Your house is probably the most expensive purchase you will ever make, with your car coming in as the second most expensive and valuable possession you own! Your car is important to you not only because of the money you have invested in it but also because it is your safe little kingdom when you are away from home. A protected mobile environment where you feel safe and secure. It is a shelter from the weather and the world. Your car must therefore live up to your expectations of reliability, security, safety and protection.

In one survey 24% of people asked assumed that during the next year they would become a victim of car crime by theft of, theft from or damage to their car. They could be right: 2004 statistics show a 40% increase in car crime, with over £1 billion worth of property stolen. Most people seem to think that car crime is inevitable and that there is nothing they can do about it. They are wrong.

Theft Of And From Cars

To implement and maintain security, you should undertake a security review of your car. While doing the review, try to look at your car and its contents the way that a criminal would look at it. All he wants is to make some money, and cars are the easiest and biggest source of crime-derived income in the country. Perhaps a few UK car crime statistics will show you how serious the problem is and how easily you could be affected.

• 22% of all car crime takes place in car parks.
• Vehicle crime costs the UK at least £3.5 billion a year.
• Each year 2,500,000 car owners suffer loss due to car crime.
• 400,000 vehicles were stolen in 2004.
• There were 1,800,000 cases of theft from vehicles in 2004.
• On average one in every 28 vehicles is broken into each year.
• About 55% of cars that are stolen are never recovered.
• The UK has the highest car crime rate in Europe, and accounts for 30% of all European car crime.

Buying A Car

What can you do about car crime? Stealing a car is quite easy if you know how! Though most manufacturers will charge thousands of pounds for a new car, they only spend a few pounds on the security features that they build into each vehicle. Vehicle security is slowly improving, but it could still be a lot better.

When buying a vehicle, you should ask about the security levels. Let the salesman and manufacturers know that you care about quality, price, specification, safety, miles per gallon and security. With that message feeding back to the small group of super manufacturing groups who own and run most vehicle makes in the UK, they should get the message and move quickly to meet that demand. If they don’t respond to your demands, shop elsewhere. Buy a foreign vehicle – the cost is often lower, security, basic specification and build quality is higher as well!

Your Car Told Me!

Realise and remember that the make and model of your car – the colour, state and visible contents can often say quite a lot about you, the owner. For example do you think that the following list matches vehicles and owners quite accurately?

• A late model German sports saloon = successful businessman
• Quirky pink little saloon of modest age = single young female
• Hot hatchback with racing body kits = single boy racer aged 23
• People carrier = mum with kids
• Battered old mini = impoverished student.

 

Yes, a very rich student might be driving a German sports saloon, but generally the profile of cars and owners is quite accurate. By looking at the make and model of the car a criminal can decide which one of them may be a worthy target for him in more ways than one. Which car or owner he picks depends on what his objective is.

If the criminal’s drunk and wants an easy car to steal for a ride home, he will probably try for the student’s battered mini. If our criminal is stealing to order, he will go for a BMW, Range Rover, or other top of the range vehicle and will probably have already stolen the keys so that it can be taken quickly and easily.