When drivers find lease specials on new cars, they don't want to lose those vehicles to car thieves, no matter how modest the model may be.
But the latest F.B.I. statistics show that car thieves prefer the same average-looking automobiles that most Americans drive. Put off by modern anti-theft devices like alarms, immobilizers and tracking devices, thieves usually choose to steal older, more common cars and then chop them up and sell off their parts.
The most commonly stolen cars in the country last year were the 1994 Honda Accord, 1995 Honda Civic and 1991 Toyota Camry, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), which analyzes F.B.I. crime statistics. The figures were reported by The Car Connection.
Luxury cars were rarely stolen at all, and just four of the top ten most stolen cars were 21st century model years – the 2004 Dodge Ram, 2000 Dodge Caravan, 2002 Ford Explorer and 2009 Toyota Corolla.
However, the figures do not mean that every driver should be getting out of a lease and riding the bus to work. Overall vehicle thefts have fallen steadily in recent years, dropping 17.1 percent from 2008 to reach 794,616 vehicles reported stolen in 2009.
Henry Enck is a Automobile and Leasing specialist for Swapalease
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