Car thieves, the bane of our existence. Hated by everyone especially the car enthusiast community because it’s our artworks that they seem to come after. So how do you avoid the misfortune of coming out to your parking space at the mall and finding your car missing from the spot where you last left it?
Well, there are many ways to avoid this. You could install all kinds of alarms and other vehicle security gadgetry. Or you could find out which cars were the most likely to be stolen and avoid buying them. Here’s a list of the most stolen cars in New Zealand-
Previously, cars like the Mazda Demio, Honda Accord/Torneo and the Mazda Atenza have all topped the list but this year, there’s a new kid in town.
We love our utes here in New Zealand and as much as it pains me to say this, car thieves are still citizens of our country and so it turns out that they quite like utes as well.
We usually see late 90s Japanese cars top this list but on this occasion, it’s the mighty Hilux. Or should I say not so mighty…. 156 of these utes have been reported stolen in the last six months, putting it streets ahead of anything else on the list. Sales of utes in NZ keep rising year on year and that is probably the most likely explanation for this new trend.
We have another shocker in second place. Our old friend the Holden Commodore stole the runner up spot with 104 reported victims to thieving. That figure is nearly double that of the amount of Falcons that were stolen in the last six months. Maybe it was all the news about Holden killing the Commodore and then subsequently being killed by GM that has fueled this craze.
And finally in third place, we find one of our usual suspects in the form of the Subaru Legacy with 88 being reported stolen. This was no surprise at all as the Japanese sedan can always be found at the top of these lists and it occasionally bags the title as well. Again, it is very surprising that neither the Honda Accord nor the Mazda Atenza joined the Legacy on this list as those have long been among the most stolen cars in the country.
In fourth place, we had the Ford Courier ute and the old Ford Ranger both with 77 reported stolen.
Passenger cars were not the only ones being stolen with thieves not sparing the exotic stuff either. A Ferrari 348TS was one of the cars reported stolen along with a 1929 DeSoto Series K!
The rest of the list-
5- Subaru Impreza (76)
6- Toyota Hiace (66)
7- Nissan Terrano (57)
8- Mazda Atenza (55)
9- Mitsubishi Lancer (55)
10- Toyota Land Cruiser (53)
Thanks for reading!
Photo Credits- NetCarShow and Wikimedia Commons
