While the Ford Fiesta was the UK’s most stolen car in 2024 (again), it’s Abarth and Lexus owners who faced the highest proportional risk of theft, according to the latest DVLA data.
The figures showed that although 4,719 Fiestas were reported stolen last year (more than double the next model, the Volkswagen Golf), it’s actually the Abarth and Lexus line-ups that are statistically the most likely to be stolen.
When taking the figures in relation to the number of registered vehicles on the road, Abarth comes out as most likely to be stolen, with a 1-in-116 chance of theft. Lexus isn’t far behind, though, mainly driven by a big increase in thefts of the RX450, which, on its own, recorded 717 losses in 2024.
It is the Lexus ES300 saloon that is the most at-risk car, with 1-in-30 being stolen last year. In fact, Lexus holds five of the top ten spots for model-specific theft rates, including the RX450, UX250, NX300, and IS300.
Ford, despite being the most frequently stolen brand overall with 9,284 thefts, was actually the 13th most likely car to be stolen when looking at proportional theft numbers. That’s because its massive UK presence of around 4.3 million registered vehicles skews the numbers.
On the other end of things, Tesla and TVR owners had the least to worry about. Tesla had just 33 thefts in 2024, with a 1-in-7,031 chance of a car going missing. The Model 3 was the most targeted, but numbers remained low overall. TVR, meanwhile, recorded only one stolen vehicle, a T350, despite nearly 11,000 examples still registered across the UK.
“Last year, the spotlight was on Range Rover as customers struggled to find insurance in the face of soaring theft rates. But when we look at the figures in proportion, we discover that it’s Lexus owners that are at a far greater risk of having their car stolen. Jaguar Land Rover has taken the issue very seriously, developing a software update for existing vehicles, rolling-out new ultra-wideband keys, and even going as far as to provide funding to police units dedicated to cracking down on organised gangs. Now it seems that more brands need to follow their example if they are to reverse this worrying trend.
Alex Kefford, Head of Editorial at automotive PR agency loop
The Ford Fiesta faces a different issue. It has spent much of the last decade at the top of the nation’s sales charts, and with nearly 1.5 million of them on our roads, that creates a huge demand for spare parts. Supply chain issues and the cost-of-living crisis have meant many owners have turned to second-hand parts, but unfortunately not all sources are as genuine as they’d like.
At the other end of the scale, spare a thought for the owner of at least one Ferrari Purosangue who was unlucky enough for it to be stolen before they’d had the chance to enjoy it properly. Statistically, there’s a roughly 1-in-4000 chance of a Ferrari going missing – not far off the odds of losing a Daewoo – but that’s likely to come as scant consolation.”
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