The Highway Loss Data Institute is out with new stats on which vehicles are most likely to be stolen. Bottom line? One out of every 100 Cadillac Escalades get stolen — and nobody steals the Toyota Prius.
The latest theft loss results for passenger vehicles one to three years old published by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), show the rate at which people file insurance claims for theft is highest for the 2007-09 Cadillac Escalade, continuing the luxury SUV's title of worst in overall theft losses for six of the past seven HLDI reports. While that ranking takes into account the cash outlay required to fix damage (or replace the car) for claims, another important stat looked at is frequency of claims. The Cadillac Escalade excels here as well — with 10.8 Escalades out of every 1000 insured vehicle years is stolen. To put that stat in a more easy-to-digest number — that's one out of every 100.
The 'sclade is followed in this years report by the Ford F-250 crew-cab pickup, the Infiniti G37, and Dodge Chargers equipped with a HEMI engine. Theft rates for these vehicles are three to five times as high as the average for all vehicles.
"Sedate family cars and fuel sippers aren't on the hot list," says Kim Hazelbaker, HLDI senior vice president. "Thieves are after chrome, horsepower, and HEMIs."
That explains why the bottom of the chart is filled with cars like the Honda Pilot, the Saturn Vue and the Toyota Prius. Even thieves apparently hate hybrids. Here's the full chart (click to enhance):
[Chart via IIHS]