The content of the article:
- Car theft statistics
- Ford focus
- Nissan
- Bmw
- Renault Duster
- Mazda
- Lada
- "Gazelle"
- KIA
- Toyota Land Cruiser 200
- Hyundai solaris
As a result of the past 2016, it became clear that the preferences of car thieves began to coincide with the likes of average consumers. Premium crossovers and SUVs are still being hijacked, but their numbers have dropped significantly compared to reliable, budget-friendly Hyundai and KIA.
Car theft statistics
On average, over 60 thousand cars are stolen annually throughout Russia, and this volume has decreased by 17% compared to the previous year. If earlier these cars were resold and some of them could be traced, now theft prevails for the sake of parsing for parts. Experts attribute this trend to an increase in the exchange rate and, accordingly, an increase in the cost of components.
On a territorial basis, the leading position was taken by St. Petersburg with 60% of the total number of stolen vehicles, as shown by the analysis of the community to search for stolen cars. But Moscow, in comparison with the cultural capital, appears to be quite a prosperous city - only 23%.
Toyota, Mazda and Honda are invariably objects of special interest of criminals, although it began to shift in favor of Hyundai Solaris, KIA Rio, and even domestic "Ladas" and "Gazelles". And since demand creates supply, the most popular models are sold off hand not even in days, but in a matter of hours, especially in Moscow.
In an interesting direction, the specific hours of activity of the hijackers have changed - from 18-24 in the evening to 6-13 in the morning.
Theft experts attribute this to ever-increasing traffic jams, with many car owners choosing to either get to work by public transport, or leave their cars at metro stations.
Analysts have compiled a list of the most delicious cars for hijackers:
10th place: Ford Focus
The leader in thefts of 2014-2015 Ford Focus dropped to the last place. In addition to being very attractive for resale vehicles in the mass segment, Ford spare parts, especially for the engine and chassis, are quite expensive on their own. Even the generally recognized high level of burglary resistance did not save the brand. More recently, in 2015, news channels were full of reports of cases of massive thefts of these particular models, which were instantly sorted out and immediately sold to auto repair shops. But at the end of 2016, the demand for Ford Focus, stolen 411 times, fell significantly compared to previous years.
9th place: Nissan
In the first half of the year alone, 22 Nissan owners lost their property, although in the same period in 2015 this figure was 27 units. Within the brand, the hijackers' preferences are distributed as follows:
- X-Trail about 220 units per year;
- Juke about 150 units per year;
- Murano in the range of 50-60 units per year.
One of the most reliable, high-end, and expensive cars in the world, surprisingly, is not popular with criminals. For all the years of car theft analysis, Nissan has never climbed above 5-6 places in this dubious rating. It is extremely rare that Teana or Patrol appear on the list of missing. Most likely, this is due to the fact that the non-luxury car has an official price of 1.2 million, which makes it quite problematic for resale.
8th place: BMW
From time immemorial, Bavarian cars have been very popular with hijackers, primarily because of the high cost of spare parts, even if they were used. With little effort, attackers break into a very decent standard alarm system in less than a minute.
Models of the 3 series round out the anti-rating - 53 thefts, 5 series - already 74 units, but the attractiveness of the luxury X5 worth over 4.5 million rubles is approaching a hundred thefts a year.
The magnificent crossover has always been the leader in the number of thefts not only in both capitals, but also in the regions, although during 2016 it was somewhat supplanted by other premium SUVs from different manufacturers and generations. But even despite the competition, with the total volume of the X5 vehicle fleet throughout Russia, these figures are extremely high.
7th place: Renault Duster
Renault has gained the fame of the most unstoppable car among all European ones. Of the entire line, the least interested in the hijackers is Logan, of whom only 14 units were stolen across the country. This is understandable by the low cost of the car, the fragility of units and parts, and the wide availability of spare parts. Therefore, the attacker will not gain anything from the theft of this model.
The Duster crossover, costing from 600 thousand, looks much more attractive against the background of Logan. The relatively low level of demand by car thieves can be attributed to the novelty of the model, thanks to which the criminals have not yet figured out the payback of this car.
6th place: Mazda
This is not the most beloved brand among Russian car enthusiasts, therefore it is fertile ground for auto repair shops. The cost of spare parts for it jumped up sharply in 2016, forcing the owners to go for the necessary parts in a raid on the markets of used spare parts. More than 300 units were stolen from Mazda 3 alone, most of which turned into a pile of expensive parts.
CX-5 SUVs, which cost more than a million, are in no less demand, but Mazda 6 is almost not of interest to those who like to profit at someone else's expense.
5th place: Lada
Paradoxically, for many years, the domestic Lada, especially the Six, have been occupying pride of place in the anti-ratings of the most stolen cars. The model has long been discontinued, which not only does not reduce, but further increases the demand for it.
The explanation for this curious fact is quite logical. This model reigned in the Russian car market for a huge period of time, going to pensioners, summer residents, taxi drivers from the countries of the Near Abroad and to distant regions of our vast Motherland. The completion of the release of the Lada 2106 led to a shortage of spare parts, which have to be searched for through advertisements, auctions and dubious workshops. The prospect of instant implementation and the elementary possibility of theft, which a teenager can cope with, leads to large-scale figures - over 700 thefts per year.
Little by little, the more modern Lada Granta is starting to catch up with the classic "six", whose hijackings are still at around 100 units, but are growing from year to year.
4th place: "Gazelle"
The trend towards theft of commercial vehicles came as a surprise in 2016. With a simultaneous decrease in sales of imported trucks such as Volkswagen, the popularity of Russian “Gazelles” has grown rapidly.
Individual entrepreneurs and organizations over the past year missed a significant part of the vehicle fleets, mostly the “Next” model costing one million rubles.
3rd place: KIA
Fantastic hype around KIA, and more specifically - the Rio model. Compared to previous periods, the number of thefts increased by 80%! Such massive thefts are carried out mainly by guests from the former republics; the bulk of criminal cases were opened against Tajiks and Uzbeks who were left without work during the crisis. Cars are immediately sent for disassembly or are resold to taxi services. Since they have no thieves' experience, they take on the weakest cars in terms of protection - "Koreans" and sometimes "French".
Due to the rapid sale of the car and the well-established system of interrupting the numbers, the investigating authorities manage to return only 1 loss out of 14-15 units that have sunk forever in the vastness of Russia.
2nd place: Toyota Land Cruiser 200
The Japanese car industry has securely settled in the hearts of Russian motorists, which is manifested both in the number of sales and in the frequency of thefts.Most often they kidnap the premium Land Cruiser and the Camry sedan, which, despite the high cost, are equipped with a simple security system.
Keyless entry only makes it easier for the hijackers. All you need is a regular key repeater, which is widely available on the Internet, and sometimes provided by service center employees who share with the robbers.
If, after maintenance, the owners notice an uncontrolled alarm triggering, this should immediately alert. The very fact of a rude opening of the car will not even be detected, because the service station employees also learned how to electronic hacking long ago. It is worth spending money on a code grabber once, and the car is available for theft.
Naturally, this is a job for experienced intruders, migrant workers cannot cope with this task.
Another common method used on the RAV4 is to smash the window and open the tailgate. Then, through the glove box, the Smart key certification unit becomes available, which is replaced with a new board, electronic components and even wiring. Some craftsmen reflash the key by connecting directly through the stripped contacts of the microcircuit.
Thus, to bypass the standard anti-theft system, the hijacker simply needs to replace the control unit.
1st place: Hyundai Solaris
If this leadership were not so sad, then Hyundai Solaris would have entered the Book of Records - in just a year its thefts soared by 185%. Investigative groups report that 5-6 cars are missing every day. The explanation is the same - the crisis, and the car is affordable, practical, suitable for both sale and spare parts.
The algorithm of the attackers' actions is absolutely simple: they turn the door lock, open the hood, also change the engine control unit, turn the lock on the steering wheel and drive away in their new car.
By the way, due to being in the risk group, the traffic police officers especially carefully check all Hyundai Solaris and Kia Rio. So their legitimate owners should be prepared for the fact that for a trip at a later time or at night they may be stopped more than once with a thorough check of documents.
Modern ways to steal cars 2016:
