How attractive is the Taycan really to car thieves?

FlyingPoint

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It would be straight stupid to steal a car with connected GPS tracking.

That said, if car thieves were smart they wouldn't have to steal for a living.
Not stupid - VERY SMART. You are living in the past, If you think when a car is stolen - reported to the police and tracked in real time by you that they will do anything. My second home is in a fairly nice area - it loses one to two cars per week in the winter and sometimes 5-10 during the summer months weekly. They are NEVER chased and recovered. Somehow, the police always knows where they wind up. They could care less. Their view - that's what insurance is for. This whole country is going to $hit.
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tchavei

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Not stupid - VERY SMART. You are living in the past, If you think when a car is stolen - reported to the police and tracked in real time by you that they will do anything. My second home is in a fairly nice area - it loses one to two cars per week in the winter and sometimes 5-10 during the summer months weekly. They are NEVER chased and recovered. Somehow, the police always knows where they wind up. They could care less. Their view - that's what insurance is for. This whole country is going to $hit.
I wonder if the insurance on a stolen car actually pays off vs selling the car second hand. That would kinda give motives the have a car stolen on purpose.
 

TaycanHero

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It was a few years ago.....way before Taycan. It was rife then in Manchester - where I lived.

Two cars taken.
My R32 never recovered - but used in some local armed robberies. One of which on Aug Bank Holiday Monday at a charity event at a pub.... they rocked up at closing time and got the manageress on the bar and threatendd to chop her arms off with an axe unless they got the days takings.

Girlfriends Mini Cooper S Conv was chased with false plates on by Police a few weeks later. It crashed into someones garden. It was only a few weeks old, but was not quite damaged enough to write it off. 😕

The whole thing turned into quite a nightmare.

But..... You can't let the ba5tards win - otherwise they have won.
😀. They are probably locked up 24 hours a day now, or no longer around.
The universe usually punishes people like this... And rewards good.

You own a Taycan 😉
 

Fish Fingers

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Not stupid - VERY SMART. You are living in the past, If you think when a car is stolen - reported to the police and tracked in real time by you that they will do anything. My second home is in a fairly nice area - it loses one to two cars per week in the winter and sometimes 5-10 during the summer months weekly. They are NEVER chased and recovered. Somehow, the police always knows where they wind up. They could care less. Their view - that's what insurance is for. This whole country is going to $hit.
Not the only country unfortunately.
Imo the UK is on a similar course.
 

Taycan2020

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I wonder if the insurance on a stolen car actually pays off vs selling the car second hand. That would kinda give motives the have a car stolen on purpose.
In the U.K. we have the most bizarre ‘insurance’ called ‘GAP insurance’, dealers always try the hard sell of it when you buy a car.

Basically what it does is, in the case of a crash where you car is written off, it gives you the difference between what you paid for the car and what your insurer pays out (insurers will of course pay out the cars current market value, or thereabout).

So if you buy your car for £100k and after 4 years its market value is £40k, crashing it and getting it written off will still net you a £100k payout = £60k profit! Talk about moral hazard…
 


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Interesting thread. Are Taycan’s more trouble than they are worth to thieves? I suspect that over time thieves will find a way to extract value. Perhaps - given the car is full of tech - physical vehicle theft may morph into a ransomware like attack. So through tech, thieves lock you car where it sits in your garage via software and then demand a ransom to release? Carsomware?
 

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Interesting thread. Are Taycan’s more trouble than they are worth to thieves? I suspect that over time thieves will find a way to extract value. Perhaps - given the car is full of tech - physical vehicle theft may morph into a ransomware like attack. So through tech, thieves lock you car where it sits in your garage via software and then demand a ransom to release? Carsomware?
I suspect so. At least in comparison to cars of much higher volume and potential market to either break for parts or just export whole to another market. Here Eastern Europe or Africa. Neither really wanton of EVs at this point.
 

SECRET

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Rear quarter window is an easy target, much like Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. Goal isn't to steal the car, but drop the rear seats to check the trunk for laptops etc. Really doesn't matter if you have 2+1 or not. That window was backordered in the US for quite some time.

I'm not sure if that window goes to double pane with the noise & thermal insulation option.
 


SThurlow

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JLR products are what’s in demand. Easy to nick, pretty easy to hide, plenty of ‘customers’.

I can’t really see something as connected and traceable as a Taycan being targeted. Not taking any chances however so tracker on and keys kept in RF screened pouches.

if I had an Evoque or RR it would have to be chained down - be it town or country.
Turn off the comfort access features.
 

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I can't see much profit in parting or black-marketing these cars at all. the parts barely work together as it is -- everything is network id'd on the canbus, needs checksums and system parity to work, blah blah blah.. even if off network -- pulling the modems from the car -- i can't imagine you could publicly charge it without throwing a flag on some system (i hope and pray that that's the case anyway...). maybe some windows and brake calipers, a wheel or two. not worth it.
 

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I can't see much profit in parting or black-marketing these cars at all. the parts barely work together as it is -- everything is network id'd on the canbus, needs checksums and system parity to work, blah blah blah.. even if off network -- pulling the modems from the car -- i can't imagine you could publicly charge it without throwing a flag on some system (i hope and pray that that's the case anyway...). maybe some windows and brake calipers, a wheel or two. not worth it.
I reckon that's probably true.

Why bother with a Taycan if there's an M3 or Golf R nearby - with a ready made market for complete cars or parts?

Having said all that, I had read about a gang targeting Tesla's somewhere.

I think Comfort Access is by far the biggest issue in the UK for newer cars.
Tracker (assume newer / more expensive cars) says 94% of all thefts were keyless entry in 2021.

https://www.driving.co.uk/news/keyless-cars-twice-as-likely-to-be-stolen-as-non-keyless-models/
 

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I think you need to ask a car thief as opposed to people on this forum. Just saying.
 

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I did buy a keylessgo box after this video, the charger also works as an extra lock and then there is intrusion and gps alarm. Big floodlight with movement sensor shining over the car, Not sure what else you can do.
 

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It would be straight stupid to steal a car with connected GPS tracking.

That said, if car thieves were smart they wouldn't have to steal for a living.
Steal it at night, few minutes later the car is either in a Faraday cage, stripped of it's antenna, or simply a fuse powering the onboard modem and/or GPS is removed. Thieves who target a specific type of car know very well how to disable any tracking. I remember reading about a car theft gang in New York who would steal cars at night, disable any comms on the car, by the time the owner woke up in the morning the car was literally on ship on its way out of the country. That particular gang mostly stone SUV's IIRC.
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