Thieves love Land Rover

Car thieves frequently make their rounds in the French-speaking cantons of Geneva, Vaud, and Jura – and prefer certain brands over others, as shown by AXA’s figures.

Around 4.7 million cars are currently registered in Switzerland, and nearly 900 of these were stolen in 2021 alone according to Swiss criminal statistics. Car thieves most often steal a VW. An analysis by AXA shows that in the past five years, no car was stolen more often than VW vehicles. The second most common brand according to AXA 's figures is BMW, followed by Audi.

However, the risk of a car theft for a VW is still much lower than for a Porsche. “There is an abundance of VW vehicles in particular on the road, meaning that a high number of this brand are also stolen,” explains Jérôme Pahud, Head of Motor Vehicle Insurance at AXA. The theft rates clearly show which brands are really popular, in other words the theft frequency in relation to the number of insured vehicles.

Land Rover and Porsche especially popular

Theft figures show that car thieves are especially interested in expensive cars: The probability of a Land Rover being stolen is four times the Swiss average, while for Porsche the number is twice as high. Alfa Romeo, Audi, and Mercedes are also popular among thieves. The Asian brands round off the bottom of the ranking: For a Kia, Mitsubishi, or Hyundai, the probability of a car theft is only half the Swiss average – and ten times lower than for a Land Rover.

Cantons in French-speaking Switzerland more affected

According to AXA’s figures, the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, and Jura see a particularly high number of car thefts – in Geneva, three times more cars are stolen than the Swiss national average and even ten times as many as in the canton of Nidwalden, the canton with the lowest theft rate in Switzerland.