The company is offering customers extra measures to prevent incidents

Sep 17, 2012 13:30 GMT  ·  By

In the past period the increased number of incidents in which luxury cars were stolen with the use of sophisticated gadgets has highlighted the fact that this is a growing trend and that manufacturers would have to deploy serious measures to stop the phenomenon.

Back in July we reported that a gang of thieves from the United Kingdom stole cars worth £3.5 million (4.4 million EUR or $5.4 million) by hacking into their OBD (On Board Diagnostic) network.

Since that report, experts rushed to highlight the vulnerabilities in OBD systems and, in August, news.com.au even learned of “hacking” devices that cost just $30 (24 EUR).

After the BBC’s Watchdog published a detailed report on how BMW’s could be stolen in a matter of minutes, the car manufacturer came forward with a statement.

“BMW prides itself on its vehicle security systems and all BMWs meet all UK and global security standards. Our engineers and technicians review all aspects of our vehicles constantly, including security systems,” the company’s UK representatives wrote.

“After extensive research we are clear that none of our latest models - new 1 Series Hatch, 3 Series, 5 Series, 6 Series and 7 Series - nor any other BMW built after September 2011 can be stolen using this method. However, as a responsible manufacturer we are looking at ways of mitigating against this new kind of attack.”

While they admit that there is no such thing as an “unstealable car,” they claim that they’re in the process of offering the owners of affected models some “extra technical measures” to prevent thieves from stealing them by using the devices described by researchers and news outlets.

The company advises customers to check in at authorized BMW dealerships on a regular basis since they can further enhance the theft protection mechanisms implemented on the vehicle.