A motor vehicle was stolen in the United States every 46 seconds in 2014. As bad as that sounds, that represents a decline of 1.3% compared with 2013, 6.8% compared with 2010 and 44.2% compared with 2005.
According to the Federal Highway Administration, there were more than 260 million motor vehicles on U.S. roads in 2014. And according to FBI crime statistics, more than 611,000 were stolen. The U.S. average per 100,000 people was 216.2 vehicle thefts.
And all cars are not treated equally. In 2015 the most stolen vehicle was a 1996 Honda Accord (52,244), with the 1998 Honda Civic in second place (49,430). Why steal such old cars? Because it’s easier. Researchers from CheapCarInsurance.com explain:
According to our research, thieves favor 1990s-model cars, perhaps because engine immobilizer systems in new cars make it essentially impossible to start a car without the ignition key. These system started to become widespread in 1998. Modern cars can still be stolen, but now it takes a much higher level of technical sophistication.
Not much higher, though, at least in some cases. More than 10,000 2015 Nissan Altima’s were stolen in 2015, ranking the car eighth on the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) list of the top 10 “Hot Wheels” for the year.
A couple of other interesting data points from the NICB’s report are some other top targets for car thieves. Full-size pickups from Ford, GM and Ram account for three spots among the top ten stolen cars of 2015. The three combined for 68,379 stolen vehicles last year.
In four states, the most often stolen vehicle was a Dodge Caravan. Go figure.
Here’s a list of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia ranked from the highest to the lowest rate of stolen vehicles per 100,000 population along with the favorite vehicle of car thieves and the number of thefts in each state.
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