Car thieves love nothing more than the sight of a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. Failing that, they’ll settle for a budget model from Hyundai or Kia. Their last resort is a Tesla Model 3 – the car least likely to attract a thief’s attention.
That’s the conclusion from the Highway Loss Data Institute’s latest study of car thefts, which looked at 2019-2021 model year cars.
Two Major Car Theft Studies
You may have seen reports suggesting that the most commonly stolen cars are popular models like the Chevy Silverado and Honda Civic. You may have seen those reports right here. Very recently.
So why is this data so different?
Two organizations report on car theft in America and use different methods to reach their results. The National Insurance Crime Bureau reports raw numbers. They tend to show that the most common cars are the most commonly-stolen cars for the simple reason that there’s heavy demand for their parts.
This latest study comes from the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), an arm of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. A consortium of insurance companies fund it and use their data to report on the relative risk of theft for each car.
There are a lot of Silverados on the road. Thieves steal more Silverados than any other vehicle. But the risk that any one particular Silverado gets taken remains low.
There aren’t a lot of Charger Hellcats out there, and a higher proportion of them are stolen than any other car.
In fact, of the five most-stolen models, three were big rear-wheel-drive Dodges. The Charger HEMI and Challenger also made the list.
The Cars Thieves are Most Likely to Steal:
- Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
- Dodge Charger HEMI
- Infiniti Q50
- Dodge Challenger
- Range Rover
The Cars Thieves are Least Likely to Steal:
The Hyundai/Kia Problem
Most of the most-stolen cars are high-horsepower models or luxury cars. But, oddly, loss claims for 2015-2019 Hyundai and Kia models were nearly twice as common as claims for vehicles made by all other manufacturers.
Why?
HLDI explains, “Many 2015-19 Hyundai and Kia vehicles lack electronic immobilizers that prevent thieves from simply breaking in and bypassing the ignition. The feature is standard equipment on nearly all vehicles of that vintage made by other manufacturers.”
“Our earlier studies show that vehicle theft losses plunged after immobilizers were introduced,” explains HLDI Senior Vice President Matt Moore. “Unfortunately, Hyundai and Kia have lagged behind other automakers in making them standard equipment.”
A Kia spokesman has pointed out to KBB in the past that this claim is only accurate for base model cars. Most Hyundai and Kia models from that time period do contain immobilizers, but not the least-expensive versions.
The company blames a social media trend for the bad showing. “While all of our vehicles meet or exceed federal motor vehicle safety standards, unfortunately, our vehicles have been targeted in a coordinated effort on social media,” a Hyundai representative told the IIHS.
All 2022 Kia and Hyundai models include an immobilizer. The companies have worked with police departments in high-theft cities to make steering wheel locks available to owners at no charge and plan to release a retrofit kit to help eliminate theft risk. The kit “will be available for purchase and installation at Hyundai dealerships and other authorized installers beginning in October,” HLDI reports.
