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What Car?
Magazine Urges Car Makers to
Help
Combat Violent Car Crime
Violent car crime in Britain has almost doubled during the last decade, according to research revealed by What Car? magazine.
Home office figures for 2002/3 indicate that there were more than 11,500 aggravated vehicle thefts in the UK - an average of more than 32 per day.*
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The annual What Car? Security Supertest advises motorists of a new weapon to combat the latest generation of car thieves - laminated glass - and is urging car makers to make more widespread use of it.
Conventional car windows can be broken in seconds by a hammer or brick. But laminated glass, which consists of two layers of conventional glass sandwiching a thin layer of plastic film, is far stronger and capable of resisting all but the most determined, sustained attack.
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Laminated glass is currently only fitted as standard to luxury cars such as the Lexus LS430, the winner of What Car?'s annual Security
Supertest. Now the magazine is urging car makers to offer secure glazing across their model ranges. This could cost as little as £150 per car - a small price to pay for the peace of mind that secure glazing affords.
What Car? editor Rob Aherne said: "There is no doubt that laminated glass would make motorists feel more secure on the move. It's time for car makers to take the initiative and consider offering it on all their cars and not just on the most expensive models."
The magazine also advocates increased use of tracking devices, which use satellite technology to help you locate and recover your car after it has been stolen, as part of a multi-faceted approach to reducing crime.
The What Car? Security Supertest reveals that some new cars need all the help they can get. In non-damaging attack tests on 38 models, security experts succeeded in breaking into all but 10 in under two minutes - including best-sellers such as the Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra and BMW 3-series.
The What Car? Security Supertest is designed to replicate the techniques of the professional criminal. The testing follows guidelines laid down by the Home Office working in conjunction with the Police Scientific Development Branch. Although carried out by members of the Guild of Master Locksmiths, no specialist equipment is used. Cars are comprehensively assessed on the basis of their security equipment and resistance to unauthorised entry, and can score a maximum of 100 points.
The Security Supertest is published in the December 2003 issue of What Car?, which goes on sale on Tuesday November 4, and online at
www.whatcar.com
Source:
Newspress
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