Stop ’em with Thatcham, says auto security expert

Alex Lye suggests Putrajaya make it compulsory for car companies to provide better security for their customers.

PETALING JAYA: An automobile security expert has urged the government to force car companies to equip the vehicles they sell with security systems benchmarked against proven international standards.

Speaking to FMT, Alex Lye, a member of the International Association of Auto Theft Investigators, weighed in on a report on automotive website Paultan.org, which said the Toyota Vellfire was the most frequently stolen vehicle in Malaysia.

Paultan.org quoted figures provided by the General Insurance Association of Malaysia (PIAM).

Lye said even though many luxury cars boasted high tech security systems, they could easily be defeated by car thieves in possession of tools which could override even GPS tracking systems.

“Of course, demand is a factor in why some cars are targeted more than others, but it is the weak security systems that make it possible,” he said. “And this isn’t fair to Malaysian consumers, who have to fork out hundreds of thousands for a luxury car.”

Last June, Paultan.org reported that the on-the-road price of a brand new Toyota Vellfire was RM355,000.

Lye said a good benchmark for security systems would be the United Kingdom’s Thatcham system, which would take even the best car thief at least 20 minutes to disable.

“This system has helped reduce car thefts in the UK by nearly 55% since the early 1990s.”

He noted a recent statement by PIAM chief Mark Lim that the Vehicle Theft Reduction Council, working with other authorities, brought down the number of stolen vehicles by 20% last year.

“If automobile manufacturers equip their cars with security systems benchmarked to international standards, then we could reduce car thefts by another 30%,” Lye said.

He said this was why the government needed to make it compulsory for all cars sold in Malaysia to come with security systems that met such standards. -FMT