Ford dominates most-stolen SUV list

Tue, 17 Jun 2014

The Ford Escape leads the NICB's list with 1,421 examples stolen.

If you drive a recent Ford SUV or crossover, you may want to keep a watchful eye out for thieves – especially if you live in the New York metro area or in Detroit. A new study from the National Insurance Crime Bureau has named three Ford models as the most likely vehicles in their genre to be stolen, with CUVs in general being especially attractive to bandits.

The study focused on thefts in the US of 2011-2013 model-year SUVs and CUVs that occurred between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2013. It found 21,711 heisted vehicles meeting those criteria, and they were about 73-percent crossovers versus 27-percent sport utilities. Ford's models would appear to be particularly tempting. Although, they are also often among the bestsellers in the niche too. The Escape leads the NICB's list with 1,421 examples stolen, followed by the Edge with 1,140 thefts and the Explorer with 958 gone missing. Rounding out the top five were the Jeep Grand Cherokee with 912 thefts and the Kia Sorento at 725. Given this data, it suggests that just those three Blue Oval models accounted for about 16 percent of vehicles stolen in the segment in those years.

"Ford is the utility-vehicle sales leader in North America - we've been the number one utility brand for the past three years. I think it is fair to say, unfortunately, that vehicles popular with consumers are also popular with thieves," said Ford spokesperson Mark Schirmer about the results to Autoblog.

The NICB also looked at the places where the models were mostly likely to be stolen. By state, California had a significant lead, with 3,531 vehicle thefts compared to Florida in second place with 1,897 and Michigan in third with 1,834.

The study drilled down one step further, as well, to find the most dangerous metropolitan areas for vehicle thefts. The New York City metro area, which included the city, Long Island and parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, led the results with 2,530 thefts. The much smaller area of Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI, ranked second with 1,701 thefts, representing about 93 percent of all of the stolen cars in Michigan in that time. The Los Angeles area, including Long Beach and Santa Ana, ranked third with 1,300 pilfered vehicles.

Ford is usually among the first to crow about how popular its vehicles are, but somehow we don't see them being particularly eager to promote these results, as it's news that will probably will be relished only by insurance companies.

Scroll down to read a short version of the study or download it as a PDF with charts and graphs, here.

NICB Names 10 Most-Stolen SUVs/CUVs

Ford Models Hold First, Second and Third Place

DES PLAINES, Ill., June 16, 2014 – The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) today released a new report that examines thefts of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and crossover utility vehicles (CUVs) reported stolen between Jan. 1, 2010 and Dec. 31, 2013. The data was further refined with thefts of 2011, 2012 and 2013 model year vehicles only. Using those parameters, a total of 21,711 SUVs/CUVs were reported stolen during the period.

The report reviewed data for market classifications* as follows:

SUV CUV
Compact Compact
Mid-Sized Mid-Sized
Large Large
Premium Premium
Pickup SUV

The top five makes and models stolen during the period were: Ford Escape (1,421), Ford Edge (1,140), Ford Explorer (958), Jeep Grand Cherokee (912) and the Kia Sorento (725). In terms of class, compact CUVs experienced the most thefts with 6,981. Large SUVs were next with 3,206, followed by mid-sized CUVs (3,204), large SUVs (2,902) and premium CUVs (2,394).

The top five states for SUV/CUV thefts were California (3,531), Florida (1,897), Michigan (1,834), Texas (1,686) and New York (1,577).

When examined by core-based statistical area (CBSA), New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA posted the most thefts with 2,530. It was followed by the Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI CBSA with 1,701 and the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA CBSA with 1,300.

See the analytical report here and a list of all state thefts here.

Anyone with information concerning insurance fraud or vehicle theft can report it anonymously by calling toll-free 800-TEL-NICB (800-835-6422), texting keyword "fraud" to TIP411 (847411) or submitting a form on our website. Or, download the NICB Fraud Tips app on your iPhone or Android device.

About the National Insurance Crime Bureau: headquartered in Des Plaines, Ill., the NICB is the nation's leading not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through data analytics, investigations, training, legislative advocacy and public awareness. The NICB is supported by more than 1,100 property and casualty insurance companies and self-insured organizations. NICB member companies wrote $371 billion in insurance premiums in 2013, or more than 78 percent of the nation's property/casualty insurance. That includes more than 93 percent ($168 billion) of the nation's personal auto insurance. To learn more visit www.nicb.org.

*as listed in the 2013 Automotive News market segmentations - Light Trucks

By Chris Bruce