Some vehicles are popular in the sense that they look cool and might be fun to drive. Many others, though, are popular in a different sense — because they present such an attractive target to would-be car thieves and chop shops.
When it comes to the latter category, it’s rarely the flashy cars that the rich and famous would be spotted cruising around town in. More often than not, the choice targets of automobile bandits are the types of vehicles you’d see in an ad for a personal injury lawyer at Redondo Beach or on a used car lot.
Exactly which brands and specific models might these be, you wonder? Today, we’ll be taking a look at some of the top stolen vehicles across the United States, using data and insights pulled from the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
Narrowing Down The Most Stolen Cars
In order to determine which cars were most targeted by thieves data scientists had to do a bit of number crunching based on reported crime statistics. After working that numerical magic, they were able to determine the most stolen types of cars, trucks, and SUVs for the year of 2019:
- Ford Pickups — 38,938 thefts
- Honda Civics — 33,220 thefts
- Chevrolet Pickups — 32,583 thefts
- Honda Accords — 30,745 thefts
- Toyota Camrys — 15,656 thefts
- Nissan Altimas — 13,355 thefts
- Toyota Corollas — 12,137 thefts
- Dodge Pickups — 11,292 thefts
- GMC Pickups — 11,164 thefts
- Honda CR-Vs — 10,094 thefts
What’s more, they were able to determine the specific model/makes that were most heavily targeted by thieves during 2019:
- 2000 Honda Civic — 4,731 thefts
- 1997 Honda Accord — 3,563 thefts
- 2006 Ford Pickup — 3,061 thefts
- 2004 Chevrolet Pickup — 2,099 thefts
- 2019 Ram Pickup — 1,547 thefts
- 2001 Honda CR-V — 1,394 thefts
- 2015 Nissan Altima — 1,349 thefts
- 2001 Dodge Pickup — 1,174 thefts
- 2019 Jeep Cherokee — 1,110 thefts
- 2018 GMC Pickup 1,101 thefts
Car Theft Insights And Trends
Looking over the data, something that jumps out immediately is the popularity of pickup trucks among automobile thieves. Trucks are a goldmine for criminals, because those parts can go for top dollar at illegal markets and the trucks themselves can be a prime spot for stashing stolen goods from other criminal activities. If it’s not a truck getting stolen, chances are your economy sedan is within a thief’s sights, so if you have either of these vehicle types, make sure you’re extra careful when your vehicle is unattended.