The National Insurance Crime Bureau released a study that revealed that the two most stolen cars in the United States are the Honda Accord and Civic sedans.
The bureau reported a total of 53,995 Honda Accord sedans stolen last year, with the Honda Civic coming in at second with 45,001 reported thefts.
The Chevrolet Silverado with 27,809 reported thefts, the Ford F-150 with 26,494 reported thefts and the Toyota Camry with 14,420 thefts round out the top five most stolen cars in the United States.
For the 2013 models, the most stolen car was the 2013 Nissan Altima with 810 reported cases, followed by the 2013 Ford Fusion with 793, the 2013 Ford F-150 with 775, the 2013 Toyota Corolla with 669, and the 2013 Chevrolet Impala with 654.
The data for vehicular theft that was used by the NICB to conduct the study was received from the National Crime Information Center, which receives the data from law enforcement authorities.
However, despite the bad news for Honda Accord and Civic owners, the NICB revealed good news as well.
After a minor increase in 2012 compared to the previous year, the FBI is predicting a decrease by 3.2 percent on national car thefts once the final statistics for 2013 are released later within the year.
The highest number of car thefts recorded for a year was in 1991, when 1,661,738 cases of vehicular thefts were reported. If FBI's predictions for the recorded car thefts for 2013 holds, then the number of cases will be below 700,000, which is the lowest number of thefts since 1967 and a decrease in car thefts since 1991 of over 50 percent.
"The drop in thefts is good news for all of us," said Joe Wehrle, the President and CEO of the NICB. "But it still amounts to a vehicle being stolen every 45 seconds and losses of over $4 billion a year. That's why we applaud the vehicle manufacturers for their efforts to improve anti-theft technology and pledge to continue to work with our insurance company members and law enforcement to identify and seek vigorous prosecution of the organized criminal rings responsible for so many of these thefts."
While Honda sedans are at the top of the list, it is not the newer models that are being stolen, but rather the older ones. Honda can always be found near the top or at the top of the yearly list by the NICB, with one reason for such a trend is that "there are more older Honda on the road than many other brands," said Honda spokeswoman Robyn Eagles. "And the technology prior to 1997 made it easier to steal cars."
