[hserus]

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/71120982.cms

I can relate to this given my Scorpio was stolen last year :(

They're apparently coming up with "a mixture of high and low tech", breaking the glass and cracking into immobilizers.

[AutoSphere]

Originally Posted by hserus

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/71120982.cms

I can relate to this given my Scorpio was stolen last year :(

They're apparently coming up with "a mixture of high and low tech", breaking the glass and cracking into immobilizers.

Probably because the stolen vehicle can be sold & abused in a rural area/small town for a short while and re-sold before the thieves are caught

Ya, I do recollect about your Scorpio . Finally, did you get your vehicle back ?

[hserus]

Originally Posted by AutoSphere

Probably because the stolen vehicle can be sold & abused in a rural area/small town for a short while and re-sold before the thieves are caught

Ya, I do recollect about your Scorpio . Finally, did you get your vehicle back ?

I got an insurance payout around end March, and had bought a new (well, 2015, 20k km) red Scorpio in November a few days after my old one was stolen.

That's the nice thing about used cars, the loss doesn't bite as hard as a new one that's still under loan and you have to keep paying the EMI till the insurance company pays out.

[Sebring]

SUVs are in high demand, so the thieves don't want hatches or sedans anymore. There was this video of someone losing his car keys, and how he broke the front window glass to gain access. In reaction to that there were several videos on how to gain access without breaking glass, in good faith - of course. In one video I saw a guy stick a very strong tape on the glass and tug it down, accessing the door handle in the process. There is one where they use a clothes hanger, or a strong thread etc. So these videos have made it easier for thieves to get inside the cars, now.

[wheelguy]

• While the increasing sales of SUVs is cheering up automakers, the trend is causing grief among auto-insurers.
• Hyundai Creta, Maruti Suzuki Brezza, and Mahindra Scorpio are the most loved vehicles among thieves.
• Stolen vehicle claims for SUVs is on the rise by around 15%~20%, such claims stood at 10,000 in FY19.
• 35% to 40% of total insured vehicles are being claimed for various damages, less than 2% of insured vehicles are being stolen.
• Claim payouts stood at ~35,000 crores every year, of which ~1,000 crores accounted for stolen vehicle claims payouts.
• An unnamed insurance company said that around 2,000 claims for stolen Brezza and Creta were reported to them.
• Vehicle thefts are growing dspite the improvements in anti-theft technologies as the thieves are quickly catching-up with the new technologies!
• Thefts of cars with keyless entry system are on the rise, mostly diesel vehicles are preferred by thieves, says the head of Digit Insurance, Vijay Kumar.
• Earlier cars with plain keys were preferred, but over time keyless entry vehicles became most preferred. Thieves were using a mix of high-end and low-end tech, they were breaking the windows and overwriting the data using blackmarket devices to get their job done.
• Auto thefts actually kept falling since the last 5 to 7 years but SUV thefts are bucking the trend. More thefts were reported in northern India than in southern and western parts.
• Stolen cars were sold in UP, J&K, and in northeast.
• Thieves prefer only popular vehicles, compact SUVs are quickly becoming the preferred choices among thieves. They were equipped with various devices to break into the cars' immobilizer code.
• Car companies were holding regular review meetings with insurance companies, and police officials to tackle the organized thieving. They are coming up with geofencing, and electronic tracer features to tackle vehicle thefts.
• Insurance companies were expecting the auto-dealers to promote anti-theft devices to tackle the situation to some extent.
• Insurance companies are working with all the relevant authorities and departments to come up with a solution.
• Manufacturers, through dealers, were tightening duplicate key issuance procedures.
• EV battery thefts were also catching up. In Delhi, e-rickshaw battery theft were on rise.

Source: ET Auto

[GTO]

It was only inevitable.

Whatever trend we see in the new car market, it filters down to the used car market (which thieves serve, unscrupulously). Any new car model that's a hit in the new car market also has high demand in the used. Ditto with colours, engines, transmissions & body styles...here, SUVs & crossovers.

[Reinhard]

We can only hope that this reduces in near future with the digitization & online connect of all RTOs and authorities coming in. Thieves have been around from mythological times & they will always be around. What has been more painful all along is the ease with which these cars can be sold off after the theft.

The pinch that we feel in registration charges actually having ZERO meaning whatsoever is what blows the most. At least with the digitization and always available database - the RTOs if behaving ethically can identify a stolen vehicle when it comes for a registration elsewhere. The system will be able to automatically find a match for the chassis/engine number.

What I have always been unable to understand is - when the car is sold afterwards, is it never covered by insurance thereafter? Does the next owner never buy insurance at all? Shouldn't the insurance companies be able to spot a vehicle from stolen database if it applies for insurance again elsewhere in the country? (Regardless of who was the original insurer organization.)

[blackwasp]

Time to add new What you like and What you won't like in our reviews.

For sedans / hatchbacks

What you'll like:
• Not an attractive target to thieves

For SUVs

What you'll NOT like:
• Likely to be an attractive target to thieves = higher insurance costs

[hserus]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

What I have always been unable to understand is - when the car is sold afterwards, is it never covered by insurance thereafter? Does the next owner never buy insurance at all? Shouldn't the insurance companies be able to spot a vehicle from stolen database if it applies for insurance again elsewhere in the country? (Regardless of who was the original insurer organization.)

Quite often sold to minor politicians or farmers who anyway drive with their community name or some political leaders' name on the license plate. Driven and abused for maybe a few months (eg a single election campaign) before being dumped on a back road in pitiable condition.

or

The engine and chassis number are sanded off and new numbers taken from a scrapped vehicle are laser etched onto the stolen car. The same thing most FNG / RE specialist etc mechanics do when they install an engine from a scrap vehicle into your car. Then it heads into the used car market and some minor grease to the RTO official takes care of the ownership transfer issues. Total loss scrapped vehicles are supposed to have their registration cancelled but most insurers will sell them as salvage to some guy who will patch them up, turn back the odometer several thousand km and resell them to people who don't realize that they're getting an accident damage vehicle that's run over a lakh km.

or

The vehicle is stripped for parts in a matter of minutes and then there's nothing left at all.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by hserus

Quite often sold to minor politicians or farmers who anyway drive with their community name or some political leaders' name on the license plate. Driven and abused for maybe a few months (eg a single election campaign) before being dumped on a back road in pitiable condition
....

Yes yes - I know the tricks that are followed. I meant its disappointing that cars in thousands can be made invisible like that. Such poor is the registration and insurance system. If the insurance companies are not able to track chassis numbers and identify reuse of numbers from a central repository (which is a must have really) - then the huge claim amounts they are having to pay are absolutely all their own doing. Not ours.

[locusjag]

Thankfully, we TUV 300 owners don't have to worry about thieves wanting our rides As it is, only around 1000 to 1500 new buyers get them every month (and that includes police departments, rental fleet buyers, etc. Who knows the true retail sales figures for it?)

But - we TUV 300 owners in a Whatsapp chat group found that our used tires can actually be exchanged when buying newer ones. That has never happened with any other vehicles that we've owned (hatchbacks, sedans etc.). Add to that the fact that even the Force/Tempo Traveller uses the same spec tyres as our rides (235/70 R15), it quickly became apparent that there is a constant need for this spec of tyres in the cabbie market and that has contributed to quite a few of our spare tyres getting stolen. So yeah, there's at least a piece of us that thieves do want. We're not entirely unwanted!