New research shows what car models are facing the highest risk of theft

• A new report claimed that Hyundai Sonata is the most stormy carwith with the highest 157 10k vehicles, more than four times higher than the industry average
• Japanese producers demonstrate a higher prevention of theft, Honda models presenting the lowest vulnerability rates among vehicles with sold
• As the most popular vehicle in the analysis, the taking of Chevrolet makes it a common target for theft, despite its lower vulnerability rate compared to other models

A recent study conducted by lawyers for the right of law of Conboy and Medical Malpraxis a legal company in the US has revealed the most predisposed vehicle models, analyzing the annual vehicle theft and sales records for 25 popular models.

The study has been focused on key values, including annual theft numbers, sales volumes of all time, theft rates and risk percentages.

A theft rate was calculated for each car, representing the theft numbers of each model at 10k sales.

The vehicles were ranked from the highest to the lowest vulnerability based on these vulnerability scores.

List of vulnerable cars to theft

Hyundai Sonata occupies the first place with a theft rate of 157, which makes it the largest risk model in the study. With a number of theft

Hyundai Elantra is in second place with a rate of theft of theft of 154, following closely behind Sonata. While driving absolute theft numbers with 48K incidents compared to 42k of Sonata, its sales volume slightly higher than 3.1 million creates a lower vulnerability score.

Kia Soul occupies the third place, showing a theft frequency of 142. Despite its lower number of sales compared to Hyundai models, Kia Soul vulnerability remains high, with 21K 10K.

Coming in the fourth, Kia Sportage has a number of theft of 132 to 10k cars sold. With 15.7k thefts reported annually, this is one of the most targeted vehicles in the SUV category, considering its relatively small number of sales to 1.1 million.

Car model	Theft number (annually)	Number of sales	Theft-vulnerability to 10k cars sold
Hyundai Sonata	42.813	2.7 m	157.0
Hyundai Elantra	48.445	3.1m	153.9
Kia Soul	21.001	1.4 m	142.3
Kia Sportage	15.749	1.1 m	131.8
Kia Forte	16,209	1.3 m	124.2
Pick-up Chevrolet	48.206	10.1m	47.7
Jeep Grand Cherokee	13,210	3.3 m	39.0
Dodge Charger	6.303	1.6 m	38.6
Honda accord	20.895	5.7 m	36.2
Honda civic	19.858	5.6 m	35.3

Kia Forte provides the fifth position with a theft occurrence of 124. With over 16 k annual theft incidents on 1.3 million vehicles sold, the model has better marginal anti -factory measures than her brother Sportage. Forte completes the dominance of Korean producers of high risk positions, maintaining a theft rate more than three times higher than industry average.

In the sixth place, Chevrolet Pick-up experiences 48 thefts per 10,000 car sales. Despite matching the frequency of theft of elantra to over 48 incidents, it also has the largest volume of sales of over 10 million units, which leads to a significantly smaller theft potential.

The Jeep Grand Cherokee lands in seventh position, showing a 39 theft rate. With 13K annual steals distributed on its substantial basis of 3.38 million vehicles, Grand Cherokee demonstrates a better resistance to theft than the Korean models that dominate the top places.

Dodge Charger places the eighth in the standings, with a vulnerability rate of 38. Interesting, while performance vehicles often draw attention to theft, the charger records the smallest absolute theft numbers in the top 10, with only 6k incidents. Compared to his volume of sales of 1.63 million units, these numbers reflect a strong discouragement of theft that matches the performance of the Great Cherokee.

In the ninth position is Honda Accord with a theft frequency of 36 for 10k units sold, marking the beginning of Japanese producers in the prevention of theft. The model is experiencing over 20 annual thefts, however, its 5.77 million units sales help maintain a low vulnerability rate.

Honda Civic completes Top 10 with a theft rate of 35.3. Its annual number of theft of 19K units, spread over a substantial volume of 5.63 million sales, results in a strong security performance.

A spokesman from The law of conboy law and medical malpractice Lawyers commented on the study:

“The approach of the auto industry on the security of the vehicle reveals a striking disappearance in the producer’s priorities and the vulnerabilities in the real world. Some brands have mastered the implementation of anti-type technology, while others remain significant, regardless of market positioning or price points.

“This fundamental gap between the perceived and real security of the vehicle raises important questions about the industry standards, especially as the theft techniques become more and more sophisticated, modifying both the consumers’ choices and the insurance risks.”

Car imports decrease in Nigeria

Previously, legit.ng reported that the car imports in Nigeria they decreased in 2024 amid multiple challenges including Devaluation nair and high inflation.

Multiple challenges pushed the costs of vehicle imports and, in accordance with the recent trade report published by the National Statistics Office, the total value of imports of passenger cars decreased from N1.47 trillion to 2023 to N1.26TN, a decrease of 14.3%.

This is an increased deviation from the report of the previous year, when the vehicle imports doubled between 2022 and 2023.

Source: legit.ng