DRIVING : List Shows Thieves Love GM Vehicles

An auto popularity poll has General Motors vehicles as its Top 10 cars. Unfortunately, it’s a list of wheels favored by car thieves.

Top of the hit parade--compiled by CCC Information Services of Chicago--is the 1984 Olds Cutlass Supreme, followed by the 1986 Chevy Camaro. Three younger Cutlasses made the tally, with a 1985 Buick Regal in 10th spot.

There isn’t a Mercedes or Lexus in the first unhappy 100. The highest-ranking import is a 1988 Honda Accord LX in 12th place. Nine of Texas’ Top 10 are Chevrolet trucks. California’s auto yeggs prefer Honda Preludes. And 75% of all stolen cars were built in the ‘80s.

Darren DiMaria of CCC has it figured out.

Few cars are taken by joy riders and carjackers. Thieving for export is a micro business. But as cars age, parts get scarcer and more expensive. And as GM sells more cars than anybody else, more GM cars are pinched for parts.

“There’s also the interchangeability of parts,” DiMaria says. “A fender from an ’84 Cutlass fits the next three years of Cutlass. A Cutlass Supreme is the same car as the Buick Regal and Pontiac Grand Prix so fenders, wheels, engines, seats, the whole nine yards are interchangeable.”

Don’t buy an alarm for your 1985 Chevrolet Celebrity. It ranked the least desirable of 100 vehicles.