Luggage Safe in the Car?

It is not 100% safe to leave your valuables in a car and not in a locked trunk. Take your valuables with you when you leave the car or lock them in the trunk.

You'd be unlucky to have your luggage nicked, but's that not to say it could never happen. Thefts from cars aren't especially common but they do happen.

But for sure don't try this in San Francisco! Or possibly in your own home town.

If I could put it all away - all - in your situation I might risk it as long as I hadn't opened the boot in the same car park, parked back in up to a fence or wall, in a car park with no glass on the ground. Maybe.

If you are leaving things in the passenger compartment - no way. If you have lifted the boot lid - no way.

By the way - don't drive with loose luggage in the passenger compartment. If you have an accident something that big and heavy will keep going forward when everything else stops. A very effective device to take your head off. Unfortunately I have had to deal with the aftermath. Do me a favour, don't do it.

You would not only risk losing your luggage but have the added hassle of a broken window. As Nigel intimates, even if you park, put it in the boot, thieves are watching. My rule of thumb is leave nothing, absolutely nothing, visible in the passenger compartment, doubling down in tourist areas. It could be a bag of trash but the window breaker does not know that. And, assuming there are two of you, how are you packing such that you cannot fit your luggage in the boot? Consider downsizing.

Same advice as the others; everything should be out of sight and out of the passenger compartment, even those few loose coins and the GPS cord. Try and get everything into the boot ahead of time so you’re not moving it in the parking lot where you may be getting watched. I’ve never had a problem.

Anything on show... expect it to go.

"We'd have to leave our luggage in our car and I don't think it would all fit in the trunk (boot) of the car. "

When a friend and I went to Sicily, we had to rent a larger car for just this reason. Even though there were only two passengers, the smaller car would not have fit our luggage in the trunk.

When you look at the different sizes of cars available for rental, the websites tell you how many passengers and how much luggage they will fit. Be sure to rent one that will fit both people and luggage properly (which, as everyone else is saying, means no luggage in the passenger compartment).

Another thing we did was to be sure to arrange everything BEFORE each departure, so that when we arrived, everything we were taking with us was in the passenger compartment, and we never had to open the trunk on arrival.

What size suitcase are you all referring to? Carryon which is 20" or larger size when the car rental says 2 pcs of luggage

Great advice - not only about not leaving valuables in the passenger compartment of the car, but about not parking, stowing things in the boot, and then walking away. I wouldn't do that in the city where I live, or anywhere in the world.

You really don't know who - or where - the thieves are. They may see valuables when they look into the car, or they may have watched you stow something carefully away in the boot before you walk away from the parked car. It takes them literally seconds to smash their way into a vehicle, grab the valuables, and go. Some of them will watch your body language before you get out of the car; and if it looks like you've stashed something under the seat they'll figure it's worth a smash and grab to get it. Here's an updated version of a police department video featuring a genuine (and I think now re-incarcerated) thief, which ought to open your eyes about how fast and easy it is for these smash and grabs to happen.

I'd like to think that Britain has better and more effective public video surveillance in place than we're used to in the US, and that would deter thieves in parking lots. I'd like to think it, but I'm not going to bet my holiday on it.

As long as you can see the car, the stuff inside is safe.

Once its out of sight, all bets are off

We were in the UK for 39 days and for 22 of those days we had our luggage in our car a lot.

We were lucky but when we were leaving a car park in northern England, we did come across a car that had its luggage stolen and windows broken. My hubby is disabled so we were always parked near the entrance to things. We took extra precautions by cable locking our luggage to the trunk and car seats. Everything was in large suitcases and they were locked and then cable locked to the car so no chance of smash and grab. It was a hassle but we did it. Made me feel safer. Hubby thought it was not necessary but after we saw the car with broken windows, he was glad we had my 2 cable locks. One locked to the car and one locked 4 pieces of luggage together. Not going to run with that. LOL

The car we're renting is most likely going to be a hatchback. I was planning on making a few stops between bath and Stow on the Wold. Now wondering if I should rethink that plan if we do end up with a hatchback:(

Thanks again Emma for your helpful information! :)

Most European cars are hatchbacks, and your car will be indistinguishable from all the others. No-one can tell you that your car will not be the one that is broken into, but the chances are not great. Those of us who live here do not drive around in a constant state of fear, and although we take reasonable steps to ensure that we are not the victims of theft, we don't go out of our way to do so, and would certainly not hesitate to make several journeys from Bath to Stow on the Wold because of the risk of theft.

There are four of us travelling up to Northumberland on Tuesday, and our Nissan Qashqai will be full. I have taken the rear parcel shelf out to make more space, and it is actually impossible to look in the back window and see anything. You can only really see in the driver's and front passenger's window.

My advice would be to put as much in the boot as you can, take valuables (money, passports, phones) with you, and try to make sure anything you do leave on view is of no value to a thief.

I would have a tote bag or small backpack to take with me at every mid-day stop. In that bag would be my electronic gear and critical medications. I'd treat that bag just like my purse.

We have enjoyed many road trips in Great Britain and have never had any problem with anyone trying to break into our rental car. Besides the usual stops at castles we have also often parked at rather remote stone circles. If we are transiting from one hotel to the next, there would usually be one suitcase in the boot and one on the backseat, since both would often not fit in the trunk. If you are really worried about this, you could stop at a thrift shop and buy a used sheet or tablecloth to cover the suitcase. I have often seen signs at roadside stops in Ireland that warn that thieves operate in the vicinity, but I have not (so far) seen similar signs in Great Britain.

We did a 28 day drive tour of Wales and England (not visiting London and the SE). The largest cities we visited were Cardiff and York. On some days, between B&B or small hotels, we did have some small bags in our back seat. 90% of our luggage was in our trunk. For example we stopped at Tintern Abbey and a couple of castles in Wales while carry those bags in our back seat.

We had no problems regarding break-ins. When visiting places like Tintern or castles, we parked in public parking lots, but not in heavily populated cities. Think about where you are stopping. We kept important items like cameras, passports and cash on our persons or locked in the trunk.