New Thatcham Security Award launched with What Car?

The winners in What Car?’s annual ‘Car of the Year’ awards were revealed last night at a sparkling ceremony in London. For the first time, and reflecting the huge strides that vehicle manufacturers have made with regard to vehicle security in recent years, the ceremony featured the What Car? Thatcham Security Award.

In deriving the winning manufacturer in this category, What Car? turned to Thatcham and their world-renowned New Vehicle Security Ratings (NSVR) scheme featured in the What Car? ‘New Car Guide.’

Thatcham’s vehicle security specialists test a host of security systems to produce a rating, from door and ignition locks to the effectiveness of the ignition key code. The security systems designed to prevent thefts ‘from’ cars are also assessed, again looking at all manner of systems, including the quality of peripheral locks and mechanisms and alarm system.

Although it is more difficult to steal vehicles than ever before, theft ‘from’ is still an issue, therefore all vehicle manufacturer led advances in technology, which are helping to defeat the car thieves, must be applauded.

This award recognises the manufacturer with the widest range of models in which every variant scores highly against all the requirements of Thatcham’s New Vehicle Security Assessment and satisfies the award selection criteria.

Commenting on the 2007 What Car? Thatcham Security Award winner, Thatcham’s Vehicle Security Manager Mike Briggs, said ‘Audi is without doubt the best manufacturer for vehicle security over the last 12 months. Nevertheless, the NVSA results show how committed the most progressive manufacturers are to further improving vehicle security and offering better security solutions for their customers.’