Hot Wheels 2008: The Most Frequently Stolen Cars in the United States

The National Insurance Crime Board has just released their list of the most frequently stolen cars of 2007. Topping the list once again are two older sedans from Honda — the ’95 Civic and the ’91 Accord. Here’s the full rundown:

  1. 1995 Honda Civic
  2. 1991 Honda Accord
  3. 1989 Toyota Camry
  4. 1997 Ford F-150 Pickup
  5. 1994 Chevrolet C/K 1500 Pickup
  6. 1994 Acura Integra
  7. 2004 Dodge Ram Pickup
  8. 1994 Nissan Sentra
  9. 1998 Toyota Pickup
  10. 2007 Toyota Corolla

And here’s the list from last 2006:

  1. 1995 Honda Civic
  2. 1991 Honda Accord
  3. 1989 Toyota Camry
  4. 1997 Ford F-150 Pickup
  5. 2005 Dodge Ram Pickup
  6. 1994 Chevrolet C/K 1500 Pickup
  7. 1994 Nissan Sentra
  8. 1994 Dodge Caravan
  9. 1994 Saturn SL
  10. 1990 Acura Integra

All in all, the list was fairly stable, with the top four slots remaining unchanged and six of the ten entries being identical between years. Despite these parallels, the vehicle theft rate dropped by 8.9% in 2007 vs. 2006.

As an aside, I’ve always been surprised at how this list tends toward older, presumably less attractive cars. On the surface, you’d think that people would be most interested in boosting late model, high value cars. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that most cars are stolen for their parts, and older (but popular) models provide the best market for stolen parts.

Photo Credit: Matt Biddulph

8 Responses to “Hot Wheels 2008: The Most Frequently Stolen Cars in the United States”

  1. Anonymous

    Heh, just days too late for me and my mint 1991 Camry station wagon (just like the 1989 Camry essentially) with only 100k miles – it was stolen two days before my wedding (which was 9 days ago!).

    Next ideas for protecting the (next) car:
    (1) Hidden rocker kill switch attached to ignition wiring or fuel injector wiring.
    (2) a club like wheel lock/immobilizer
    (3) an alarm like that on the wife’s 1999 Camry

    Looking for a car and waiting on the insurance claim to go through now … don’t see any 1998-2002 Corollas on the lists and they get a penny pinching 34+mpg for my purposes (25-50 mile commute with 25% city driving).

    Apparently the older models are stolen more frequently because they are simply easier to break into and startup (and this knowledge is more common because these cars are so common). In my area the police believe they are more commonly found than newer vehicles because they are merely taken for joy rides rather than for parts or to sell whole. They say 1995+ models are stolen to be sold or parted out more frequently than the older models. That being said, my car still hasn’t been found.

    Hopefully Farmer’s will take care of me, I trust my agent and the process has been fair so far.

    Better mileage on my potential 1996-2000 Civic or 1998-1999 Corolla/Prism (apparently 5-10% of the 2000-2002 had an excessive oil consumption problem) with the help of hopefully.

  2. Anonymous

    Late model Hondas have a chipped engine lock system tied into the key. The engine computer won’t even start up without the right response. It’s not impossible to override, but probably much more difficult for anyone but a professional thief.

  3. Anonymous

    justatron is right about the Honda’s being souped up for street racing. My husband used to have a 98 Civic and most of the research we did on the thefts led us to that conclusion. They can easily put an Integra engine in a lighter Civic and make other modifications for racing. It creates the need to steal them even more cause the parts get used and worn out (or wrecked) quicker.

    My experience with older cars is that they are easier to break into. I live in a high crime city and used to drive a 89 Stanza. That thing got broken into once a year from 2000-05. Sometimes they would just break the glass, other times they could slide the locks open. It was just too easy. Fortunately the car was never successfully stolen. Now I have an Acura and the only time its been broken into was cause I left a briefcase in there. I’ve had no problems with someone “wanting” the car.

    My husband has always had a manual transmission car and rarely has problems. His belief is that most thieves (like most of the general population) can’t drive a stick. He may be right. Twice his car has had the window broken but nothing else has been touched. Its almost as if the thieves broke the wondow and then went “$*%#, I can’t drive this car.” Totally unproven theory, but my husband believes it is true.

  4. Anonymous

    Not only are they stealing them for the parts, but when you look at the vehicles that are on the road, the Civic and Accord are two of the most popular vehicles over the past decade so from a pure numbers standpoint, there are more civics and accords to steal.

  5. Anonymous

    Maybe some people are stealing the older Hondas so they can jack them up for street racing? When I saw the 95 Civic on there, that is the first thing that entered my mind…

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