Mercedes Tops List of Stolen Luxury Vehicles

You may not be the only one eyeing your neighbor’s Mercedes, as a new report by the National Insurance Crime Bureau indicates that car thieves prefer Mercedes-Benz to other luxury brands. NICB says that the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, E-Class and S-Class are all among the top 10 stolen luxury vehicles. The report found that 4,384 luxury cars from the 2010-12 model years were stolen between Jan. 1, 2009 and Dec. 31, 2012.
Of the models analyzed, the Mercedes C-Class had the most thefts reported, followed by the BMW 3-Series, Infiniti G, E-Class and Cadillac CTS. The BMW 5-Series, Lincoln MKZ, Acura TSX, Lexus IS and S-Class round out the list of the top 10 most stolen luxury cars. The Detroit News points out that Mercedes-Benz sells more C-Class coupes and sedans than any other model. The automaker sold 7,639 C-Class models in June. In comparison, BMW sold 10,957 3-Series models, while Infiniti and Cadillac sold 4,730 G37 and 2,416 CTS models, respectively. “Mercedes has been around forever,” says Frank Scafidi, spokesman for NICB, in a phone interview with The Detroit News. “It’s really the car. They sell a lot of them.”
Certain areas of the country are also more prone to luxury vehicle thefts. NICB reports that the New York City area (including northern New Jersey and Long Island) had the most thefts with 806 incidents reported. Los Angeles and Miami came in second and third, with 491 and 452 thefts, respectively. Detroit, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago and San Diego follow as the metropolitan areas with the highest rates of luxury vehicle thefts.
Of the 4,384 vehicles stolen, NICB reports that almost 84 percent were recovered, which leaves 713 luxury cars that were never found. Kicking Tires writes, “Least-recovered among those was the Infiniti G series (83 unrecovered), followed by the Mercedes-Benz E-Class (80) and C-Class (78).”
While NICB says that status and high prices make luxury cars susceptible to theft, a recent report by the Highway Loss Data Loss Institute indicates that other vehicles have a higher incidence of insurance theft claims. HLDI finds that the Ford F-250 has more theft claims than any other vehicle, with six times the average rate for all vehicles. Vehicles with the lowest claims include the Dodge Journey, Volkswagen Tiguan, Audi A4 and Acura RDX.