Let me begin this month by welcoming those new associates who have joined our May 2024 course. I hope that you will enjoy your driving sessions as much as I did mine many years ago and will get the same or greater benefits. We will most probably be asking you to drive in a different way to how you drive now and this may be challenging for some of you during the first few weeks. If you practise between sessions and attend regularly it should all start to come together, usually by about Session 5, and you will gain the benefits of advanced driving. If this doesn’t happen, or you feel you are struggling, please contact your mentor. The Group has been training drivers for over 50 years so I am sure he/she will be able to advise you how to get the best out of your course.
The granddaughter of a friend of ours recently parked her car in Southport only to find that it had been stolen when she returned to where it had been left. The theft was reported to the police and CCTV footage obtained of the robbery but fortunately her friend had left a jacket in the car and in a pocket was a tracking device. Using a mobile phone they were able to see the car, now stationary, a few miles away on a housing estate. So they went and repossessed it. They were quite worried that they would be stopped by the Police who would be out looking for it but fortunately they got home without mishap. What an amazing experience! Her car was a Ford Fiesta and, according to a recent Daily Telegraph article, figures from the Driver Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA) showed this to be the most stolen model in 2023. Last year the number of cars reported stolen in England and Wales reached a 16-year-high of 132,489. The top 10 models stolen are shown in the Table below.
Table. Top 10 most stolen models in the UK 2023
|
No
|
Model
|
Number stolen
|
|
1
|
Ford Fiesta
|
5,979
|
|
2
|
Ford Focus
|
2,120
|
|
3
|
Volkswagen Golf
|
2,038
|
|
4
|
Mercedes c-class
|
1,786
|
|
5
|
Range Rover Sport
|
1,631
|
|
6
|
Range Rover Evoque
|
1,489
|
|
7
|
BMW 3 Series
|
1,466
|
|
8
|
Vauxhall Corsa
|
1,110
|
|
9
|
Vauxhall Astra
|
1,086
|
|
10
|
Land Rover Discovery Sport
|
954
|
The Daily Telegraph report says that, in the 1990s when car thefts were high, lawmakers insisted new cars could only be sold if they had a built-in engine immobiliser. Stealing cars thus changed to involve burgling properties or carjacking, neither of which appealed to thieves and thefts fell. However, increasing electronics in cars since then has resulted in new opportunities for criminals.
The same article suggests ways to protect your car. These include buying a Faraday bag, turning off the remote keyless entry function in the car, getting a tracking device, steering locks, CCTV and even getting a dog! Do you have any ideas to keep our cars safe? We’d love to hear from you. Gary Whittle