I've heard that this is quite common. The criminals drive the car a short distance and leave it for a few days to check if it has a hidden tracker. If the vehicle isn't recovered they assume it is clean.
The story I heard is the car is stolen and used briefly to commit other crimes like robberies or general mischief. Then the car is discarded leaving the surveillance trail largely dead or at least difficult to follow.
Depends on the vehicle. Range Rovers are commonly stolen to be exported for countries where registering them is not a problem and where buyers are likely to pay cash. Some cars are stolen to be broken up for parts, some are used for other crimes, and some are exported and re-sold as-is. LR products are very frequently in that last group.
