The 2020 numbers on car theft in the United States are now in, as compiled by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB). Year after year, a quick perusal of the ranking of most-stolen vehicles is always an interesting enterprise, for one thing to see what are the most sought-after “popular” models, but also the quirky details that leave us scratching our heads. This year, that detail involves the particular model-years favoured by car thieves in 2020.
First things first: as usual, the most popular vehicle is also the most stolen. The Ford F-150 and its heavy-duty Super Duty versions top the list. Of concern is that 13 percent more of the pickups were stolen in 2020 compared to 2019. Across the industry, there was a disturbing 11-percent jump in vehicle thefts last year over the year before.
The pandemic and its economic impact certainly played a role.
In second place was Chevrolet's full-size pickup truck. While 44,014 F-Series models were stolen last year, 40,968 Chevrolet models suffered the same fate, a dramatic 25.7 percent increase over 2019.
A more surprising element of the list for 2020 is the most popular year for stolen models. In the case of the F-150, it was 2006 vintages that proved most popular. For Chevrolet, 2004 models were the ones snatched most often.
In positions three and four we find two Honda models, the Civic and the Accord. The most popular years? 2000 and 1997, respectively. Really?
In fifth and sixth place sit the Toyota Camry and Nissan Altima, this time of much more recent vintage, 2019 and 2020, respectively.
It appears that, for some reason, thieves like their Hondas old and their Toyotas and Nissans new. Go figure.
Digging deeper into the data, we see what’s happening in each U.S. state. The statistics show that three Subaru models are in the top 10 of stolen vehicles in Alaska, while 94 Mitsubishi Mirages were stolen in Puerto Rico.
Here’s the table showing the 10 most stolen models in the United States in 2020. We leave it to you to analyze it in your own way.
| .. | Model | Thefts | Vs 2019 | Most popular yr | |
| 1 | Ford full-size pickup | 44,014 | +13.0% | 2006 | |
| 2 | Chevrolet full-size pickup | 40,968 | +25.7% | 2004 | |
| 3 | Honda Civic | 34,144 | +2.8% | 2000 | |
| 4 | Honda Accord | 30,814 | +0.2% | 1997 | |
| 5 | Toyota Camry | 16,915 | +8.0% | 2019 | |
| 6 | Nissan Altima | 14,668 | +9.8% | 2020 | |
| 7 | GMC full-size pickup | 13,016 | +16.6% | 2005 | |
| 8 | Toyota Corolla | 12,515 | +3.1% | 2020 | |
| 9 | Honda CR-V | 12,309 | +21.9% | 2000 | |
| 10 | Dodge / Ram full-size pickup | 11,991 | +6.2% | 2001 |
