Britain's most stolen cars revealed - so is YOURS one of them?

By Oliver Price, Data Journalist and Annie Scales, Visual Storytelling Designer

Published: 10:01 AEDT, 8 October 2024 | Updated: 18:56 AEDT, 8 October 2024

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The Ford Fiesta is the most stolen car in the UK, figures suggest.

Almost 10,350 were stolen between January 2018 and July this year, according to data collected by Confused.com.

The analysis is based on the number of customers who reported a car stolen when looking for an insurance quote on Confused.com, meaning the true figures is likely to be even bigger.

The second most stolen car was the Volkswagen Golf, with 9,500 nabbed in the six-and-a-half-year period. In third was the BMW 3 Series at just over 9,100.

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The Ford Focus and BMW 1 Series both saw more than 6,000 thefts, the Mercedes C Class, Audi A3 and the Range Rover Sport all were stolen more than 5,000 times and the Vauxhall Corsa and Astra were both stolen more than 4,000 times.

And according to the price comparison site, customers reported more than 250,000 car thefts over the time period.

The most targeted cars varied across the country. 

Within inner London, which logged the highest number of car thefts – nearly 30,000 since 2018, the BMW X6 SUV ranked top of the list.

Yet in Birmingham, which recorded nearly 28,000 thefts, the Ford Fiesta topped the table.

According to Confused.com research, thieves often operate without fear with regards to their methods, which suggests anyone could be at risk.

More cars were stolen outside the victim's home (28 per cent) than any other location, followed by their driveway (15 per cent).

Thieves use a variety of methods to nab vehicles, with 23 per cent being hot-wired, 22 per cent having their windows smashed in and 10 per cent of criminals breaking into homes to steal the keys.

However, if your car is stolen it won't be for long in most cases, as nearly nine in 10 of victims say they got their vehicle back.

More than three in five said their car was found by the police and 15 per cent found it themselves. 

But nearly nine in 10 returned cars come back damaged, resulting in an average spend of £364 on repairs or £671 to top up the cost of a new car. 

And 14 per cent said they had security footage that showed the car being stolen, either from their own devices or their neighbours and 12 per cent said they had a tracker on their car when it was stolen, which enabled them to find where it had been taken to.

However, 28 per cent of drivers say they don't have any extra security for their car.

But for those taking extra precautions, the most popular were found to be steering locks (19 per cent), GPS trackers (17 per cent), parking in a garage (17 per cent) and putting car keys in a faraday pouch (12 per cent).

One in 10 also said they use a car key signal blocker as keyless car theft seems to be on the rise.

Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd

Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group