Voting for The Truth About Cars’ Ten Worst Automobiles Today (TWAT) awards has now closed. We will reveal the ten winners/losers next week, once our writers have penned their pithy pillories and our new PR flack has been prepared. Meanwhile, our esteemed (though not necessarily by us) colleagues have begun their annual love-ins. Motor Trend has named the Mercedes GL450 their SUV of the Year– testing the controversial theory that the most expensive vehicle is also the best. Edmunds has unveiled their “most wanted” list, with no fewer than 32 winners (TTAC snipers note: only two domestic gongs). Thankfully, the awards season isn’t all ad-scented fluff. For example, here’s the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s (NICB) 2005 list of America’s most stolen vehicles:
1. 1991 Honda Accord
2. 1995 Honda Civic
3. 1989 Toyota Camry
4. 1994 Dodge Caravan
5. 1994 Nissan Sentra
6. 1997 Ford F150 Series
7. 1990 Acura Integra
8. 1986 Toyota Pickup
9. 1993 Saturn SL
10. 2004 Dodge Ram Pickup
The NICB's list was compiled using FBI data on 1,235,226 stolen vehicles. Last year, the Bureau’s number crunchers estimated the average value of a heisted car was $6,173. (I guess you gotta steal a whole lot of Saturn SL’s to make up for a stolen Ferrari.) The bottom line: over $7.6b in insurance claims your insurance company would rather not pay, thank you very much, and God knows how much in “extra” premiums you’ve got to fork over whether you like it or not (at least that’s Allstate’s stand).
The survey raises some important extra-financial questions. Who would steal a 1994 Dodge Caravan? An eight member team of bank robbers? Why is General Motors, once again, so poorly represented on a list, any list? In fact, the vehicles on the NICB’s most stolen vehicles list aren't all that surprising. The majority of car thefts are crimes of opportunity. These are the alarmless cars most likely to be parked at the mall or along the street or, in the case of the Saturn, stolen because the owner paid someone to do it.
These most stolen stats are extremely misleading for paranoid car shoppers. After all, there are a LOT of Accords, Civic and Camrys on American roads. If theft-aversive consumers seek the least lifted automobiles, they need to know which cars are most likely to be stolen as a percentage of the total number of those models still in service. For that reallycooldatainfo, we turn to R.L. Polk & Co., home of intelligenceinsightimpact™.
1. 2001 BMW M Roadster
2. 1998 Acura Integra
3. 2004 Mercury Marauder
4. 1999 Acura Integra
5. 1995 Acura Integra
6. 2002 Audi S4
7. 1996 Acura Integra
8. 1997 Acura Integra
9. 2001 Acura Integra
10. 2000 Jaguar XJR
M Roadster? Audi S4? Jaguar XJR? I guess when a fast car gets stolen, it stays stolen. And man, are those thieves clever! Stealing a car that looks like a cop car (Mercury Marauder) is nothing less than criminal genius (at least in Rhode Island). Actually, it’s not quite that simple/interesting. This is a list of the top ten stolen vehicles, as a percentage of the total number of those models sold, that aren’t recovered.
The feds report that 62.1% of all stolen vehicles– some 450k automobiles– are never seen again by their owners. Well, not by Americans. As much trouble as the United States has keeping illegal immigrants out, we have difficulty keeping stolen cars in. Exporting hot wheels (1:1 scale) is una cosa muy grande. In ’05, the NICB’s multi-lingual sleuths claim to have repatriated some 3k vehicles from Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela and (get this) Lithuania. Obviously, that’s a drop in the container cargo vessel stuffed with stolen cars filled ocean.
The insurance industry mouthpiece says a much larger number of stolen vehicles are “give ups;” the PC term for cars dumped illegally by cheats and deadbeats. The rest end-up in chop shops, helping to reduce the rapacious prices charged by original equipment manufacturers and increasing the profits of auto body shops at the expense of the insurance companies who pass that cost along to you, the guy who pays insurance and [probably] doesn’t know that his damaged vehicle has been fitted with stolen car parts so the autobody shop owner can afford a nice summer house by the lake, and a new bass boat.
The NICB has a solution to all this, similar to the one used by Antarctic explorers: layering. That’s a fancy way of saying don’t leave your keys in the car and buy as much protection as you can: alarms, immobilizers, tracking devices and some guy named Bruno. Strange that the NICB go to all the trouble of naming names and then forget to say it might be a good idea to avoid buying one of these thief magnets. Never mind. The truth is that car theft is a huge and hugely profitable business that endangers our lives (with crap parts). All you can do is all you can do. If “they” want your 1999 Acura Integra, they’re gonna get it.
It’s reallly intersting that on both lists American cars don’t exactly represent any statistical excitement. Could it be that crooks take what they want not what is discounted and given a 0% loan? And is this just not another snapshot look at the real problem with American cars, how do you get rid of them as in trade in, when few desire them new? I do believe there are a few new American cars that might now make the list in the future (after having enough on the streets). I also feel the lost time to not even be on the one list will be hard to every surmount.
Forbes seems to have a new list of vehicles every week, none of which could have taken an intern more than an hour’s worth of research.
Maybe we need a list of worthless lists. Or maybe the idiots who make these lists will hear about TWAT and figure out that its sarcasm is on target and stop making idiot lists.
Or maybe they will find more solace in the fact that carmakers like these lists and buy more advertising.
Should I hold my breath?
I ws just commenting to my wife that the great thing about driving our 91 Accord (complete with Minnesota salt rust) is that I know it will be where I left it.
Crap, now I’m going to have to lock the doors. Or park closer to those Acuras at Walmart .
:)
Big reason Hondas/Acuras are stolen is the used parts market is a very lucrative business (Hondas are pretty easy to work on and last a long time so a good cheap/reliable car – which needs parts when they are getting 200/300k on them). Plus the Acura’s larger more powerful engines are very easily installed into a smaller Civic (heck you can even swap interior bits into them to have a more customized car). I would also think that most of these thefts may likely occur in or very close to large MSA (metropolitan statistical areas) where the population tends to own import vehicles (smaller ones too for easier driving through congested areas).
The Polk list is worlds more valuable. Just like comparing total road deaths vs. total road deaths per million miles. It’s all relative.
To add to what jaje said, Integras are a simple answer: Direct engine swaps for Civics. What shocks me about that list is HOW MANY Integras are out there, while the rest of the list is fairly rare vehicles.
The best solution against easy theft-and-export is to put the steering wheel on the other side. That way, you only need to look for the crazed Frenchman going the wrong way down the road while searching for 4th gear.
2 of my friends have had Acura Integras. Both were stolen. One (a GS) was never recovered. The other guy has had the most ridiculous tale of theft-related-woe with his car (2000 Type R.)
Even though it has an expensive car alarm on it, it has had parts stolen off it half a dozen times (spoilers, front air dams, the arm rest with the special # plate on it, etc) and been stolen and recovered twice, because the theives can’t get the thing started as he’s installed a top-secret doohickey for just such occasions.
Its a great car otherwise, but sheesh.
Not to pick too many nits here, but wouldn’t the list only truly be valuable if it counted stolen cars vs. registrations, not initial sales. A lot of those ’89 Camrys are gone now.
Also, I sincerely hope that insurance rates for these cars are appropriately higher given their rate of theft, because I know I pay higher rates because the car I drive is crashed more than the average car.
My ex-partner had his pride and joy dark green 4 door-with- a-spoiler Acura Integra stolen one day.
That was 4 years ago. He still weeps at the thougt of it.
It’s desicrated and stripped body was found a week later. There was no funeral.
Oh crap. I’ve got a 1986 Toyota pickup. Guess I’d better check out front and see if it’s still here… They are hard to kill though.
Wouldn’t this list also be affected by the ease of stealing these cars? Maybe the extra little headache caused by stealing a GM car with the special chip in the key is avoided by just snagging the Caravan parked next to it with little effort.
I have the ultimate anti-theft device. A manual transmission.
Think about it. Shouldn’t a Wrangler be at the top of the list? Canvas zippered top. Takes nanoseconds with zero noise to get into (with none of that pesky broken glass).
The two times my ’96 Jeep was “stolen” (I live in Phoenix, one of the top places for car theft, so don’t be surprised that it happened twice), it was recovered quickly. The first time, it was found (by me) at the end of my street, still running, no one caught. The second time, the thieves were caught about a half mile away in the middle of an intersection, stalled.
The officer that woke me up in the middle of the night to identify and retrieve the vehicle told me that he saw it all the time. Smarter thieves see the manual trans and keep walking, and the slower ones steal first and figure out later that the can’t drive a stick.
I know it’s anecdotal (sp?) but from my experience, and the experience of everyone I know who has had a car stolen, the manuals always come back.
It would be nice to see the statistics spell out how many manuals v. automatics are stolen.
Commute be dammned, I have owned nothing but manuals since, and will continue to until I can’t work my left leg anymore.
bonk
When leaving my car for an extended time, I either take my car cover and lock it up (too much hassle, move to the next victim)…or for something less involved, I unscrew the shift knob and unclip the boot, then hide it in the glovebox. To a passer-by, it looks like some advanced antitheft device, even though you could still drive it with the nubby metal shaft.
A huge factor in car theft is the interportability of parts. If body parts fit many years or model levels then they are easily moved. Another factor is the OEM cost. I think manufacturers should meet us halfway and design cars that are harder to steal (Duh!). Kill switches are OK for the owner but tohave a company install them means the public will know where they are.
Visit a junkyard and look inside the doors of most cars and you will see the same mechanisms for locking and opening the doors which cars have used for 50 years. Intergrating the lock and release mechanism into a shielded unit would force the window to be broken, a noisy proposition.
Once inside the steering lock are easily slid out with a dent puller, using cylindrical keys like those found on soda machines would prevent this. The smart chips are a great idea, GM gets kudos for that one.
VIN tagged parts helps as long as the body shop or customer is on board with it. If a driver or shop is looking to save money on a repair they aren’t going to report it.
Actually, the commute isn’t that bad if your car has a hydraulic clutch.
Earlier Hondas and Toyotas had terrible locks and relatively few key combinations. Eventually someone figured out that you can start these cars without hotwiring them. The lock mechanisms would be sufficiently worn down that a screwdriver would turn them.
Maybe the government should mandate laser-cut keys instead.
Ash:
This is simply brilliant! I would have never thought of it.
I’m not too worried about my car getting stolen nowadays, as I have one of those annoying fob/start stop button arrangements. Given how much it confuses valets (which I assume to be at least slightly sharper than a common theif), I’m not too worried about auto theft for the time being.
Yay there’s my car – a 96 teg. hasn’t been stolen yet, but a couple weeks ago someone popped the hood and cut the alarm wire. they were probably interupted because they didn’t break the window or steal anything. I also have a brake lock on it, so maybe they just noticed that afterwards. Anyhow tegs are easy to steal because they stupidly run the hood release cable through the wheel well (I found this out afterwards). You just pull down the fender liner and pop the hood with the cable. I put and extra lock on my hood now to prevent that in the future… good times!
and by the way – any serious car thief will know more about your car than you probably do. so if you got a hot ride an alarm with a pager and a backup battery is really the only way to go.
Robert – I think you should strike while the iron is hot and do the 10 worst cars of all time. TWCAT. It doesn’t have that naughty, “heh heh, he said TWAT, heh heh” ring to it, but it would set up a battle roayl between Audi 100LS, Chevy Vega, Triumph Stag, Renault Le Car et al.
LET’S DO IT!!!!!
i really like this article. well done
Go visit Audiworld.com and do a search about stolen S4s. Nearly every single post indicates that the car was stolen in New Jersey. I am not kidding (former S4 owner myself).
Solution to stopping the theft wave? Nuke New Jersey. It’s a useless state anyway.
From the looks of that list, the Integra is the hottest car, bar none (in all senses of the word). I wonder if the RSX is going to make it on that list, although the styling for that is bit chunkier than the svelte 1999 Integra.
For example, here’s the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s (NICB) 2005 list of America’s most stolen vehicles:
1. 1991 Honda Accord
3. 1989 Toyota Camry
7. 1990 Acura Integra
8. 1986 Toyota Pickup
I’d say this is a testament to the longevity of these cars, that there are still enough of them around to get on the most stolen list. Esp the 20 year old Toyota pickup.
>>The survey raises some important extra-financial questions. Who would steal a 1994 Dodge Caravan?
Now that’s funny! But thinking about it, since car thefts so often are crimes of opportunity, perhaps its teenagers stealing their friends’ mothers’ cars for a joyride. Or maybe they figure no-one will suspect that the car is stolen, since who would steal a 1994 Dodge Caravan in the first place.
Someone once tried to steal a friend’s Integra in DC. They failed, apparently because they didn’t know how to drive a stick. It would be interesting to know how much sticks are stolen as % of those that exist, as compared to automatics. I always felt that my ’93 Saturn was relatively safe in DC, when I lived there, because of the stick. Nonetheless, I did stick a rubber snake on the dash, and got asked more than once if it was real.
Integras are stolen left and right because of the engine swap into civics. Most of the stolen ones are manual transmission GSR/TypeR models. Those who don’t want VIN traced are done via head swap rather than the entire engine swap, as there is no VIN on the head.
If they really want your car, they will get it. Almost all Integras have alarm, and some even have extra kill switch or fuel cutoff, but a high percentage of them are stolen by flat bed truck, so unless you garage it, they can get to it.
Low jack would be a wise investment for such vehicle.
As a Honda fan, I’m glad to see the Integra finally starting to drop down the list – a few years ago when certain bodies were still in production (EK’s, DC2/DC4’s), I remember the top 7 cars all being different year Integras. Terrible!
I had a 95 base model with a kill switch, no one ever tried to steal it but one night someone tried ripping the spoiler off. Could have been vandalism though.
A lot of cars are stolen by people intending to commit other crimes – minivan anybody? How anonymous is a Caravan? A Camry? An Accord? Especially true when you are talking about older models that haven’t reached the appaling stage.
Yay, the 98 ‘teg isn’t #1 anymore! Awesome! But then, mine is a manual, perhaps that is why it hasn’t been stolen yet. I haven’t bothered fixing the few body dents it has, either… i figure it makes the (red) car look slightly less flashy and like less of a target.
Beginning with the 2002 Acura RSX (Integra), Honda made the parts harder to swap with Civics. Combined with immobilizers, it’s reduced theft rates but also made the Civic harder to work with as a tuner car (along with some other changes made the to Civic).
But man, some of those older cars are a piece of cake. Not that I’ve tried it, but I do have a story that suggests it’s easy to steal a 1990 Camry.
I had a 1988 Celica, and one day I blew a hole in the muffler. Took it to the muffler shop, gave the mechanic my key. He walks up to another customer’s 1990 Camry, unlocks the door, gets in, and starts the engine with my key! “Your muffler sounds fine!”
Hey Robert- any hard data on the percentage of most stolen compared to # of vehicles sold from the RL Polk list? (send over the link…)
I own a 2001 M Roadster. They sold less than 1000 in the US(so if a couple of cars were stolen out of the same dealer lot…a scenario I just concocted…that would make me feel a whole lot better). Glad I have a good alarm…
Nopanegain-
Polk will happily compile the info you want, just bring a fresh bucket of money.
You pretty much answered your own question though, if you look at it.
I owned a 1986 Chevrolet Celebrity for about 9 years. At some point late in its life, I left it in the parking lot at work in the morning and left the keys in the trunk lock. The car and the keys were still 12 hours later when I got off work.
I guess I shouldn’t try that with the Accord.
Removing the fuel pump fuse is another great anti-theft device ;-)
Schwartz-
Seriously? An ’86 Celebrity? I know I for one wouldn’t be able to resist that temptation! Man! A Celebrity!
*dreams*
Transponder keys make a huge difference. You notice how there are PLENTY of older Civics, accords, and Integras. But no RSX (the successor to the integra starting in 2002?).
Transponder keys have SO stopped the casual thefts its not even funny, as the computer which actually runs the engine won’t work unless it can cryptographically verify that the key is there.
With a transponder key, you need to both hack the transponder (which requires both cryptomagic AND having someone with the key pass by) and then brake the steering column & hotwire.
This is VASTLY harder, and the crypto keys CAN be pretty good too (although Ford’s have proven to be weak), but done right, even standing next to a crypto key for a day you won’t be able to crack it.
OTOH, an older Civic or Integra (same basic car), its easy to just break the steering lock and hotwire the car.
The rule is pretty simple. If you want to steal a car with a transponder key, you really need a tow truck. Which sucks for thieves.
Also, in the Bay Area, Berkeley police have talked abotu providing subsidized LoJacs to owners of older civics, accords and camrys.
A lot of them get stolen, moved a few blocks away and rifled through, or just driven by the thief until they run out of gas, as they are so easy to break into and hotwire.
*phew thankfully I have an 2001.5 Audi S4 Avant.
Sorry buddy, but a 2001.5 and a 2002 S4 are identical, unless yours has the older badges (I owned a 2002 S4).
Why is General Motors, once again, so poorly represented on a list, any list?
I like how you use every opportunity to take a cheap shot at GM. GM sold a lot of cars back in the ’90’s. Perhaps the reason they aren’t stolen is because they were harder to steal, with things like coded ignition keys and Onstar?