Honda Continues to Dominate America’s Most-Stolen Models

Various vintages of Honda Accord and Civic cars accounted for the 16 most-stolen vehicle models in the U.S. in 2012, according to the latest Hot Wheels report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

The Des Plaines, Ill.-based group says the most-stolen vehicle in last year was the 1996 Accord midsize sedan, followed by the 1994, 1997 and 1995 Accord and the 1998 Civic compact sedan.

Honda dominates the latest rankings because of a change in how NICB reports thefts. Previously the bureau allowed a given make and model to be represented on its top 10 list only once by the model year with the highest volume of thefts. Now a given model such as the Accord may appear multiple times when thefts are high for several model years.

The bureau says the theft rate for newer Honda models is significantly lower because of their improved anti-theft technology.

NICB's latest analysis also introduces a new list that ranks current model year cars according to their theft volumes. The top five 2012 models on that list are the Nissan Altima, Chevrolet Impala, Chevrolet Malibu, Toyota Camry and Ford Fusion.

The bureau notes that the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that car thefts grew 1.3% from 2011 to 2012, reversing eight years of continuous decline. Still, NICB says car theft volume is 50% lower than it was in 1991.