What Type Of Car Is Most Likely To Be Stolen?
I was recently very surprised to learn that today’s thieves have stolen far more smaller family vehicles than the more traditional sporty cars such as Camaros, Corvettes, Jaguars, Aston Martins, Mustangs, Porsches and the like. Such statistics garnered by the National Crime Information Center for the period 2009-2012 further indicate that the Toyota Corolla is a huge favorite with thieves and far surpasses the Honda Civic, Ford Focus and Nissan Sentra. Even subcompacts such as the Toyota Yaris and the Nissan Versa are targeted favorites. Do you suppose the recession is hitting the thieves as hard as the consumer? Is it that the cost of gas is forcing them to be more economical when stealing a vehicle?
As you would expect, the incidence of recovery after a theft is just the opposite: sports cars are not easily recovered, while the compact and subcompact cars tend to be recovered more often than not. So, what we as insurance consultants must be diligent about is recommending the need for comprehensive coverage for our clients, especially those whose vehicles are most likely to be the target of a theft. Furthermore, the highest theft rates for the compact and subcompact vehicles seems to be in California, Texas and Florida, but that doesn’t mean that we in the tri-state area are immune from this crime.
Now more than ever, we need stress the need for physical damage coverage. For sure, this is not an area to look at when trying to cut premium costs.
By Karen Skoler, CPCU
