nice stuff we want, if you’re worried about theft, buying something less attractive could be wiser, in this case.

Edited by BikeSausage on Monday 6th November 13:31

[Filibuster]

One of those Renault SUV thingys. Kadjar or Koleos. No Idea how much they are or what they cost to insure and I can'r be arsed to look it up.
This complete lack of interest in them is exactly what deters thieves the most. And yes, preferably in burgundy or any other colour that is actually a colour.

[MustangGT]

Octavia Scout, as good as an A4 Allroad, but under the radar.

[Filibuster]

BikeSausage said:

Re the Volvo option, why an XC60 after coming from an estate? Why not a V60 or V90? Both available with 4WD.

I have a 2022 V90 Cross Country, probably a £65k car at the time. It’s often accompanied on the drive by my Alpina B5 Touring, worth more. I live on a long urban road with plenty of RRS, RRSSs, and the usual flocks of SUVs. The road’s WhatsApp group reports many actual and attempted car thefts per week and they are nearly always SUVs, majority black and majority RR / Defender brand followed by German SUVs.

My cars have never knowingly been targeted (I have cameras), despite the financial cost being similar to high end SUVs. I just think they’re not as nickable as SUVs which is fine by me. Thieves are shallow and generally follow fashion based on what their clients want, and SUVs are “fashion”.

Whilst we should all buy the nice stuff we want, if you’re worried about theft, buying something less attractive could be wiser, in this case.

Edited by BikeSausage on Monday 6th November 13:31

These do look smart indeed!

BTW, nice garage you have. One question tough: I thought the 992 came in manual form only on the S (or the T) but not on the base C2/4. Typo?

[BikeSausage]

Filibuster said:

BikeSausage said:

Re the Volvo option, why an XC60 after coming from an estate? Why not a V60 or V90? Both available with 4WD.

I have a 2022 V90 Cross Country, probably a £65k car at the time. It’s often accompanied on the drive by my Alpina B5 Touring, worth more. I live on a long urban road with plenty of RRS, RRSSs, and the usual flocks of SUVs. The road’s WhatsApp group reports many actual and attempted car thefts per week and they are nearly always SUVs, majority black and majority RR / Defender brand followed by German SUVs.

My cars have never knowingly been targeted (I have cameras), despite the financial cost being similar to high end SUVs. I just think they’re not as nickable as SUVs which is fine by me. Thieves are shallow and generally follow fashion based on what their clients want, and SUVs are “fashion”.

Whilst we should all buy the nice stuff we want, if you’re worried about theft, buying something less attractive could be wiser, in this case.

Edited by BikeSausage on Monday 6th November 13:31

These do look smart indeed!

BTW, nice garage you have. One question tough: I thought the 992 came in manual form only on the S (or the T) but not on the base C2/4. Typo?

Thanks. Typo, been meaning to change it for a while. I wish it was the base though, the S is too fast for the road!

[swanseaboydan]

Thanks for all the replies - very helpful

[Silvanus]

Dacia Duster or a Jogger.

[AC43]

BikeSausage said:

Re the Volvo option, why an XC60 after coming from an estate? Why not a V60 or V90? Both available with 4WD.

I have a 2022 V90 Cross Country, probably a £65k car at the time. It’s often accompanied on the drive by my Alpina B5 Touring, worth more. I live on a long urban road with plenty of RRS, RRSSs, and the usual flocks of SUVs. The road’s WhatsApp group reports many actual and attempted car thefts per week and they are nearly always SUVs, majority black and majority RR / Defender brand followed by German SUVs.

My cars have never knowingly been targeted (I have cameras), despite the financial cost being similar to high end SUVs. I just think they’re not as nickable as SUVs which is fine by me. Thieves are shallow and generally follow fashion based on what their clients want, and SUVs are “fashion”.

Whilst we should all buy the nice stuff we want, if you’re worried about theft, buying something less attractive could be wiser, in this case.

Edited by BikeSausage on Monday 6th November 13:31

Three vehicles have been targeted on my street; two SUVs and one car. The first SUV was one of the Lexus ones; it had keyless go and was stolen off the drive. The second one was a Range Rover - holes cut in the roof and tailgate either looking for a tracker or, more likely, for a place to plug in the thing that can instruct it to open the doors and start the engine. The car was an XFR, again keyless. They opened it and rummaged around in it. The owner's mystifed as he has lead pouch for the keys for that reason.

On the street I used to live on, my neighbour got so sick of his RRs getting targeted (several attempts, two stolen, one recovered) and the spiralling insurance bills that he bought a Toureg. Hi theory is that it's considerably less attractive to the thieves.

[ZX10R NIN]

Infiniti QX70:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202307250...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202309041...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202310062...

Or the smaller QX50:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202309202...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202303034...

Ford Edge Titanium:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202311023...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202308050...

All are ULEZ compliant.

Edited by ZX10R NIN on Monday 6th November 20:25

[Scrump]

Suzuki X-90 Automatic meets all your stated criteria.

[Crumpet]

I guess it needs to be ULEZ compliant?

Shame as that rules out the Freelander 2. In high spec it’s a great car and the thieves have zero interest in them at all - I know this first hand as they kept coming for my other car but never paid any interest to the FL!

[braddo]

You need a car with a physical metal key. Porsche Cayenne up to about 2010 (i.e. 955 model and the 957 facelift). No chance of theft through OBD ports or keyless entry.

Petrol, ULEZ compliant.

If you're able to find theft statistics they're going to be very low.

[Filibuster]

Crumpet said:

I guess it needs to be ULEZ compliant?

Shame as that rules out the Freelander 2. In high spec it’s a great car and the thieves have zero interest in them at all - I know this first hand as they kept coming for my other car but never paid any interest to the FL!

All petrol Freelander 2 (i6 and Si4) are Euro 5 and thus ULEZ compliant.