With 1,509 reported thefts, the Chevrolet Camaro has the dubious distinction of being the most attractive sports car to car thieves, according to The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), which released the latest in its catalog of refreshed vehicle theft reports, this one on the “Sporty” classification.
Following the Camaro among the top-ranked makes and models are the Ford Mustang (980) and the Dodge Challenger (782). The states where the most Sporty thefts occurred were California (764), Florida (443), Texas (381), Georgia (257) and Michigan (187).
In the report, sports vehicles are broken down into three classes: premium, mid-sized and compact, each class containing several makes and models as defined by Automotive News. This report looks at thefts by class, as well as the top 10 theft makes and models.
During this reporting period, a total of 3,780 sports vehicles were reported stolen in the United States. By far, the mid-sized class saw the most theft activity with 3,271 thefts, or 87 percent of the sports total. The top three models mentioned above are all in the mid-sized class. Rounding out the top-five most stolen sports vehicles were the Porsche Panamera (103) and the Audi A5/S5 (101).
When reviewed by Core-Based Statistical Areas (CBSA), sports vehicle thefts were most reported from the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif., area (291). Next was the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Ga., area (226) followed by Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla., area (208). The New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, N.Y.-N.J.-Penn., area (198) and the Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich., area (179) round out the top five CBSAs.
The report is based on National Crime Information Center (NCIC) vehicle theft records for the period Jan. 1, 2009 through Dec. 31, 2012 and limited to 2010, 2011 and 2012, model-year vehicles.
For overall vehicle theft trends,
