Thieves 'easily steal keyless cars and makers don't do enough to stop them'
Four out of the UK’s five best-selling cars are susceptible to keyless theft, a consumer watchdog report warns.
The Ford Fiesta, Volkswagen Golf, Nissan Qashqai and Ford Focus were “vulnerable” with only Vauxhall Corsas, not available with keyless entry and start, deemed safe from such thefts.
Thefts, called relay attacks, use a relay box to detect signals from car keys, often kept by front doors, and transmit them to a second device to open vehicles.
Consumer champion Which? discovered upgrading to keyless technology can cost hundreds of pounds and may make cars less secure.
Which? analysed research from the General German Automobile Club, which found 234 of 237 keyless cars tested were susceptible to such attacks.
The only three to thwart the thieves were Jaguar Land Rover’s latest Discovery, Range Rover, and the 2018 Jaguar i-Pace.
The 2018 models of the Ford EcoSport and Nissan Leaf included keyless technology as standard and were susceptible to theft.
Harry Rose, Editor of Which? magazine, said: “With more than one car being stolen at least every seven minutes, it’s important that people can feel confident in the security of their vehicle.
"We want manufacturers to up their game when it comes to making their vehicles safe from theft.”
Mike Hawes, of The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said: “New cars are more secure than ever, the latest technology has helped bring down theft with, on average, less than 0.3% of the cars on our roads stolen.”
He added: “We continue to call for action to stop the open sale of equipment with no legal purpose that helps criminals steal cars.”
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