The UK’s largest owner-managed loss adjusting and claims solutions group, QuestGates, has completed its initial analysis of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) Lost or Stolen (LoS) data for 2025, revealing encouraging trends for the motor insurance market.
For the motor insurance industry and motorists in general, the data points to a clear shift in the right direction with fewer thefts, higher recovery rates and a reduction in write-offs, all of which have positive implications for claims costs and loss ratios.
Key findings include:
- ‘All vehicle’ thefts fell by 11.36%, from 102,240 in 2024 to 90,625 in 2025.
- Stripping out motorcycles, vans, HGVs etc, the improvement solely for private cars was even greater, down 13.30% from 61,857 in 2024 to 53,629 last year.
- The top three most stolen makes in 2025 were: 1) Ford; 2) BMW; and 3) Toyota.
- The most stolen models in 2025 were: 1) Ford Fiesta; 2) VW Golf; and 3) Ford Focus.
Philip Swift, Technical Director – Motor at QuestGates, commented “The top two most stolen makes, Ford and BMW, remain the same as in 2024. Toyota replaced Land Rover in third, with the latter seeing almost 30% less thefts. The most stolen models are all best-sellers, on average around 8 years old, indicating that they are being targeted for parts.
“The percentage of stolen cars successfully recovered increased from 42.48% to 44.94%, while the average time from theft to recovery reduced, from 27.1 days in 2024 to 25.6% last year. Less recovered cars were subsequently deemed total losses, with reductions across all four write-off categories. The findings will be welcomed by insurers, brokers and claims professionals.
“We will be looking at the regional variations in more depth over the coming weeks, using this and other datasets. However, it is clear already that Sussex, Leicestershire and Devon & Cornwall police constabularies deserve praise for achieving both substantial car theft reductions and improvements in recovery rates.”
This analysis is based on DVLA data obtained through a Freedom of Information request and is subject to the limitations of that data and may not represent a complete picture.