The 10 most stolen cars of 2022 REVEALED

Britain’s most owned car is also the most stolen, with Ford Fiesta thefts increasing by 53 per cent by 2022, according to official data shared exclusively with This is Money.

DVLA figures show that 5,979 Fiestas were reported stolen by owners last year, compared to 3,909 in 2021. This means a criminal made off every 88 minutes on average.

The Fiesta’s position as the most stolen car in Britain comes as no great surprise given that around 1.5 million are currently registered on the road. However, experts have previously warned they could be at greater risk after Ford announced it would end production last year, driving up the cost of Fiesta parts.

These new figures also suggest that thieves continue to target high-end engines, with Range Rovers taking second place in the number of vehicles stolen last year.

In fact, 2022 saw a 47 per cent increase in the number of expensive SUVs illegally taken from their rightful owners compared to the previous year, while Land Rover Discovery thefts also increased by more than half.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has provided official vehicle theft data to car leasing comparison site, LeaseLoco, who have shared the information exclusively with us.

A total of 61,106 stolen cars of all makes and models were reported to the DVLA in 2022, compared to 48,493 in 2021 – a 26 percent increase.

That equates to a car being stolen from its owner somewhere in the UK every eight and a half minutes last year.

There were 12,613 more cars stolen last year than in 2021 (48,493), and 2,464 more than the 58,642 pinched in 2019, pre-pandemic, it added.

Of these 61,106 engines trapped in 2022, nearly 10 percent were Fiestas.

The Ford Fiesta was the most stolen car in Britain last year by volume. It’s the most common model on the road, but data shows thefts are up a whopping 53% year-over-year

The 5,979 Fiestas listed as stolen on DVLA records is 53 percent more than the previous year. Of the top 10 most stolen cars, this is the most significant year-over-year increase.

While many would point out that this is primarily due to the fact that there are more Fiestas available to thieves than any other model, experts warned last year that the modest Ford could increasingly be targeted as production comes to an end runs.

On October 26 last year, Ford made the shock announcement that it will stop making Fiestas in June 2023 as it looks to replace the hugely popular model with an all-new electric car.

The confirmation saw the value of second-hand Fiestas rise almost immediately last year as owners tried to cash in on the news.

But vehicle security experts also warned that Ford’s decision to halt production could ultimately lead to an increase in demand for second-hand parts and thus an increase in thefts.

UK company Tracker, which supplies tracking devices to help locate vehicles if they are stolen, told Fiesta owners to ‘be on the lookout’ as their cars could become a popular target for thieves in the coming months and years.

Clive Wain, Tracker’s head of police liaison, told us: ‘It’s normal for a vehicle to become in high demand when supplies stop and the price of parts slowly starts to rise.

“The end of the Fiesta not only means the end of one of the UK’s most popular cars, but an even greater risk of theft for the cars currently on the road.

“We have already seen in recent years that a worldwide lack of good quality used vehicles, in addition to a shortage of spare parts, increases the attractiveness of older, less expensive cars such as the Fiesta.

“Vehicles are often stolen and stripped for their parts in auto shops or stolen to be shipped abroad to meet international demand.”

Commenting on the DVLA data, John Wilmot, CEO of LeaseLoco, said: ‘The Ford Fiesta has retained its unenviable title of Britain’s most stolen car, with our research showing that somewhere in the UK every 87 cars were stolen last year. minutes a Fiesta was stolen.

“However, it is probably the last year it will top the list, as Ford recently announced it will discontinue the Fiesta in June, 47 years after the first model rolled off the production line.”

The Range Rover is Britain’s second most stolen car as thieves target high-quality vehicles to order

As in the previous year, the Range Rover was second in the list behind the Fiesta in the number of car thefts.

A staggering 5,533 were reported stolen to the DVLA, up from 3,754 in 2021, representing a year-over-year increase of 47.4 percent.

While the expensive SUV is relatively common with over 400,000 units on the road, it’s certainly not among the top ten most registered models in the UK and is less than a third the number of Fiestas currently in use in Britain.

Still, more were stolen than Ford’s Focus hatchback (2,186) and Volkswagen’s Golf (2,036), both of which have far more registered units.

The Range Rover is the second most stolen car in 2022, with 5,533 cases reported by police to the DVLA. It’s a 47% year-over-year increase as criminals target high-end engines

The Ford Focus was the third most tweaked model, according to official data provided to LeaseLoco following an FOI request to the DVLA

In 2022, around 1,920 Land Rover Discovery 4X4s were captured by thieves. That’s a year-over-year increase of 52%

Land Rover Discovery ranked fifth in the stolen car ranking, with 1,920 reported to the police and the DVLA in 2022.

This is a 52.4 per cent increase from the 1,260 throttled in 2021 and is a higher volume of theft than many more popular cars, such as Vauxhall’s Corsa (1,280) and Astra (1,240).

Keyless cars ‘twice as likely to be stolen’

An insurer examined data on theft claims last year and found that cars with keyless technology are twice as likely to be trapped as cars without these features, and criminals are getting bolder as more people venture into the darkness to steal vehicles in broad daylight.

Aviva said claims records kept in its database between August 2020 and August 2022 show that the number of stolen cars with keyless entry and keyless start systems was twice that of models without the technology.

A spokesperson told This is Money: “Analysis of our claims data shows that theft claims are twice as common on keyless vehicles as on non-keyless models.”

> Read more: How keyless cars are more likely to get stolen

This refers to professional thieves taking custom cars based on their value to those higher up the crime chain.

These expensive cars are more vulnerable to “relay thefts” because criminals can use hacking devices to infiltrate the keyless entry and keyless start systems that are often a feature of high-end engines.

A survey by insurer Direct Line spoke to car thieves last year, in which it interviewed them and found that most go out to steal with a vehicle shopping list, which usually consists of five or six models for those behind the black market to target.

These are specific requests for certain vehicles that they want to break down for spares or are in high demand abroad, with expensive SUVs usually high on the list.

In return, thieves will typically get their hands on a higher percentage of a high-demand vehicle’s value, though at best they still hope to make just 5 percent of what a valuable car is actually worth.

Direct Line found that on average, a car thief only secures about 1.25 percent of the car’s market price when rewarded for their illegal services.

“The luxury SUV remains a popular target for sophisticated criminal gangs who have the know-how and keyless technology to gain quick access,” added Leaseloco’s Wilmot.

“But our numbers show that it’s not just Range Rover thefts that are on the rise. Last year saw an overall 26 percent increase in car thefts.

“Car owners should be aware that thefts are on the rise and take the necessary precautions to avoid becoming a victim.”

The rest of the most stolen cars are other examples of expensive vehicles that are likely to be in high demand on the black market.

This also applies to the BMW 3 Series, with 1,454 thefts, 0.7 percent less than in 2021.

The Mercedes-Benz C-Class and E-Class completed the top 10, with 1,378 (6.5 percent less) and 866 (5.9 percent more) respectively.