Thieves steal headlights from luxury cars in Britain

The whole is not always greater than the sum of its parts.

According to Fleetworld, “eye-snatching” or headlight theft is becoming increasingly common in the British Isles. That’s because the part is easier to steal than an entire vehicle and can still net the thief thousands of dollars – especially if it comes from a premium car.

Like so many other elements of the vehicles we drive today, headlights have made several evolutionary leaps since the turn of the century. Thanks to developments such as LED matrix and adaptive technologies, they are more complex than ever. Not surprisingly, this has dramatically increased the cost of the part. Carscoops reports that a single headlight for the new BMW 4 Series costs $3,000, while the same part costs $4,300 each in the Audi Q7 and SUV, which starts at $60,500. That’s right, the two headlights of the new Q7 cost more than 10 percent of the total vehicle price.

Not surprisingly, the automotive underworld has taken note of the rising price of headlights. As a result, “vehicle tampering” is on the rise in the country, according to Claims Management & Adjusting (CMA), a specialist motor insurance claims adjuster. Reports of these incidents, which involve the theft of parts rather than the entire vehicle itself, increased from 52,268 reported incidents to 53,369 between April 2023 and March 2024. That’s an increase of two percent.

One of the reasons for this is that thieves only have to cut into the housing and tear out the lighting unit. This usually results in damage to other parts of the car, including the hood, bumper, and fenders, but again, it’s relatively straightforward.

“Such attacks are rudimentary but effective – rip out the headlights and get out quickly,” said Philip Swift, CMA technical director Fleet World. “While it is unlikely that a write-off will occur due to the expensive profile of the affected vehicles, these are costly repairs.”

It also seems to be very lucrative. The cost of replacement parts has risen dramatically in recent years, making some cars worth more disassembled than intact. This has led to a rise in chop shops in the UK. As of the first half of 2024, local authorities have discovered 37 chop shops across the country, a big increase from last year. For this reason, industry groups are calling on the new UK government to reinstate the vehicle theft taskforce that was set up in 2019 to combat the problem.