Dealers who sell and service Toyota’s Prius can perhaps breathe a sigh of relief. According to a new report by the National Insurance Crime Bureau in the U.S. the Prius hybrid is not popular with thieves. The agency says that many car thieves tend to shun it in favour of older, more conventional models. In addition, for those Prius models that are stolen, the recovery rate is actually very high, the NICB reports that 96.7 per cent of cars stolen are recovered.
As for why the Prius tends to be avoided by thieves, John Aboundaner, executive director of the International Association of Auto Theft Investigations said in a recent telephone interview with Automotive News, that the reason is because “it’s a one-model car, the parts on it won’t fit anything else. If you use a [Toyota] Camry for instance the engine might fit another car.”
The NICB reports that the most popular stolen cars are vehicles that are both popular and which motorists tend to keep for a long time, such as Hondas. In fact, the most stolen car listed by the NICB in the U.S. last year was the 1994 Honda Accord, followed by the 1998 Honda Civic, with used pickup trucks and big SUVs such as Ford’s F-Series and Cadillac’s Escalade also popular. A major reason cited is because these vehicles boast significant parts interchangeability and derivative models are also common, making it highly profitable to steal them for parts and then strip them. In Canada, the most stolen vehicle last year was the 2009 Toyota Venza, followed by the 1999 and 2000 Honda Civic two-door.
Getting back to the Prius, if sales rise significantly and more and more of these cars remain on the road for a longer period of time, there perhaps is a chance that the Prius could rise in the theft popularity rankings, Frank Scafidi a spokesman for the NICB recently said “we may see those numbers come more in line with what we’re finding with the rest of the vehicles.”
