Monday 22nd January 2024

DVLA records notable decline in Range Rover thefts

Land Rover's £10m investment in security updates appears to have paid off...

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Motorsport results aside, it is unusual for carmakers to issue press releases on Sundays - but Land Rover was sufficiently moved by a recent freedom of information request relating to stolen car figures that it made a point of sharing the DVLA data itself. Its reasoning was simple enough: despite appearing three times in the UK’s top ten most stolen cars of 2023, the numbers suggested that across its four Range Rover branded models, the official reckoning recorded a 20 per cent decline in thefts. 

Even more conveniently for Land Rover, the largest falls were recorded by the big ticket cars: thefts of the Range Rover Sport and the flagship Range Rover dropping by 28.6 and 27.2 per cent in the last 12 months. Significantly, the latter didn’t even make it into the top ten. And while 1,631 examples of the Range Rover Sport were still taken - making it the fifth most stolen model in the UK, narrowly ahead of the Evoque in sixth  - Land Rover is clearly pleased that the £10m investment it pledged last year to updating the security features of ‘more than 75,000 older client vehicles’ has seemingly paid off. 

“The rapid decline in Range Rover thefts in the last year, demonstrates the strength of our latest vehicle security measures,” said Patrick McGillycuddy, JLR’s UK Managing Director. “These significant reductions are a result of engineering our new vehicles to be robust against all known theft methods through the latest anti-theft technology, endorsed by third-party experts like Thatcham. In fact, our latest data shows that only ten out of 12,200 of the latest model of Range Rovers have been stolen since January 2022.”

Plainly there is still work to do - not least because 954 reported thefts of the Discovery Sport were a 15.2 per cent rise compared to 2022 and saw it finish 10th on the list - but Land Rover insists that the rollout of updates will continue nationwide, and suggests that there have been ‘zero’ reported thefts of any JLR vehicle using the widely reported key signal ‘relay’ method since it introduced Ultra-Wide Band tech to its cars in 2018. 

The number of Range Rovers stolen became a hot-button issue for the manufacturer early last year when it was claimed that some owners living in London were struggling to find affordable insurance for the flagship model after DVLA figures revealed it was the second most taken vehicle after the Ford Fiesta in 2022 (which again tops the list in 2023, owing mostly to its ubiquity on British roads). 

Alongside the drop in recorded theft prompted by improved security measures, Land Rover can point to the re-introduction of a JLR branded insurance scheme last October aimed at helping its customers find a suitable policy, and McGillycuddy reports the firm is “also funding hundreds of thousands of pounds on additional policing to tackle the root causes - by stopping the flow of stolen cars in and out the country, to benefit all UK drivers”. Apparently, we need the help: globally, between 2021 and 2022, vehicle thefts were said to have increased by 59 per cent across all manufacturers. 

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• JLR reaffirms 'commitment to vehicle security'
• JLR 'helps alleviate' Range Rover insurance issue

[FlukePlay]

Still not good enough. The target is zero thefts as result of manufacturers substantially increasing anti theft measures and society/our legal system educating against and deterring from criminal activity.

[Bobtherallyfan]

I’m still trying to get my head around how a company can think a %drop in theft is something to publicise and self congratulate themselves about. The facts are that they still produced three of the most stolen models in the UK, despite them selling in relatively small numbers. Surely the theft table should actually be rated in thefts per car sold.

[vikingaero]

There's a level of fanboiism for JLR on PH. Sure there aren't many competitors for the level of luxury and off-road performance (which many will never use), but many tout Britishness and UK jobs as the most important thing in the universe and conveniently forget the poor quality or customer service of zero.

[PSB1967]

We had our non LR 4X4 broken into at Birmingham airport, car park 4 in the first week of January, in an attempt to steal it. While waiting recovery, we were chatting to duty police officers who said LR products in that car park were almost certain to be stolen or have bits nicked off them, while parked there. Thirteen had been attacked in the previous week alone from that car park, with thieves partial to taking parts off the new Defender, or taking RR's outright. They seemed to think that current LR security was as effective as car security was in the early 1990's. So I guess LR seriously need to up their game.

[ducnick]

I heard from a friend who was attempting to insure his FFRR that JLR insurance are now declining quotes on certain JLR vehicles such as his vogue SE.
I suspect it will take a considerable time for the reduction in thefts to filter through to lower insurace premiums.

[Louis Balfour]

PSB1967 said:

We had our non LR 4X4 broken into at Birmingham airport, car park 4 in the first week of January, in an attempt to steal it. While waiting recovery, we were chatting to duty police officers who said LR products in that car park were almost certain to be stolen or have bits nicked off them, while parked there. Thirteen had been attacked in the previous week alone from that car park, with thieves partial to taking parts off the new Defender, or taking RR's outright. They seemed to think that current LR security was as effective as car security was in the early 1990's. So I guess LR seriously need to up their game.

Which car park was this?

[Watcher of the skies]

FlukePlay said:

Still not good enough. The target is zero thefts as result of manufacturers substantially increasing anti theft measures and society/our legal system educating against and deterring from criminal activity.

That's not realistic. They are expensive, desirable cars. Sadly criminals will always find a way.

[Yellowfez]

It recently become a lot harder to export the stolen ones and the parts demands are lower too, that’s the only reason

[_Rodders_]

Bobtherallyfan said:

I’m still trying to get my head around how a company can think a %drop in theft is something to publicise and self congratulate themselves about. The facts are that they still produced three of the most stolen models in the UK, despite them selling in relatively small numbers. Surely the theft table should actually be rated in thefts per car sold.

I thought the numbers were going to be something like a 90% reduction.

No, they're crowing about a 20% reduction, quite incredible.

[_Rodders_]

Louis Balfour said:

PSB1967 said:

We had our non LR 4X4 broken into at Birmingham airport, car park 4 in the first week of January, in an attempt to steal it. While waiting recovery, we were chatting to duty police officers who said LR products in that car park were almost certain to be stolen or have bits nicked off them, while parked there. Thirteen had been attacked in the previous week alone from that car park, with thieves partial to taking parts off the new Defender, or taking RR's outright. They seemed to think that current LR security was as effective as car security was in the early 1990's. So I guess LR seriously need to up their game.

Which car park was this?

I'm going to guess Car Park 4

[BigChiefmuffinAgain]

Bobtherallyfan said:

I’m still trying to get my head around how a company can think a %drop in theft is something to publicise and self congratulate themselves about. The facts are that they still produced three of the most stolen models in the UK, despite them selling in relatively small numbers. Surely the theft table should actually be rated in thefts per car sold.

+1 - the numbers should report the chances of your car being stolen if you own a certain make. Given the relatively small sales of Land Rovers, I suspect it is quite high. The insurers will look at things this way, and the very high insurance costs on these says it all.....

[Jader1973]

ducnick said:

I heard from a friend who was attempting to insure his FFRR that JLR insurance are now declining quotes on certain JLR vehicles such as his vogue SE.
I suspect it will take a considerable time for the reduction in thefts to filter through to lower insurace premiums.

Eh? Their own captive insurance is refusing to insure their own products?

That is nuts.

[andy43]

Lexus UK - are you reading this?
Can you imagine Lexus being customer service shamed by Land Rover?
RX in the top ten most stolen, NX and UX in the French charts, wheelarch canbus theft is now a worldwide Lexus and Toyota problem.

Example of a Lexus gone in 60 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0P4tVT7PRg

And here’s a seller demonstrating the sub-£2000 kit needed on YouTube!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMdfgYi09_w

[FlukePlay]

Watcher of the skies said:

FlukePlay said:

Still not good enough. The target is zero thefts as result of manufacturers substantially increasing anti theft measures and society/our legal system educating against and deterring from criminal activity.

That's not realistic. They are expensive, desirable cars. Sadly criminals will always find a way.

Why is it unrealistic? What's wrong with having a mechanical lock/device to disable the accelerator pedal? Why not include a 4 digit PIN to start your engine or other digital security feature? Why not increase the penalty for car theft to an immediate 3 years incarceration, confiscation of proceeds of crime and forced sale of property to pay back the victim(s)? It's not unrealistic.

[Louis Balfour]

_Rodders_ said:

Louis Balfour said:

PSB1967 said:

We had our non LR 4X4 broken into at Birmingham airport, car park 4 in the first week of January, in an attempt to steal it. While waiting recovery, we were chatting to duty police officers who said LR products in that car park were almost certain to be stolen or have bits nicked off them, while parked there. Thirteen had been attacked in the previous week alone from that car park, with thieves partial to taking parts off the new Defender, or taking RR's outright. They seemed to think that current LR security was as effective as car security was in the early 1990's. So I guess LR seriously need to up their game.

Which car park was this?

I'm going to guess Car Park 4

Ah yes, I was the plonker there wasn't I Rodders.

I wonder whether the problem extends to the other on-site car parks.

[Richard-390a0]

Surely the decline is because most of them have already been stolen & therefore less for the light fingered to choose from!?!...

[andy43]

Louis Balfour said:

_Rodders_ said:

Louis Balfour said:

PSB1967 said:

We had our non LR 4X4 broken into at Birmingham airport, car park 4 in the first week of January, in an attempt to steal it. While waiting recovery, we were chatting to duty police officers who said LR products in that car park were almost certain to be stolen or have bits nicked off them, while parked there. Thirteen had been attacked in the previous week alone from that car park, with thieves partial to taking parts off the new Defender, or taking RR's outright. They seemed to think that current LR security was as effective as car security was in the early 1990's. So I guess LR seriously need to up their game.

Which car park was this?

I'm going to guess Car Park 4

Ah yes, I was the plonker there wasn't I Rodders.

I wonder whether the problem extends to the other on-site car parks.

It’ll just be airports near Solihull because of the parts shortage after covid.
“Ere Dave, we noid mur deescovery bits, do us a favoooooor and get down the airpurt and gerrus some bumpers for the next shift”.

[Dog Star]

Is this 20% drop in thefts a result of improved security, or because the real low hanging fruit have now all been stolen, the owners either not having replaced them with a JLR or who are taking extra security measures.

Similarly existing owners who haven’t had their vehicle targeted will be taking a lot of extra measures, keeping them garaged etc.

I can easily see how a 20% reduction could come from this.

As an aside I did a back of a fag packet calculation on another thread: there were a few months ago 90 RR/LR a day being stolen in London. Let’s extrapolate that to 150 a day for the UK.

Assuming each car needs 5.5m of length that’s 825m of RRs a day.

Thats 23.1 km of them a month. (28 days a month)

That’s a queue 277.2km long of stolen Range/Land Rovers a year.

That is simply mind blowing.

[MrBen.911]

Patrick McGillycuddy said:

“The rapid decline in Range Rover thefts in the last year, demonstrates the strength of our latest vehicle security measures,”

Or is it something to do with virtually every Range Rover I see having additional security - a disklok or steering wheel bar seems to be standard fit on them in London and in Surrey - it's like the 90s all over again.

[king arthur]

_Rodders_ said:

I thought the numbers were going to be something like a 90% reduction.

No, they're crowing about a 20% reduction, quite incredible.

Depends when the security update was rolled out though, it may not apply to the whole year whereas the figures do.