Toyota, Honda Top Most-stolen Vehicle List

D E T R O I T, March 20, 2001 -- The Toyota Camry and Honda Accord dominateanother list of most-popular vehicles nationwide, but it's not alist you will see touted in advertisements or commercials.

The two models hold 17 of the top 25 spots in a ranking ofvehicles most stolen in the United States last year, according toCCC Information Services Inc., an insurance industry tracker oftrends in theft and other vehicle damage.

The 1989 Camry led the way for the fourth year in a row,followed by 1990, 1991 and 1988 versions. Honda's 1994, 1996, 1990and 1995 Accords placed fifth, sixth, eighth and 10th,respectively.

Overall, five Camry models and a dozen of the Accords placedamong the top 25 in Chicago-based CCC's yearly list, to be releasedtoday. Last year's list had 19 Camrys and Accords.

Trucks, SUVs Also Popular

Reflecting a growing appetite for pickup trucks among thieves,the 1994 Chevrolet C1500 4x2 pickup truck placed seventh — up fourspots — while the 1997 Ford F-150 4x2 pickup came in ninth. In lastyear's listing, the F-150 model placed fifth as the only vehicle inthe top 10 — foreign or domestic — that wasn't a Camry or Accord.

Also of note: 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4x4 sport utility vehicleplacing 20th, marking the first time an SUV made the list in fouryears, CCC spokeswoman Jeanene O'Brien said.

Absent from the list for the first time in at least four yearsis the Chevrolet Caprice, perhaps reflecting declining consumerappeal for domestic mid- and large-sized domestic sedans, O'Briensaid.

Still, cases of major vehicle theft dropped 8.5 percent in 2000,following a 15 percent decline the year before, CCC said its datashowed.

Reliability Is Key

Observers say Camrys and Accords remain popular among thievesbecause there's a great demand for their spare parts, they havebeen top-sellers for years and can be driven for hundreds ofthousands of miles.

Those two models also tend to change little each year — makingmore parts interchangeable between model years — and hold theirvalue better than competitors, meaning fewer ended up in junkyardsand more still were on the road.

Toyota and Honda don't take any pride in their rankings, sayingit's more a reflection of how CCC measures car theft — based onlyon stolen vehicles never recovered, or stripped to the point ofbeing a total loss.

Toyota spokesman John McCandless said the study is skewed forcars with durability — "I don't think it's good math" — and isn'ta representative sampling because it excludes joy rides, amongother things.

"The headline is we've been leading the list for years for thesame reasons — because our cars last, and the study's biased," hesaid.

Said Honda spokesman Kurt Antonius: "It's a list we're notparticularly pleased to be on."

Honda has said the Accord would be in the middle of the pack ifthe rankings were weighted to show the proportion of stolen cars tototal sales of that model.

Different Cars for Different Regions

The National Insurance Crime Bureau reported in November thatAccords and Camrys also were the most stolen vehicles nationwide in1999. That nonprofit bureau, which also tracks thefts for insurancecompanies, combines theft reports for all years of a particularmake and model. CCC ranks the cars annually by make, model andoption groups.

Thieves' tastes for stolen vehicles vary widely among differentregions. American vehicles were more popular in the Midwest, whileJapanese brands dominated the East and West coasts.

In Michigan, the CCC said, all the top 25 most-stolen vehicleswere American, with Dodge products claiming eight of the spots. InTexas, all but two of the list's top 25 were pickup trucks, morethan half of them Chevrolets.

CCC tracked 80,299 vehicle thefts that resulted in a total losslast year, as well as crash and other damage claims. That's downfrom 87,752 in 1999. Those numbers reflect the vast majority, butnot all, of such claims filed nationwide.