Story: DAVID WILKINS
IF you don’t want your business cars or vans disappearing while you still hold the keys, here’s the answer: Volkswagen and Nissan.
Both Volkswagen and Nissan have been singled out by the motor insurance industry’s Thatcham research centre for their high standards of vehicle security. In this year’s British Insurance Vehicle Security Awards (BIVSA), Volkswagen was the top manufacturer in the car category, while Nissan cleaned up on the van side.
Business users keen to avoid the expense and disruption that results from thefts of or from company vehicles could find some useful pointers in the separate awards made for a large number of vehicle sub-categories – the full list is on the next page. Besides Volkswagen and its sister company Audi, other manufacturers who did well in the cars categories included Citroen and Volvo.
The awards, which are supported by the UK Department for Transport, are now in their ninth year. During that period, vehicle crime has fallen by about a third, thanks to technology improvements such as lockable fuel filler caps, better alarms and immobilisers and keyless entry systems. Vehicle identification and anti-counterfeiting measures have also been beefed up.
On the other hand, new threats are always emerging, most recently the scare about criminals accessing a vehicle’s systems in order to get the information required to programme a new key.
Paul Everitt, Chief Executive of the SMMT, said: “The unregulated purchase and use of equipment that should only be available to specialist technicians is an increasing concern and we should collectively explore how we can minimise its impact on the safety and security of the motoring public.”
Next year, the scope of the awards will be expanded to cover safety as well as security issues, and will be retitled the British Insurance Vehicle Safety and Security Awards (BIVSSA).
The full list of winners (cars) was as follows:
- Manufacturer: Volkswagen UK
- City Car/Supermini: Audi A1
- Small Family Car: Volkswagen Beetle (2012 MY)
- Family Car: Citroen C5 Exclusive
- Compact Executive Car: Audi A4
- Compact MPV: Citroen C4 Picasso Exclusive
- Large MPV: Volkswagen Sharan
- Open-top Car: Audi A5 Cabriolet
- Performance Car: Audi A8 W12 Quattro
- Crossover: Audi Q3
- Compact 4×4: Audi Q5
- Large 4×4: Toyota Land Cruiser V8
- Executive Car: Citroen C6
- Luxury Car: Volkswagen Phaeton
- Green Car: Vauxhall Ampera
- International Vehicle Security Award: Volvo Cars
Winners in the vans category were:
- Manufacturer: Nissan Motor (GB) Ltd
- Light Van: Volkswagen Caddy
- Heavy Van: Nissan Primastar
- Pick-up (including light tipper): Volkswagen Amarok
- 4×4 Van: Land Rover Discovery 4
- Green Van: Ford Fiesta Panel Van-1.6 Duratorq TDCi + DPF (ECOnetic)
