At least for motorbikes, the tactic is to abandon a stolen vehicle for a while after the theft to see if anyone comes for it, then take it to home base. I'd guess it all comes down to how professional an operation you're dealing with, last week a haul was recovered due to a tracker: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1denv9eg6wo

There were probably zero arrests from that seizure. There would probably be more seizures if they simply scanned used vehicle VINs going out for export, but there's no resources for that. The whole "export used garbage vehicles to a new home" market is super shady and is a convenient front for theft.

If you're lucky your car gets destroyed in a street takeover then insurance gives you a new car (points to head)

edit: on a more serious note, I figure I won't own a nice car till I move somewhere nicer

I don't think cars should have trackers in them to start with unless the owner specifically puts it in there themselves, so I see this as only good.

That's the point, a legitimate tracker, such as personal tracker or fleet tracker for company owned vehicles.

Did you not notice the motion sensor bit? Their technique does not work against a stationary tracker because it's not going to say anything. Thus you can't check out the car before you steal it.

What the bad guys do is steal the car, then leave it somewhere as soon as possible and see if anyone comes for it.