French car thefts ‘among highest’

EIGHT French cars are among the top 10 most-stolen models as they are the easiest to steal and sell on.

The French-made Ford Fiesta, manufactured in France, came second in a study of crime data by drivers’ group 40 Million d’Automobilistes, coming just behind the German-made Smart Fortwo.

Every year about 110,000 vehicles are stolen in France and the study showed that last year 12% of them were Smarts and 11% Fiestas. This is the second year the Smart has headed the list.

Using crime data from motoring specialists Experveo, the list continued with the Peugeot 406, with 5.81% of thefts, Renault Twingo II (3.92%) and Twingo (3.82%); Renault Mégane II and Citröen Xsara Picasso 3.29%, Renault Clio 1 (3.27%), Peugeot 308 SW (3.22%).

Pierre Chasseray, of 40 Million d’Automobilistes, blamed modern computerised technology for the high rate of thefts – especially in the case of the high-tech Smart Fortwo model.

“Digital piracy represents three-quarters of thefts today and for Fortwo, all it takes is a piece of plastic to gain access to the electronic ignition – Smart has to tighten up its security,” he said.

Luxury cars and 4x4s, which had previously heading the thefts list, have improved their security – but are instead now making up a large part of the most-vandalised models. Although the most-vandalised list is led by the French Citroën C3 Pluriel, which made up 7% of cars damaged in this way.