When a badge isn’t just a badge
Nobody expects to walk out to their car and find the emblem missing off the front. The newest target for thieves appears to be something apart from wheels, stereos, or even catalytic converters. Just a small circular badge that most owners would assume is worth about as much as scrap metal. Except on a lot of modern Volkswagens, that badge sits directly over the forward radar sensor, used by adaptive cruise control and other driver-assistance systems.
Pop the badge off and you’re not just stealing trim, you’re stealing the eyes of the car. The irony is that Volkswagen made the badge removable-looking for a very good reason. Radar can’t simply sit behind an ordinary metal grille, so the emblem effectively doubles as a window for the sensor. Replacing this part can run owners close to $2,500, according to victims who spoke to The Telegraph. Police in south east London say around 70 cars across 29 roads were hit in a four day stretch. That’s more than opportunistic theft. It’s a pattern.
Gone In Five Seconds, Scouted In Advance
Volkswagen
One owner’s Volkswagen Tiguan was among them. His CCTV showed two people rolling up on hire bikes, popping the badge, and riding off, all in under five seconds. He said the theft left him with nearly $2,500 in damage. His words for it were blunt: they harvested the area. Several residents believe drones were used to scope out targets beforehand, spotting which driveways had a Volkswagen worth hitting before the thieves ever showed up. Officials haven’t confirmed the drone theory. Another owner said a neighbor saw a drone hovering nearby the night before her six-week-old T-Roc was targeted.
Why The VW Badge Is Worth Stealing
The badge itself isn’t the prize. The valuable part is the radar module mounted behind it, a radar module that a repair shop has to replace and recalibrate. The expensive part isn’t the logo. It’s everything that has to happen after the logo comes off. The radar has to be replaced, mounted correctly and recalibrated. That’s the gap thieves are exploiting. Something that looks like a two-minute swap job is actually a driver-assistance component with a specialist price tag attached.Â
Newer Volkswagens Don’t Put The Radar Behind The Badge
Not every Volkswagen is equally vulnerable. The radar-behind-the-badge setup is used on specific models and generations spanning the Golf, Tiguan, Jetta, Passat, ID.4 and ID.5, meaning owners can potentially determine whether their car is a target before discovering the emblem missing. Volkswagen appears to have already moved away from the design on newer models. The automaker says recently launched vehicles place the radar sensor separately from the badge, meaning the very feature that made older cars attractive to thieves isn’t present in the same way on newer Volkswagens. For now, owners of affected Volkswagens are left with an absurd new precaution: checking the badge on the front of the car before they even start it.
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