Lexus’ luxury hybrid crossovers are the most stolen cars on British roads, Daily Mail analysis of DVLA data suggests.
It shows the Lexus RX 450, which sells from £65,000 to £85,000, is the nation’s most pilfered model, with one in every 122 targeted by thieves in six months to the end of June.
In raw figures, that’s around 220 thefts against nearly 27,000 of the model on the road.
Two other Lexus models, the NX 300 and UX 250, took the number two and three spots, with one in 141 and in 246 being stolen, respectively, according to our audit of the government Freedom of Information (FOI) release.
Coming fourth was the popular SUV, the Rav4 from Toyota (which owns Lexus), with one in every 263 being stolen – around 560 thefts against 147,000 on the road.
In terms of total thefts, the Ford Fiesta retained its long-held top spot as the most stolen car, with 1,770 thefts.
But as the nation’s most popular car, this is to be expected. Fiesta owners actually have a relatively low chance of their cars being stolen, with just one in every 763 being nabbed.
On the other end of the scale, Britain’s most secure car was the Vauxhall Crossland, which was stolen only 11 times despite there being 86,600 on the road – a rate of one in 7,900.
Type your make and model into our search tool below to see how likely it is to be targeted by thieves.
Cars with fewer than 10,000 licensed models on British roads or 10 recorded thefts have been excluded from our analysis.
According to our number crunching, the most likely to be stolen car makes overall are Lexus (one in 273), Land Rover/Range Rover (one in 630) and Alfa Romeo (one in 706).
The three least likely brands to be nicked are Tesla (one in 21,000), Isuzu (one in 22,000) and classic sports brand Triumph (one in 90,000).
The multi-million-pound illegal trade in cars and parts has helped drive a 74% increase in the number of cars stolen in England and Wales over the past decade – with the figure topping 121,000 in the year to March.
The Daily Mail recently witnessed a police operation to clamp down stolen cars being sold abroad, documenting officers cutting open two shipping containers to uncover five stolen cars – including Lexus models – at the port of Felixstowe in Suffolk.
They had all been stolen to order days earlier in London and were bound to be exported to Jebel Ali, a port city near Dubai in the Middle East.
Experts warn that theft rates vary by make and model due to factors such as easily re-sellable parts, technological vulnerabilities and export value.
However, the landscape of car theft in Britain has drastically changed over the past few decades.
Organised crime expert Alastair Greig, from the Royal United Services Institute, told the Daily Mail that vehicles are ‘much harder’ to steal today than historically.
Due to vehicle security upgrades since the 1990s, the number of low-level thefts by petty criminals and teenagers joyriding has reduced significantly.
Lexus crossover SUV models, namely the RX range, are the cars most likely to be stolen in the UK
The Mail recently witnessed a police operation to clamp down criminal gangs using shipping containers to whisk nicked cars out of the country by sea using shipping containers
A cargo crew removes one of the stolen Lexus cars that was due to be shipped to the Middle East
Instead, stealing cars is now primarily the domain of profit-driven organised gangs.
Mr Greig said thieves are in a ‘constant arms race’ with manufacturers as both groups try to outsmart the other when it comes to car security.
Manufacturers try to respond to weaknesses in their security systems to ensure that any exploitable loopholes are patched.
However, he said thieves show ‘impressive levels of ingenuity’ when breaking into cars, adding that it’s only ‘a matter of time’ until they do find a new vulnerability.
Mr Greig added: ‘Ultimately, no vehicle security is going to be perfect.
‘Essentially, both are evolving and competing with one another, with some manufacturers investing a lot in security upgrades to make those vehicles harder to steal – pushing the thieves to switch to other makes and models.
‘This constant to-ing and fro-ing is partly why theft rates rise and fall between makes and models over the years.’
Nick Gover, a car security expert and director of Auto Communications, said there has been a rise in thefts of cars commonly used for Uber or taxi services.
He said: ‘It seems these types of cars are damaged very frequently and the wear and tear on them is very high due to constant usage of the car, meaning repairers can buy the stolen parts to stockpile and offer quicker repair turnaround time.’
DVLA stats show there are 120,000 car thefts annually in Britain, all of which add together to form an intricate £1.8billion-a-year web of crime.
Among the goods hidden with the cars going to Africa were barbers’ chairs, seen on the right of this photo. These items not only serve to hide the stolen cars, but can also be sold on
Iain McKinlay, the chair of the National Association of Stolen Vehicle Examiners, believes that the perception that cars with a higher theft rate are primarily targeted due to security weaknesses is misleading.
Instead, he argues that a car’s desirability plays a far bigger role.
He explained to the Daily Mail that in previous years, Jaguar Land Rover models were heavily targeted in previous years – despite the manufacturers investing significantly in security.
‘Many assumed there was some specific vulnerability,’ he said.
‘But that wasn’t the case. Their security was as good as — if not better than — other vehicles. It just so happened that they were desirable and sought after, meaning criminals had a lucrative market for them.’
Mr McKinlay added that the equipment used to bypass vehicle security affects all manufacturers to a greater or lesser extent.
Legislative requirements compel manufacturers to release certain information to the wider automotive industry, enabling the development of diagnostic and repair tools.
Although these tools and how they work serve legitimate purposes, they are increasingly being misused by criminals.
Jaguar Land Rover identified the perceived vulnerabilities and the misuse of these tools, and carried out ‘excellent work’ to enhance their security, which has coincided with a marked reduction in theft rates.
However, Mr McKinlay notes that rapidly rising insurance costs — driven by the scale of thefts and their impact on the insurance market — may also have made the vehicles less attractive to criminals.
The search involved cutting open to uncover five stolen cars – including Lexus models – at the port of Felixstowe in Suffolk
‘As insurance rates went through the roof, criminals quickly discovered they had nowhere to sell the vehicles,’ he said.
‘If the market disappears, they’ll just move on to other makes and models where there is still demand.’
He also raised concerns that the true number of thefts could be far higher, due to differences in how the Home Office and the DVLA record vehicle crime.
The most popular stealing method is the relay attack, which involves using a special aerial attached to a repeater to pick up the car key signal from inside the house and broadcasting it to a second offender standing beside the car.
However, when that is not possible, gangs can also opt for the simple method of breaking into homes and stealing the keys.
According to Confused.com research from October 2024, more cars were stolen outside the victim’s home (28%) than any other location, followed by their driveway (15%).
Thieves use a variety of methods to nab vehicles, with 23% being hot-wired, 22% having their windows smashed in and 10% of criminals breaking into homes to steal the keys.
However, if your car is stolen it won’t be for long in most cases, as nearly nine in 10 of victims say they got their vehicle back.
More than three in five said their car was found by the police and 15% found it themselves.
This is because of the increasingly prevalent use of trackers, which are very effective in getting vehicles recovered, but not at stopping the theft in the first place.
To stop that, experts advise that multiple security measures are more effective than a single one, meaning extra alarms and locking mechanisms can often deter thieves
After a car has been stolen, gangs often fit it with cloned plates of the same make, model and colour, allowing it to be driven without alerting number plate recognition cameras.
It could then be sold to drug dealers, armed robbers, gangsters wanting to carry out an underworld hit or other criminals who don’t possess the necessary skills to steal a car and give it a new identity.
Stolen cars can also be sent to the so-called ‘chop shop’, where a team of mechanics can rapidly strip the stolen car of valuable parts which then get sold on to unsuspecting consumers looking to repair their own vehicle.
Other cars, many of which are stolen to order, are whisked out of the country by sea at ports using shipping containers.
In the DVLA data set, it does not distinguish between car generations, meaning there is no way of knowing if the stolen vehicles are from the most recent version or older models.
A Lexus and Toyota spokesman said we can ‘never completely eliminate’ the risk of theft, but they ‘regularly collaborate and share information with insurance associations, police and law enforcement authorities, theft prevention experts’ to understand new threats and techniques used by thieves and develop more secure systems.
He added: ‘For the past few years, there has been an industry-wide issue of vehicle theft in the UK, affecting the most popular models first.
‘Toyota GB has invested millions of pounds in a variety of solutions that help protect cars from theft. These include protective plates, immobilisers, blockers and trackers.’
The company conducted a trial last year in conjunction with vehicle security experts, Tracker, where selected customers were provided with a free tracking service.
It allowed them to trace and recover 96% of the stolen vehicles.
A Jaguar Land Rover spokesperson said: ‘Our latest models are proving resilient to theft, while our ongoing investment to update older JLR vehicle security has helped halve overall theft rates since 2022.
‘We continue to take action on organised vehicle crime, including collaborating with, and funding, police investigations.’
A BMW spokesman said: ‘Group specialist security teams work continuously to design and enhance the best possible security systems in our vehicles.’
A Mitsubishi spokesman said: ‘We place a high priority on vehicle security. We will investigate the situation regarding thefts of our vehicles in the UK and proceed with considering preventive measures.’
Alfa Romeo, Porsche, Jeep and Mercedes have been contacted for comment.
