Improving the security of your vehicle

The past ten years have seen a dramatic reduction in car crime. The rising cost of car ownership has reduced the demand for used cars, and advances in car security technology have made it much more difficult to steal a vehicle and get away with it.

Due to the widespread adoption of engine immobiliser systems, it has become a lot harder to steal cars outright, leading to a reduction in joyriding incidents, but professional car thieves have taken to removing valuable, and relatively accessible items from cars such as satellite navigation systems, number plates, and catalytic converters instead.

Catalytic converters are made from precious metals which are worth hundreds of pounds, and as such are a popular target for professional car thieves. There is little that you can do to prevent catalytic converter theft, other than leaving your vehicle in secure parking areas and installing a tamper proof alarm system.

If your number plates are stolen, and you do not report it immediately to the police and the DVLA, then any penalty points incurred by the new owner of your plates will end up on your license. If that vehicle is used for any other crimes, then you will be the one pulled in for them unless you had taken this step.

Due to the fact that satellite navigation equipment is valuable, and relatively easy to steal from an unattended vehicle, you should keep it out of sight from thieves when you are out of the vehicle for any length of time. It is important to remove the device, the cradle and suction pads, and clean off any marks left by the pads on your windscreen, as thieves may see the marks, or the pads themselves, as a sign that there may be a sat-nav unit hidden away in the glove compartment.

If you do not have an immobiliser fitted, you should do so if at all possible, as this is easily the most effective anti theft device available. More than three quarters of cars on the road today are fitted with engine immobilisers, yet less than a third of those recovered by police after being stolen are fitted with such a device.

The older a car is, the easier it tends to be to steal it, due to advances in theft prevention technology. Cars built before 1996 are considered to be at the highest risk of theft by insurers, whereas cars built after 1999 are considered to be a very low risk indeed.

Thieves will often go to extra lengths to steal more valuable and desirable cars, so if you are lucky enough to own such a model, you may want to make sure that you keep your keys as secure as possible, and keep the car in a lock up or under CCTV supervision at all times when you are not using it.

Kwik Fit Insurance can offer some great deals on car insurance especially for mature drivers and drivers with full no-claims bonus.

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There are many different approaches to buying a second hand car, such as buying from an independent dealership or attending an auction.