As an enthusiast, it's your worst fear. Trudging out of the factory after a hard day's labor, you find an empty spot where your pride and joy sat just eight hours earlier. After investing your blood, sweat, tears and most importantly, checkbook into your sacred machine, some spineless lowlife swiped it out from under your feet. And like a defiled ex, once you know what it went through after leaving your sight, you may not want it back.
Car theft is big business. A car is stolen every 25 seconds in the United States, and while the technology to stop the bastards is getting better by the minute, so are the thieves. Short of locking it up in Dubya's ultra-secret underground bunker or hiding it in Saddam's spider hole, there's not much that can come between a professional car thief and his/her chosen quarry. Hell, even standing guard 24/7 with an AK-47 is no guarantee they won't get it. The sad reality is that if a thief wants your car bad enough, they can take it.
While your ride can never be made completely theft proof, there are varying levels of protection you can wrap it up in. It all boils down to how badly you want to keep your car and how much money you are willing to fork over. The key is to strike a balance between security, convenience and cost.
Not all anti-theft "deterrents" cost money, however. One of the most effective "devices" is that grey muscle between your ears. Common sense can go a long way to keep you from being jacked. It's all about minimizing risk and making your car less desirable to potential thieves. In other words, while you can't stop them, if you can make it difficult enough, they'll most likely move on to the next car.
If you want to out-smart the enemy, you've gotta have a little background. Nationwide, the odds of someone taking your car are about 1 in 190. The odds are even higher in urban areas. So surprisingly, there are advantages to living in BFE. Keep a close eye on your car on the Sabbath, too. According to the FBI, more cars are stolen on Saturday and Sunday than on any other days of the week. And if you think your car is safe at home, think again. The FBI data indicated that most vehicles were stolen from their owners' homes (35.31 percent), followed by parking lot/garages (22.75 percent), while the least were swiped from the highway/alley/road (17.96 percent). About half are recovered in 1 day and 80 percent during the first six days.
Again, in the spirit of knowing the enemy, most people arrested for GTA are between the ages 12-17, so keep an eye on the neighborhood punks. And if you think Johnny Law has your back, think again. Only 14 percent of car thefts end in arrest.
Like many us, thieves prefer imports to domestics and seek out vehicles that are 10 to 17 years old. Their reasons are substantially different, though. While we build them up, they tear them down. The demand for used parts makes many of our rides more valuable chopped up than intact-just a little food for thought.
Each year, lists that detail which cars were stolen the most frequently that year are released. Along with theft rates for different models, the stats are also broken into sub-categories like color, trim, etc. Obviously, selecting a car with the lowest number thefts is one way to reduce your chances of becoming a victim, but is it worth rolling around in a 1975 Chevy Caprice wagon? We don't think so either. So what's a discriminating driver to do?