- Audi, BMW and several other luxury carmakers in the UK are seeing their vehicles’ headlights being stolen increasingly.
Gone are the days when thieves used to target stealing whole cars. It seems with the advent of modern technologies and tech-aided features and components, the car thieves have been targeting various key parts of the vehicles as well. In the UK, luxury car owners have been facing a new challenge as car thieves have been targeting the headlights of many premium vehicles. This troubling trend is being dubbed as eye-snatching in the country.
Over the last couple of decades, car headlamp design has evolved dramatically. The headlamps have gone from simple to highly sophisticated. Modern high-end cars use the advanced Matrix LED technology and dynamic active features. This results in even a single headlight costing thousands of dollars.
Luxury cars like Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and BMW come with highly sophisticated headlights. The advanced technologies used in these headlights result in the single headlamps of these vehicles being highly costly. For thieves that means less effort and easy money, as stealing the headlights is less risky for them than stealing a whole vehicle.
It’s easier and safer for criminals to sell individual components to local shops or to unsuspecting buyers online. On the other hand, some of the headlights cost around $4,300 a piece when it comes to luxury cars, which translates to more than 3.60 lakh. The exposed positioning of these headlights makes things easier for the thieves and makes them easy targets as well.
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Fleetworld has reported that in the last couple of months, luxury car headlight theft in the UK has grown significantly. In the process of stealing the headlights, the vehicles are facing collateral damage as well, where the bumpers, fenders and hood of these cars are being damaged. With such a trend, luxury car owners are facing trouble on the insurance front as well, as the higher risk of theft is resulting in them paying a higher premium amount for insurance coverage.
Data by the UK’s Office of National Statistics has revealed that vehicle tampering incidents in the country have grown by two per cent between April 2023 and March 2024, from 52,268 to 53,369. This figure includes cases of components being swiped from parked vehicles, such as wheels, tires, headlights, and even mechanical parts.
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First Published Date: 30 Sep 2024, 13:07 PM IST
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