Top 5 Auto Thieves’ Favorite Vehicles!

Motor vehicle theft plagues all parts of the world and despite many efforts to curtail it, it still remains quite a pain for both the victims sometimes as well as law enforcement agencies. However many countries show a declining trend in motor vehicle thefts. Further, the thieves seem to have a greater affinity for some automobiles.

Often referred to as grand theft auto by police departments, the act of stealing motor vehicles has many motivations. And range from chopping and selling automotive parts to resale of vehicles and even for joyriding. In the year 2003 there were 1,261,226 cases of auto thefts in the U.S. which further decreased to 1,237,114 in 2004 showing a decline of 1.91%. The following are the thieves’ favorite cars in the USA based on 2004 data.

#1: Honda Civic: Introduced in July 1972 as a two-door coupe, the Honda Civic is the second-longest continuously running nameplate from a Japanese manufacturer. Now five generations old, it has won quite a few accolades throughout its history. Some of them include Road Test magazine’s 1974 Car of the Year; Motor Trend's Import Car of the Year; Car and Driver magazine's annual Ten Best; North American Car of the Year and the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) Car of the Year.

#2: Toyota Camry: Now over 6 generations old the Toyota Camry is a mid-size car assembled by Toyota. Launched in the year 1980 it’s manufactured at several places around the world, viz. Tsutsumi, Japan; Georgetown, Kentucky; Altona, Victoria, Australia and Guangzhou, China. In the year 2007 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conferred a five-star safety rating for frontal crashes for both driver and passenger to the car (whether a thief or not!). You might want to take a peek into an innovation in air bag safety that recently came about.

#3: Honda Accord: The car made its debut in the year 1976 as a compact hatchback and later grew up in to an intermediate vehicle. Now 8 generations old, the vehicle has received several awards such as the Consumer Search's Best Family Car, Motor Trend's Import Car of the Year, Car of the Year Japan, etc. The car has also been featuring at the European Touring Car scene since 1995. Perhaps, it high value plus the “race-ability” is what makes it attractive for a steal and run operation! Off course, they can split apart its various automotive accessories and the engine and sell it to make money.

#4: The Dodge Caravan: The Dodge Caravan and Dodge Grand Caravan are minivans manufactured by Chrysler. The sister models of the product were the Chrysler Town and Country, and the Plymouth Voyager that later became the Chrysler Voyager. Being produced since the year 1984, the automobile is now in its fifth generation.

#5: Chevrolet Full Size C/K 1500 Pickup:This full-size pickup truck line from Chevrolet continued production from 1960 until 1998. The light-duty pickup truck was replaced with the GMC Sierra in 1988 and the Chevrolet Silverado in 1999.

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