Renault’s little car has been pushed down into third place in the car thieves’ popularity chart for 2013, according to French car magazine Auto Plus. In first place, is the micro-sized Smart Fortwo.
At the end of the year, they were sharing first place, but it’s now no longer the case. The Smart Fortwo – sought-after for the value of its spare parts, has de-throned the Renault Twingo 1 as the most frequently-stolen car in France in 2013.
“The German vehicles, and most notably the premium marques, are also beloved of car-thieves,” says the magazine. This is evident in the fact that the BMW X6 “now the preferred deluxe 4×4 of choice of the bad guys” is in second place in the rip-off chart, ahead of the little Twingo.
Unsurprisingly, French cars represent half of the Top 10 placings in an annual poll carried out by the weekly magazine from statistics drawn up by 15 insurance companies and banks, representing a bank of 20 million cars. According to Auto Plus, the Renault Mégane 2 and 3, as well as the Clio 3 are “betrayed by their system of ignition by card”. As for the Citroën DS3 sleek-looking super-mini, it is the French model that seems to be attracting to be attracting a certain kind of discerning thieving blackguard. Its level of victimisation has increased at a rate of 17.9%.
The thefts, which have increased in number last year for the first time in twelve years (by 0.6%) have seen the return in France of certain types of transgressions, such as car-jacking.
“The most recent models are equipped with sophisticated electronic security devices but on most of the cars, these devices are too easily de-activated or by-passed by delinquents armed with pirated programming gear that imitates those of the repair professionals,” says the weekly publication.
French Top Ten Favourites of Car Thieves 2013
1/ Smart Fortwo (216 stolen per 10,000 insured vehicles)
2/ BMW X6 (208)
3/ Renault Twingo 1 (180)
4/ BMW Series 1 (107)
5/ BMW X5 (103)
6/ Citroën DS3 (99)
7/ Renault Mégane 2 (90)
8/ Porsche Cayenne (89)
9/ Renault Clio 3 and Mégane 3 (85)
10/ BMW series 3 (83).