Protecting Your Vehicle from Car Thieves

Did you know last year in Canada a car was stolen every 9 minutes? In 2023, it was worse with a car being stolen every 7.5 minutes. Organized Criminal Syndicates will steal your car and have it on a ship bound for foreign countries within 24 hours. Armed with the latest technologies, they can steal your personal or work vehicle in less than 9 minutes. The purpose of this article will be to discuss how modern car thieves are stealing cars and a few simple ways to protect your vehicle from car thieves.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please call or text me at 604-363-2760 or email me at alex@locksmithvancouver.com. Our Downtown Vancouver Key Store is located at 555 West Hastings St in the SFU/Harbour Centre. It can be found on the Lower Mall Level next to the BC Liquor Store. Just a quick reminder that our Port Coquitlam location is not a Key Store and is Mobile Only.

Most Popular Cars for Car Thieves

Right now, your car may be on the shopping list for car thieves. Here’s a list of the vehicles most often targeted by the criminal gangs in Canada.

credit to: www.cdspi.com

For the curious, the Top 10 stolen cars represent 22,906 vehicles. Considering 57,359 cars were reported stolen 2024, car thieves pretty much steal everything they can get their hands on. The profit margins are simply too good for them to stop.

The Toyota Highlander tops the list but you can see that Japanese brands makeup half of the Top 10 list of stolen vehicles. That will be important to note when we discuss how car thieves operate in the modern age. 

While it’s interesting to see the number of cars stolen per model, it may be more useful to visualize the data in terms of how likely is your vehicle to get stolen.

credit to: www.cdspi.com

Basically, the riskiest model to town are luxury SUVs like the Land Rover Range Rover which is probably the favourite vehicle of our local drug gangs. Car thieves like to steal more expensive cars as it’s more money per effort spent. They tend to target older and cheaper cars less for outright theft because they get less money for their time. It’s a criminal enterprise, but they still operate like any other business.

While older and cheaper cars are targeted less for outright theft, there is still a class of criminal who deliberately targets such vehicles to chop them up for parts.

Catalytic Converter Thefts

One particular trend is the theft of vehicles for their catalytic converters. This is not particularly new. YouTube is full of security cam videos of people slipping underneath cars and trucks with an electric saw to cut out the catalytic converters for the rare and precious metals contained within. With a sharp saw blade, an experienced thief can be in-and-out in less than 3 minutes.

For on-the-road thefts where CAT thieves are targeting parked vehicles, they naturally prefer trucks and lifted SUVs. After all, it’s easier to slip underneath where there is more ground clearance.

Hybrid and PHEV Targeted by Thieves

With the growing popularity of Hybrid and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV), there has been an accompanying trend of CAT thieves stealing such vehicles just for their catalytic converters.

First of all, crime syndicates usually do not target hybrids or PHEVs and ship them overseas to countries like on the African continent. It’s usually for various reasons including the fact that these vehicles require more specialized maintenance and lack the charging infrastructure to make it worthwhile. 

Second, to reduce aerodynamic drag and to improve mileage, most hybrid vehicles have very low ground clearance. Even the Rav4 Prime only has around 9 inches of ground clearance which makes it difficult to slip underneath and cut out the CAT with a Sawzall.

The only way to do it would be to steal the hybrid vehicle outright and take it to a chop shop where you can lift the vehicle.

Apparently, car thieves love to steal hybrid CATs. This is because hybrid engines can operate at a lower temperature than a conventional ICE vehicle. So to meet the same emission standards, hybrid CATs have more rare and precious metals.

According to our research, a CAT from an ICE vehicle will fetch $25 to $300 USD on the black market. On the other hand, a CAT from a hybrid vehicle may fetch upwards of $1400 USD. As such, it’s much more lucrative.

Modern Car Theft Technology

So how are modern car thieves stealing your car, trucks and SUVs? Simple, by using the same tools that Automotive Locksmiths in Vancouver use to copy and to create new keys for your car, trucks, and SUVs.

For security reasons, we will not show pictures of what these tools look-like and how to use them. There are enough tutorial videos online. In short, these handheld devices connect to the OBD port underneath the steering column and bypass the security protections of the vehicle.

Just like how an Automotive Locksmith can program a new car fob for you, the thieves can create a new key for themselves and drive off with your vehicles in less than 9 minutes. 

Due to their potential for rampant misuse, manufacturers and wholesale sellers of these devices should not sell these to just anyone, even online, without verification that the purchaser is a licensed locksmith in downtown Vancouver. However, I’ve seen plenty of service vans in Vancouver with non-locksmiths advertising car key/fob duplication services. 

Car thieves get around this by usually:

1. Steal the equipment from a licensed locksmith
2. Buy the equipment from an unscrupulous locksmith
3. Buy the equipment from Alibaba etc.

Long story short, it’s easy for them to get their hands on these powerful devices.

Protecting Your Vehicle from OBD Attacks

So what are some quick and some not so quick ways to protect yourself from OBD Attacks?

Here’s a few preventative measures you can take to protect your vehicle from theft.

1. Drive European, Chinese or GM/Ford vehicles
2. Drive a car not worth stealing even for parts
3. Install a locking OBD Port Cover

Drive European, Chinese or GM Vehicles

European brands like Mercedes Benz and BMW require special equipment to create and program new FOBs. In addition, many newer years of models require dealership only equipment, software, and fobs which add another layer of complication.

If you have ever watched the movie “Gone in 60 Seconds” starring Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie, you would know that these Euro vehicles have severe restrictions which make them difficult to steal. It’s no wonder that car thieves target vehicles that are much easier to steal.

Another category of cars which are not targeted often by thieves are Chinese made cars. In North America, there are no Chinese vehicles to steal due to the high tariffs. Given my experience with Chinese residential and commercial locks, I guarantee they’re using equipment, software, and keys/fobs that no one else uses. 

Plus, with Chinese manufacturers flooding the markets they can access particularly in Asia, Europe, and Africa, there really is no incentive to steal a Chinese vehicle even for parts.

As for GM/Ford vehicles, apparently newly created fobs cannot be used right away. So thieves will need to program the new keys, and come back another day to steal the vehicle. These kind of delays make GM and Ford vehicles less desirable.

Drive a car not worth stealing even for parts

If you have a vehicle not worth stealing even for parts, there is a good chance no one will be stealing outright or to chop it up for parts. However, this does not mean you have to drive an unreliable piece of junk.

For example, older generations for Toyota vehicles can easily hit the 500,000 km milestone given proper maintenance. There are even stories of Toyota owners aiming to hit the 1 million kilometer mark and resetting their odometer back to zero.

While impressive, car thieves are not going to target vehicles that are older than they are. No chop shop is going to want a 1st or 2nd generation Toyota Camry either. You don’t need to access the black market for vehicles whose parts have been around forever and common as grass.

So make your next vehicle purchase a well maintained older vehicle. Not only will it be cheaper, it will be ignored by most car thieves.

According to Car and Driver, Here are some older vehicles known for their reliability:

• 2005 – 2011 Toyota Rav4
• 2006 – 2011 Audi A6
• 2005 – 2012 Toyota Avalon
• 2012 – 2016 Chevrolet Malibu

These vehicles can usually be found for under $10,000. However, given the rise in used car prices due to tariffs on new vehicles, they may be more expensive going forward.

Install OBD Port Covers

To protect your existing vehicle, we recommend installing a lockable OBD Port Cover. A non-locking OBD Port Cover would be redundant.

There a few things to consider when purchasing an OBD Port Cover:

1. Does installing an OBD Port Cover invalidate your vehicle’s warranty?
2. What material is it made of? Choose metal covers over plastic covers.
3. Can you make more keys for the cover?

First, installing a OBD port cover may terminate your vehicle’s manufacturer warranty. So make sure to check with your local dealership before installing one. If allowed, make sure to unlock the cover prior to any service appointments. Even rudimentary service these days require technicians to “plug” into the OBD for diagnostic purposes.

Most of the OBD port covers on Amazon and similar sites are made of plastic. The plastic versions are cheaper but offer next to no protection. You don’t protect your home with a plastic deadbolt. So don’t protect your vehicle with one either.

Not only will metal OBD port covers provide more protection, it will normally last longer as well.

Finally, you should consider how many keys you need for the OBD port cover. If you need more than the 2 keys that usually come with locks, you may be in trouble. A lot of these cheap Chinese imports on Amazon use keys not commonly found in North America.

So if you need more than one key, make sure that it comes with two by contacting the seller. If you need more than two keys, make sure to ask the seller which key blank the lock uses. If the key blank is not in the Ilco Key Blank Directory, you are in trouble. To verify, contract your local locksmith. Like myself!

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed the most common way Organized Criminal Groups are stealing vehicles utilizing the same equipment that automotive locksmiths use on a daily basis. This is one of the reasons why I personally do not provide automotive services. Not only are the industry standards changing every year, but you need to frequently buy new equipment, software, and key/fobs to keep up with the evolving security protocols.

In comparison, residential and commercial locksmithing are much more stable. In addition, it takes a lot of capital to start an automotive locksmithing service line, and even more to meet the changing requirements every year.

To conclude, if you want to protect yourself, drive vehicles that no one wants to steal or install an OBD Port Cover. While neither provide absolute protection, it’s definitely a great step forward in automotive theft protection.

If you have any questions or comments, please call or text me at 604-363-2760 or email me at alex@locksmithvancouver.com. Our Downtown Vancouver Key Store is open Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm and Mobile Locksmithing Services are available 8am to 11:30pm every day.