Car Thieves Can't Get Enough Of The Land Rover Defender Because It's Cooler Than Ever
Following the end of Land Rover Defender production earlier this year, something rather inevitable happened. Demand for used examples went up, and so did values. Since the Defender - which was in production in one form or another for 68 years - has never been a particularly secure vehicle, this means there’s been a spike in thefts.
In South Yorkshire for example, Defender sales have shot up by 69 per cent in the last few months, and in the last 12 months insurers NFU Mutual said that claims for the vehicles had hit £760,000. A big chunk of the cars are stolen to order before being shipped out of the country.
To make matters worse, it seems many thieves are particularly adept at getting around the Defender’s standard security systems. Sergeant Nick Hill of North Yorkshire Police said: “It appears an organised group of criminals is specifically targeting this make and model of vehicle….Of greatest concern to us is that it is evident these thieves have knowledge of this particular vehicle’s factory-fitted security and electrical systems.”
In response, police are advising owners to consider fitting aftermarket security systems such as tracking devices
Sources: The Northern Echo and Autocar
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
They’re also pretty durable in case they want to do more heists!
Oh Disklooooooook!
squawk
When you’re the Social Media dude for Disklok and find a post relating to your brand at 8pm.
My families Defender was attempted to be stolen a few years back (the thief couldn’t find the immobilizer switch and got caught and sent to prison) but sadly were more succesful last October and got away with it :’’’’(. Sadly with a Defender there a a lot of professional criminals out there that know there way around a Defender so well they can get still steal it within minutes even if you have a Disklok (or similar clamp), Clutch Pedal Claw, Immobilizer and more like we had all of! D: You realize if they want they can take it, its just a matter of how many deterrents you can fit. The thieves are known to cut driveshafts to overcome not being able to start it or drive it and push it onto a trailer and in a lot of cases even drag it onto a low with a winch onto a low loader. The problem we’re having with insurance is they will only give us the money they given to other victims in the past for similar models but won’t acknowledge how the value has gone up significantly and can’t use the money they give us to buy another.
Seems like the Defender can’t DEFEND itself.
dun dum tisss
Damn. I was about to comment this XD
But after every attack it starts a new DISCOVERY
An it’s competitor, the G-class is mostly driven by G’s.
I just want to know what EVOUQUE’s them to do so.
Comment of the week!!!
Sadly they do what ever it takes to steal them. This even means that they will drag them onto trailers if they can’t get them started. Worse thing is some people just seem to steel them and then burn them down.
I got a neigbhor with a defender, i will gift him a vintage dislokk
Vintage, yet still unbeaten. What a great gift!
I’m sure those thieves would love to get their hands on such vehicles, but what about the ones that were already stolen? Like this Porsche which was stolen after being shipped to the UK for just 8 hours. Disklok! You better start spamming those people to secure your business and ownership of such cars. :P
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3325584/Unique-Porsche-stolen-just-EIGHT-hours-outside-London-home.html
Did they ever find it?
knock knock Can you spare a moment to talk about our lord and saviour “Security”?
Hmm. I guess LR will have to keep making the Defender so this doesn’t happen. What a shame…
Where is dislok when ya need em?
Hello.
Really a great unique car. No jeep is harder than the Land Rover Defender.
Waiting for Dislok to comment like :
Eating popcorn like we do thieves. For breakfast.