Here we have yet another study about which are the most stolen nameplates in America. Courtesy of the National Insurance Crime Bureau, the annual Hot Wheels report used data submitted by law enforcement to the National Crime Information Center to identify the most stolen cars of 2013.
The most stolen vehicle in the United States last year was the Honda Accord, one of the best-selling models in this part of the world. No less than 53,995 thefts involving the Accord were reported in 2013, of which 8,166 were Accords from the 1996 model year and just 276 from the 2013 model year. That's way more than the second favorite automobile among car thieves - the Honda Civic. Authorities are aware of 45,001 thefts involving the compact vehicle.
On third place we have an assortment of both light and heavy-duty Chevrolet pickup trucks. NICB tells that 27,809 examples were stolen, roughly 1,300 more than the fourth nameplate featured in this list - the Ford pickup truck. The ever so popular Toyota Camry is on fifth with 14,420 known thefts, while the Dodge pickup truck and Caravan follow on sixth and seventh with 11,347 and 10,911 thefts, respectively.
The final three places of this top 10 are taken by the Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee (9,272 thefts), Toyota Corolla (9,010) and Nissan Altima (8,892). If you're only interested in the most stolen 2013 model year vehicles stolen the previous year, that list looks like this: Nissan Altima (810 thefts), Ford Fusion (793), Ford pickup truck (775), Toyota Corolla (669), Chevy Impala (654), Hyundai Elantra (541), Dodge Charger (536), Chevrolet Malibu (529), Chevrolet Cruze (499) and the popular Ford Focus (483).
Preliminary data collected and analyzed by the NICG suggests that car thefts in 2013 were down 3.2 percent compared to the year 2012, to fewer than 700,000 vehicles, the lowest figure since 1967 and a reduction in thefts of over 50 percent since 1991. That year is considered as the peak year for vehicle thefts - a whopping 1,661,738 cars were stolen the year Nirvana released its second studio album - the modern classic Nevermind. "The drop in thefts is good news for all of us," explains NICB President and CEO Joe Wehrle. "But it still amounts to a vehicle being stolen every 45 seconds and losses of over $4 billion a year."
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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