In its February 4 edition, our colleague Auto Plus publishes the results of the most stolen vehicles over the past year.
Good news: vehicle thefts did not experience the rebound that we might have feared after a year 2020 marked by multiple confinements and curfews which had deterred thugs.
However, 122,700 cars and motorized two-wheelers combined still disappeared in 2021. A sad score comparable to previous years highlights Auto Plus.
The weekly stresses that 336 vehicles are still stolen every day.
It's still too much.
“Mouse theft” remains the modus operandi most used by thieves.
In eight out of ten cases, they resort to this method of burglary theft through over-the-counter equipment on the Internet.
To track vehicles and locate them,
Auto Plus reveals that criminals use the AirTag (Apple) that iPhone owners use to find their personal belongings.
This tracer the size of a 2 euro coin is thus concealed on the targeted car.
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What responsibility at the wheel of an “autonomous car”?
The weekly survey reveals that the Toyota Prius, which has become one of the favorite models of taxis, is also the best seller of car thieves.
Interest in this hybrid vehicle stems from traffic around its catalytic converter.
The rare metals - platinum, palladium and rhodium - which make up this equipment and whose prices soar, feed a sector.
Since the thugs saw the pot in the street, the best parade, according to Auto Plus, is to block access by parking his vehicle against the wall.
The Japanese manufacturer appears a second time in the top 10 with the small SUV C-HR (7th place).
According to the Auto Plus survey, French models are favored by thieves.
Eight of them appear in the top 10. The DS7 Crossback luxury SUV remains the most stolen French vehicle, taking second place on the podium.
Relatively easy to steal, this model would be very popular with drug traffickers and would feed a sector in Africa.
This SUV is ahead of the Renault Mégane RS on the third step of the podium.
It is ahead of two other models from the Diamond firm: the Clio IV and the Mégane IV.
Then comes the second generation of the Peugeot 3008. The DS3 ranks 9th ahead of the current Peugeot 208.
