There has been a sharp increase in the number of car thefts so far this year, with Gardaí saying a significant part of the increase is made up of imports.
As cars remain scarce, dealers have looked east to Japan for used stock, which is becoming increasingly popular.
According to the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, last year 9,805 Japanese imports were recorded.
So far this year, that number has risen to 15,432.
The top brands in order are Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda and Nissan.
However, there is a problem, some cars are not equipped with immobilizers as standard. In effect, this means that they are easier to steal.
The latest figures from gardaí show that there were just over 3,000 car thefts in the first half of this year.
This is an increase of 77% compared to the same period in 2021 and 10% compared to 2019.
They say a significant proportion of the increase is due to imported used vehicles.
“Thieves who steal cars for the purpose of amusement rides will be looking for the easiest cars to steal,” said retired Garda assistant commissioner John O’Driscoll.
“At the moment the most easily stolen cars are those made for the Asian market and imported into Ireland. They can be started by simply interfering with the mechanism, joining a few wires and off you go.” he said.
He added: “The motivation to steal cars falls into two main categories.”
“One, there are high-value cars that are stolen for resale and that usually involves organized crime groups using very sophisticated methods. theft targets a cheaper car.
“Car dealerships should be aware of this new phenomenon, and they should advise people and perhaps adapt cars before they sell,” he said.
At the Ryan and Brien dealership in Bray, Co Wicklow, they do just that.
The dealership specializes in Japanese imports, and general manager Eric Ryan says business has been strong this year.
“When the wave of car thefts came out recently, we started looking into it and saw that there was a small percentage of Japanese cars coming in that didn’t have an immobilizer.
“So to protect our customers, what we’ve done is we check the car now when it arrives to see if it’s immobilized. If it’s not, we fit a factory immobilizer , and that should fix any kind of theft issues with that vehicle,” he said.
He added: “Customers in general wouldn’t know the ins and outs of cars such as immobilizers. Some may ask, some may not. So that would be up to us in the future with Japanese cars. to make sure that the customer knows that the car is equipped with an immobilizer”
He said customers should always ask if the car has an immobilizer.
This opinion is taken up by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
“We are very aware that with the increase in prices that consumers are facing, some consumers may turn to merchants they have never shopped with before, or take more risks than buying a used car,” said Grainne Griffin, director of communications.
“It is therefore very important that consumers do not compromise their safety.
“Consumers should be aware that cars are designed with different specifications for different markets. So if you buy a car that was originally designed for a country with perhaps a lower crime rate, it may not be equipped with an immobilizer or an alarm as standard.
“If it’s something that’s important to you, you need to make sure you check that it’s actually available on the car before you buy it,” she said.
As always, this is a case of caveat emptor.
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