The list came out
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=434545
and I am surprised again at how the 1989 Camry is near the top again. Assuming it gets chopped up and parts resold, are there really that many 19-year-old cars still going? Or are the parts useful across a significant number of years?
Or are they just easier to steal?
Older cars break down more, so parts are in greater demand.
Plus older cars don’t have as sophisticated anti-theft systems or if they do work-arounds have already been found for them.
My father’s first Honda Accord would have been from around 1991, the third-most stolen model on that list. It was stolen three times in the first four years he had it, but always found again. The second or third time, the police officer at the lot where he picked it up explained that Hondas were assembled like jigsaw puzzles, and that if you had a screwdriver, you could pop out the entire lock mechanism on the door, pry out the ignition key area on the steering column, connect two wires, and go, all in under 30 seconds. Honda changed their manufacturing techniques soon afterwards, and he hasn’t had a problem with thefts of his three subsequent Accords.
From the link you provided:
Camry models run for a number of years between retooling and redesign and most parts should be compatible within generations. I have a '92 that just won’t quit. The door handles break down in the sun, however, and cost significantly more than other toyota models.
It would make you retch to know how fast thieves find workarounds. You know transponder keys? The ones with the computer chips in 'em? That was a secure measure for a couple weeks. I don’t even bother locking my car doors anymore. New and old are approximately as easy to steal. What usually determines the fate of a car is, “Is it useful to steal it?”
But yeah, OP: parts. And not always OEM parts. “Ricer” cars, older Asian models that have been dressed up with tons of aftermarket parts, are “stolen” almost as often as Dad’s commuter Civic. There is a LOT of strip “theft” in the Ricer community, much of it is not theft. Sometimes it’s just the rims that were stolen, sometimes the whole car turns up days later missing just the engine & tranny, etc.
Do you mean the inside part? And that it snaps where it connects to the rod inside the door? Because I’ve been through about 4 of these on my '98 Corolla.
:smack: Still, I understand older cars break down more but to me, that’s ~ten years old, not 20. But the spanning of years for the same parts makes sense.
I agree, it is hard to get body parts for older Japanese cars. The dealers don’t stock them…so, when a shop needs a fender-your car is available!
I’m not sure which I’d be more upset about, having my freaking engine stolen or having to find myself a new (and hopefully more reliable) shemale to guard my car.
What’s really weird is what you see on the original source list:
https://www.nicb.org/cps/rde/xchg/nicb/hs.xsl/72.htm
The 2007 and 2006 lists are virtually identical, down to the model year. Not +1 for the year difference or anything.
That link also has breakdowns for each state. In Texas and most farming/ranching states, the top 3 are all pickup trucks.
Cite? :dubious:
Is a “transponder key” when your key is supposed to send a message to the car, as you turn it in the ignition, to turn off the engine immobiliser?
Because we have that, in our car. A while back, we started having a problem - randomly the car just wouldn’t start at all. Front-running theory is that the computer wasn’t recognising the signal from our car, so the immobiliser was staying on. Three different visits to two different mechanics have been unable to sort this out.
So the Roadside Assistance guy gave us a piece of wire with the right connectors on the end, and showed us where to plug it in to bypass the whole system.
It. Is. SO. Easy.
Seriously. The bloody thing’s still not fixed, I’ve given up taking it to mechanics, it’s easier to just do the wire trick when the car just won’t start (couple of times a week at the moment). It takes about 30 seconds tops.
I have no idea what engine immobilisers are for.
ETA: Oh - and to the OP? Only time my car was ever stolen it was to be used in a robbery - also, I have heard another common reason to steal a car is just to drive it somewhere you want to get to, and when it runs out of gas you just dump it. Obviously in those cases you’d just take the easiest one to steal.
I’ve been trying to get someone to steal my crappy old car for ages, and nobody seems interested. I’ve even left it open with the keys in.
:smack:
from our key. The signal from our key.
Way, waaaaaay past the edit window.
Those statistics seem to be based on raw numbers, not percentages. In other words, they are influenced by the fact that Honda Accords and Civics and Toyota Camrys and Corollas are some of the most common cars on the road.
As far as older models being stolen more often, it occurs to me that older cars are probably more likely to be parked on the street rather than in a garage.
I have this argument all the time with my FiL. He’s on your side – the chip in the key is a total joke and is easily by-passed. But I was given to understand (by various parties, including the Honda salesman eight years ago 
that the chip in the key was specifically designed to foil the oh-so-easy “couple-of-wires” method of stealing a car.
Can some expert please give me the straight dope on this subject? (Sorry for the hijack; ignore me if you want.)
Something else: perhaps older cars are also more likely to continue being driven in relative high-crime areas?
and Lunar Saltlick
Rick, I love ya but for this once, “My post is my cite.”
In my line of work I see a lot of recovered stolen cars with all manner of defeated security devices. I’m not going to detail how to defeat chip key systems. But a quick google search (so lame, I know, but it really is quick) will get you methods for how to program new keys–sometimes with no special equipment apart from a virgin key!–for some models, and how to “work around” the whole transponder system.
Car thieves are not crackheads. Well, not stupid crackheads. It only takes one or two bright people to figure out how to defeat the new technology before that knowledge spreads throughout hundreds of theft networks.