Cars and Drivers

List of Most Stolen Vehicles Led by Honda Accord

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: July 12, 2017 6:50 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 10:14 am

The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) is out with its “Hot Wheels” list of the most stolen cars in the United States during 2016. The list is led by Honda Motor Co. Ltd.’s (NYSE: HMC) Accord. However, thieves have not been snatching new models. The 1997 Accord is the most stolen version.

In fact, of the 10 most stolen cars, seven are 2008 or earlier models. Another example of this is that the second most stolen car is the Honda Civic — the 1998 model. Third on the list is the 2006 model of Ford Motor Co.’s (NYSE: F) full-sized pickup.

The list closely matches the top 20 best-selling cars of today. As a matter of fact, the overlap of the 10 most stolen cars to the top 20 selling cars of the first half is a match of nine out of 10. These are the Civic, Accord, Ford full-size pickup, Chevy full-size pickup, Camry, Altima, Corolla, Dodge full-size pickup and Jeep Cherokee/Grand Cherokee.

The NICB commented:

While Honda Accords and Civics dominate this annual list, they are older, pre-“smart key” production models. Since the introduction of smart keys and other anti-theft technology, Honda thefts have fallen precipitously. As the list of top 25 most stolen 2016 model year vehicles shows, there were only 493 thefts of Accords last year.

Technology is working, but complacency can defeat it. While thefts are down dramatically since their all-time high in 1992, thousands of vehicles continue to be stolen each year because owners leave their keys or fobs in the vehicles and that invites theft.

New age car technology has proven at least one of its advantages.

The full list: