High-End Light Trucks Gain Favor Among Thieves
Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys remained the most popular vehicles among thieves last year, but high-end light trucks gained ground as popular targets for pilfering, the National Insurance Crime Bureau said in its latest list Monday.
Accords and Camrys were followed by the Chevrolet C/K pickup truck, Jeep Cherokee/Grand Cherokee sport-utility vehicles, Honda Civic, Oldsmobile Cutlass, Ford F-series pickup, Ford Mustang, Dodge Caravan and Toyota Corolla.
The Chevrolet C/K jumped four spots in the list to third, Cherokee/Grand Cherokees five places to fourth, and Ford F-series pickups three notches to seventh in rankings mirroring the shifts in taste on America’s highways.
“Vehicle thieves follow market trends and target the most popular vehicles because they provide the best market for stolen-vehicle parts,” the bureau’s Ed Sparkman said.
The list is based on more than 400,000 stolen-vehicle reports submitted to the nonprofit bureau by its member insurance companies nationwide. The figure represents roughly one-third of all vehicles reported stolen last year.
The bureau combines theft reports for all model years of a particular make and model, unlike a similar annual list issued by CCC Information Services Inc. That company, which also tracks vehicle thefts for the insurance industry, lists the most-stolen vehicles by model year.
But the two lists feature some of the same cars. In February, CCC reported that the top three stolen cars in 1998 all were Camrys from various years, followed by the 1994 Accord EX, tops among 13 Accords in that list’s top 25.
The lists of most-stolen vehicles usually lag sales trends by several years. As a popular model ages and demand for its parts rises, it moves up on the theft lists. The high ranking of the Olds Cutlass, for example, reflects the car’s immense popularity in the mid-1980s.
Japanese cars lead the theft list in Los Angeles. American vehicles are the top targets of thieves in Detroit and Chicago; pickups in Houston and Phoenix.
Even so, the FBI said the estimated figure of 1.2 million vehicles reported stolen nationwide in 1998 was 8% less than the previous year and the lowest number since 1986.
