Top 10 most-stolen vehicles

Top 10 most-stolen vehicles

1. Toyota Camry
This car also topped CCC's list for the past five years, the 1999, 1989 and 1990 models to be exact. In this case, popularity has its downfalls. When you look at the per capita sale rate for vehicles in this country, the Camry and Honda Accord lead the pack.

2. Honda Accord
It's a common posting in the classifieds: silver 1994 Honda Accord, chrome wheels, air rod suspension, stolen in Pennsville, N.J.

"Honda Accords have an easy ignition mechanism to bypass, more so than the Camry," Lanham says.

Also, the youth group loves the Accord's sleek, small body style. Throw in a bigger engine, and you have a street-racing demon.

"The less metal and weight to the car's frame, the more attractive it is for this big trend," Lanham adds.

3. Honda Civic
"Though we cannot determine with absolute certainty the reason for vehicle theft, trends show that cars are often stolen for the value of their parts," says Mary Jo Prigge, CCC's president of sales and service.

It's a good guess in this case. According to McGoey, thieves can pocket $30,000 in parts from stripping a $20,000 car. And Honda tends to manufacturer interchangeable parts for all its model years, which raises the black market profit on these individual gadgets and gewgaws. Finally, chimes in the Palm Beach County Auto Theft Task Force, these parts move quickly.

4. Oldsmobile Cutlass
Anything in the General Motors family finds itself vulnerable to this Top 10 because they're "notoriously easy to steal," in Lanham's words. Defeating the door locks and bypassing the ignition is as easy as 1-2, which is why the Cutlass is 4.

Straight from MrWowler's Web site, which you can study by merely typing "how to steal a car" at Google: Hammer a large flat-head screwdriver in the keyhole and turn hard. This should break the pins and allow you to turn the chamber, which opens the car.

5. Jeep Cherokee/Grand Cherokee
Want to predict your car's vulnerability? Just follow the money, advise officials at Auto Insurance Advocates. Americans love sports utility vehicles, so count on SUVs to catch thieves' fancy.

6. Chevrolet Full-Size C/K pickup
The alias MrWowler once again provides a clue to this model's appearance in the Top 10. "If you can drive manuals, take them because they're less likely to have an alarm," he recommends. Real men buy stick-shift trucks, so real riff-raff rip them off.

7. Toyota Corolla
Yes, vehicles vanish from street curbs, driveways, parking lots and even car dealership lots. But, says McGoey, the frequency increases when the dishonest can bet you'll be gone for an extended time. Think airports, movie complexes, large apartment complexes at night, shopping centers during business hours, fairgrounds and sporting events. They tend to avoid fee-based parking lots (too much hassle explaining to the old guy sitting in the little booth why they don't have a ticket) as well as stacked parking garages that offer just one escape route.

But consider open lots as a smorgasbord, McGoey adds. Toyota Corollas are the salad bar.

8. Ford Taurus
According to McGoey, some cars are stolen on order, meaning that someone has placed an order for a specific make, model and color. The Pennsylvania State Police find that of this state's 93 stolen cars each day 40 percent end up being sold whole or in pieces, 44 percent serve as transportation for thrill-seekers, 11 percent are used to commit other crimes and 5 percent can be traced to insurance fraud.

9. Chevrolet Caprice
Chalk up another one to the General Motors curse and the dazzle of American styling.

"The Top 10 vehicles are popular in other countries and organized theft rings will illegally export them to foreign destinations," confirms NICB president and CEO Robert M. Bryant.

Criminals in custody cite Poland, Russia and other Eastern-bloc countries as their best customers.

Approximately 200,000 vehicles cross our borders. To rub salt into the wound, the United States Customs Service employs $63,000 machines at 11 of its Southwest crossings that beep when a stolen plate rolls into Mexico.

The technology works, because that machine sounds the alarm four to eight times a day in San Ysidro, Calif. But the total of recovered cars: 0.

"It's not like we can just throw ourselves in front of every stolen car we see and say, 'Stop!'" a representative told the New York Times last year.

10. Ford F150 pickup
"We've built a rich heritage for more than 50 years by offering customers what they wanted, when they wanted it," Gurminder Bedi, vice president of Ford North America Truck, brags in the company's media kits.

It isn't just customers who get what they want.

"Ford and General Motors will never be weeded out of this list completely. It's that law of averages again," says Lanham. "A lot of people still have the 'buy American' philosophy."

Make that "steal American," especially for a vehicle like the F150 that has been the best-selling truck for 25 consecutive years.

Commonly, victims replace the cars wrenched from their lives with duplicates, a move Lanham endorses.

"If you're just really fond of that car, we say go ahead. Because the bottom line is that a car will be stolen -- no matter what -- if a thief really wants it," she admits. "Anything man creates, man can defeat."