This Is the Car Most Likely to Be Stolen

In the United States, 1,020,729 cars were stolen in 2023. That is an increase of 28.5% in four years. One way to look at the pace of theft of a given model is theft-vulnerability per 10,000 cars. By this yardstick, the most stolen car in America is the Hyundai Sonata at 157 per thousand.

A new study looks at records of the 25 models that sell the most in the United States. These are measured by yearly theft figure, all-time sales volumes, theft rates, and odds a model will be stolen to determine a final figure. The Sonata’s theft rate is four times the average of all models.

The Sonata’s theft figure was 42,818 against an all-time U.S. sales volume of 2.7 million. Following the Sonata are the Hyundai Elantra at 153.9, the Kia Soul at 142.3, the Kia Sportage at 131.8, and the Kia Sportage at 124.2. No other car model had a rate above 50. The same South Korean manufacturer, Hyundai, makes all five of these vehicles. It owns 100% of that brand and a majority of Kia.

Kia and Hyundai theft rates are unusually high. Between the first half of 2020 and the first half of 2023, they rose over 1,000%. CNN reported on the high frequency of the thefts: “Many of these vehicles lack some of the basic auto theft prevention technology, such as electronic immobilizers, included in most other vehicles even in those years, according to the HLDI.” Put another way, they are easy to steal.

The theft problem with Hyundai and Kia products is so bad that, in 2023, the companies entered into a settlement with 9 million owners that totaled $200 million. These owners claimed that the companies did not make their cars “secure.” The companies also agreed to install better hardware and software to make them harder to steal.

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