The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) recently issued the whole vehicle theft loss report for the 2020 through 2022 model years and the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat is officially the most stolen car in the United States. According to this report, the Hellcat Charger is 60 times more likely to be stolen than any other car on the road, with 25 “whole vehicle theft claims” per 1,000 insured vehicle years while the Infiniti Q60 – the car that topped the list for 2017-2019 – averaged just 2 whole vehicle theft claims per 1,000 insured vehicle years.
The HLDI stolen vehicle report is not just a list of vehicles and how many units of each were stolen. Instead, the HLDI factors in “relative risk”, which takes into account the number of theft reports compared to the number of vehicles on the road, but it is even more in-depth than that. The HLDI also looks at the cost to repair damages to vehicles that were stolen and recovered, so in short, a series of calculations go into the HDLI list. As a result, the numbers on their report may not make a whole lot of sense, as is far more than just a list of the most commonly stolen vehicles in the United States. Many outlets are reporting this, sharing the basic numbers from the report, which for the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat includes a “relative claim frequency” of 6,128 units, but that is a not how many Hellcat Chargers were stolen from the 2022 through 2022 model years, but rather, a number that is calculated by the HDLI.
Here is a short paragraph from the report as to how these numbers were calculated:
“Results in this report were standardized to control for the effect of demographic and geographic variables to accurately assess the contribution of the vehicle to insurance losses. Losses were standardized by calendar year; model year; garaging state; number of registered vehicles per square mile (vehicle density); deductible; risk; and driver age, gender, and marital status. Standardization was accomplished using a two-step process. First, regression models were constructed to produce estimates for each variable for claim frequency, claim severity, and overall losses. Then, the estimates were reweighted so that every vehicle has the same exposure distribution across all of the variables in the mode.”
Also, in terms of raw data, during the course of the study of these three model years, there were about 7,000 cars reported stolen and about 11,000 trucks/SUVs/vans reported stolen from the 2020, 2021 and 2022 model years.
“The total exposure accumulated for the three model years was nearly 13 million insured vehicle years for passenger cars and nearly 33 million insured vehicle years for pickups, SUVs, and vans. Whole vehicle theft claims numbered over 7,000 for passenger cars and more than 11,000 for pickups, SUVs, and vans”.
In other words, the HDLI report doesn’t really say “there were this many Dodge Charger SRT Hellcats stolen from the 2020, 2021 and 2022 model years”, instead taking into all sorts of factors as listed above to come up with a sort of stolen car score…and by that method – the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat is the leader with a score or 6,128.
The car in second place on the HDLI list for 2020-2022 is listed as the Dodge Charger Hemi with a score of 2,197, which we assume applies to all R/T and R/T Scat Pack models, even though the SRT Hellcat is obviously Hemi-powered. The Dodge Challenger – with no mention of SRT Hellcat or Hemi designation – ranks fourth on the list with a score of 776, with the Infiniti Q50 sitting in the third spot with a score of 878.
For comparison to rear-drive performance models, the Chevrolet Camaro has an HDLI list score of 173, the Ford Mustang GT has a score of 172, the Corvette hardtop has a score of 116 and the Corvette convertible has a score of 91.
No other American cars appear on the HDLI top 20 most stolen list for 2020-2022, but there are a few American trucks.
The Ford F350 SuperCrew 4WD ranks 13th overall and 1st among trucks (with a score of 349) while the Ford F250 SuperCrew 4wd is 15th overall and 2nd among trucks (337). The Ram 3500 Crew Cab LWB 4WD is 17th overall and 3rd among trucks with a score of 306.
No half-ton trucks ranked in the top 20 of the HDLI most stolen list, but in looking through the data for half-ton trucks, the GMC Sierra Crew Cab leads the list with a score of 248 while the Ram 1500 Crew Cab SWB 4WD ranks second (among half-ton trucks) with a score of 151. We point out that particular Ram model, as the Crew Cab SWB 4WD should include the Hellcat-powered TRX, which is unfortunately very popular with thieves, but due to the fact that half-ton trucks are bestselling vehicles in the United States, they aren’t stolen as frequently relative to the total number of trucks on the road when compared to the number of Charger and Challengers stolen relative to the total number on the road. In other words, while it seems like lots of TRXs are being stolen, theft numbers among the general grouping of Ram 1500 Crew Car SWB 4WD models is still very low.
In the SUV segment, the Dodge Durango has a score of 165 and the Dodge Durango 4WD has a score of 267. The Jeep Grand Cherokee has a score of 156, the Grand Cherokee 4WD has a score of 124, the Grand Cherokee L 4WD has a score of 101 and the Wrangler 4 door 4WD has a score of 93 while the 2 door Wrangler has a score of 62.
For comparison, the most stolen SUV for the 2020-2022 model years is the Range Rover 4 door 4WD with a score of 611 while several BMW SUVs have a score in the 300-range.
Click here to look through the full HDLI report for the 2020-2022 model years.
