On video: a suspect in stealing a car from the Jerusalem area broke through a checkpoint in the Modi'in area during the weekend/use according to section 27a of copyright
Those who have renewed their car insurance since the beginning of 2024, have suffered a bigger blow to their pocket than ever, even if they were not involved in an accident in the last year that spoiled their clean insurance history.
According to data from the Wobi website, an average increase of 2% in policy prices was recorded in January.
The cost of insurance for the Toyota Corolla, for example, jumped within a year by 33.1%, and for the Skoda Octavia by 29.1%.
"The increase in insurance prices in January is added to a continuous and sharp increase that continued throughout 2023," says Nadav Schreibman, director of the research and analysis department at Wobi.
"Drivers who are now renewing car insurance should also pay attention to the tightening of the protection requirements as well as the significant price differences between the companies. In this state of affairs it is worthwhile and important to compare three parameters - the terms of the policy for each clause, the protection requirements in each offer and of course, the cost of the insurance. As mentioned, The differences may amount to thousands of shekels."
why is it happening?
The data from the police and the insurance companies reveal that in the past year there was a dramatic increase in the rate of car thefts, which jumped to 19,759 cases, a significant and steep increase from the last two years with 14 thousand vehicles stolen in 2022 and 10 thousand in 2021.
The consistent increase in the number of thefts indicates the failure of the police in reducing The phenomenon, which costs the citizens of Israel hundreds of millions of shekels every year and seriously harms governance and personal security.
Despite the hundreds of car thefts foiled throughout the country and the arrest of dozens of suspects, most of them Palestinians, the numbers do not lie and testify to a thriving business that is worth the risk for the thieves.
Retired sub-commissioned officer Guy Nir, former commander of the Vehicle Thief Detection and Apprehension Unit (ATGR) in Lahab 433 says in a conversation with Walla that "there are two items of property that are the most valuable to every resident of Israel.
One is his house and the other is the car.
When a person gets up in the morning and his car is not full of sadness and helplessness, we must eradicate this scourge and reduce it to at least tolerable numbers."
And this is not a new phenomenon unknown to the Israel Police, in fact, for over two decades the police have been devoting manpower and strenuous activity to eradicating the phenomenon, but that the existing model is not functioning and the thieves are celebrating at our expense. "Etgar Unit is the most unique unit in the Israel Police," explains Nir, "because it has a focus on a certain area.
This concept was copied from the Americans, from the FBI, which usually establishes task forces for all kinds of purposes.
Today there are task forces for the Israel Police, to fight against criminal organizations and more, but Etgar is the task force with the most personnel, it is allowed to operate at the national level and perhaps the only body that enters into criminal enforcement in Area A against the perpetrators of car thefts.
It's a complete task force and can provide solutions not only in enforcement aspects."
A rare arrest of operators of a car slaughterhouse in the Territories/ Israel Police Spokesperson
So what doesn't work?
According to Nir, "Etgar must constantly monitor the phenomenon through its intelligence, its operational activity and also in its research areas, not to say today that so and so cars were stolen, but to give an answer to who is causing this phenomenon, if the Palestinian Authority does not enforce its part, or If the IDF makes it less possible to operate in the field, then it will have an effect. At the time, I proposed to turn the Etgar unit into a national unit, like the Yalakh or Yahbal, and to expand it in terms of SADK, with arms and branches.
Because this is a phenomenon that costs us money and the public pays expensive prices for the insurance and it costs the taxpayers hundreds of millions.
But it was decided not to, but there is definitely justification to re-examine it, at the same time to check if the Ethgar unit is effective today."
Nir adds and says that "there are technologies such as Ein Hantz that enable the tracking and monitoring of patterns and routes of vehicle thefts. When I was commander of the unit there were about 3 million vehicles in Israel, today the number has reached 4 million. But we are talking about an increase in thefts not only In absolute numbers, but in percentages, and you have to see what's happening here. You have much more advanced systems, you have a dedicated unit, but there is an increase in thefts. Let there be no doubt, the unit sometimes works in very complex ways, but in my opinion, the slaughterhouses in the territories are at the heart of the phenomenon."
"The phenomenon of vehicle theft in Israel is very unusual," claims Nir, "in the US, for example, there are several mechanisms that the law enforcement system has, one of them, called Car Fax, which gives you the complete history of the vehicle by typing in a vehicle or chassis number, and therefore even An American will not buy a car that has been welded together from all kinds of parts.
But in Israel it does not exist.
Since we have an entity near us where everything drains there because the enforcement there is reduced, it is clear that if all the slaughterhouses were operating in Israel we would be in a completely different situation.
As long as the Etgar unit exists - there is an address that you can come to with demands and hold it accountable. Anyone who says that it has no effect on car thefts is misleading the public. Some of the elements of Etgar, apart from investigations and intelligence, are research and analysis. The unit has the luxury of examining and handling the phenomenon in the macro".
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In the insurance industry and the stolen vehicle tracking companies Ituran and Poynter claim that the jump in thefts was caused by the large increase in the prices of parts, which increased the demand for used parts that originate from the stolen cars that are broken up into parts in slaughterhouses.
Etajar is having difficulty dealing with the situation after the high command of the police has in recent years also tasked it with the fight against the illegal arms trade, which takes away resources and attention from dealing with car thefts.
But this situation cannot be a justification for hiding the data that characterizes the field. The police and the insurance companies refuse Publish the complete theft data, according to manufacturers and models. An important figure that later affects the price of the insurance paid, the more stolen a vehicle is, the more expensive its comprehensive insurance will be. Both Ituran and Pointer, who have the data, refuse to share it with the public that purchases their services, claiming that companies The insurance prohibits them from doing so.
It was only thanks to the movement for freedom of information that we were able to obtain from the police data, not completely complete, on the distribution of thefts according to popular models. The list provided by the police includes more than 60 models and covers most of the car market, but not all of it, and many models are missing , mainly in the luxury market. And yet, in its first publication, it provides a snapshot that makes it possible for the first time to assess the likelihood that you will go down to the parking lot in the morning and find at most broken glass from your stolen vehicle.
The data reveals large gaps in the rate of theft between the various models. After we had already reported in Vala about a jump in car thefts in the last year Trams, which are often used as a portable battery in houses in the territories and in certain areas of the Negev, the data confirm this.
The vehicle with the highest theft rate is the electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 and 6 (the police data provided to us combines the two models - A.E., S.H.): one out of every 20 such cars was stolen in the last year, a trend that slowed down after Pointer introduced an improved protection system Against the thieves' electronic equipment, which competes with the car key, which also allows driving without inserting it into the ignition switch.
In second place is Hyundai's small crossover, the Honyo, with one theft for every 62 cars on the market, followed by the Hyundai Santa Fe, with 1 in 63.
A very close fourth is the Toyota RAV4, with one in every 66 vehicles stolen, followed by another Toyota, the C-HR, with a ratio of 1 in 80.
The second five is opened by the Kia Sorento, the twin of the Santa Fe, with a ratio of 1 in 94, followed by the Hyundai Sonata (1 in 95), Ford Focus (1 in every 100 cars), Hyundai i25 (with 1 in 109) and Kia Stonic (1 to 116).
The car with the absolute highest number of thefts in the last year, the Toyota Corolla, which 1,551 owners parted with as planned, is placed only at the bottom of the ranking in terms of the chances of theft, because there are a little more than 220,000 Corollas on Israel's roads, the most common car in the country, which puts the ratio About one stolen car out of every 142 that exist in Israel.
The same goes for the Kia Picanto, from which 700 cars were stolen last year, but with 113,000 cars on the road, the ratio stands at one theft for every 161 cars.
Attorney Racheli Adri, CEO of the Movement for Freedom of Information: "Theft data received in response to the Freedom of Information request should be public and available at the click of a button. When a person buys a car, this is a consideration that must be taken into account. The insurance companies surely know this data and the public should also know In order to be able to examine and compare and make informed choices."
The data also show that the older the model, the less attractive it is to thieves, because its parts are cheaper and more readily available.
If it didn't require a compromise in terms of safety, fuel consumption and air pollution, buying a used and old car could be a good way to deal with the rising insurance and new car prices.
Maybe it's time for the country that collects more than NIS 40 billion from drivers a year in car and fuel taxes, to give us and our cars a little more personal security.
Ionik 5. An excellent car, even the thieves think so/Keenan Cohen
Model |
How many were stolen in 2023 |
How many were stolen from the cars of the model in Israel
Hyundai Ioniq 5+6 |
250 |
1 to 21
Hyundai and New |
180 |
For 62
Hyundai Santa Fe |
170 |
1 for 63
Toyota Rav4 |
635 |
1 in 66
Toyota C-HR |
about 408 |
1 for 80
Kia Sorento |
119 |
1 to 94
Hyundai Sonata |
139 |
1 for 95
Ford Focus |
62 |
1 in 100
Hyundai i25 |
about 299 |
1 for 109
Kia Stonic |
188 |
1 for 116
Toyota Land Cruiser |
198 |
1 for 119
Kia Niro |
349 |
1 in 138
Hyundai Kona |
144 |
1 for 140
Toyota Corolla |
1,551 |
1 for 142
Kia Picanto |
700 |
1 for 161
Hyundai Tucson |
392 |
1 for 170
Mazda CX5 |
about 369 |
1 for 200
Citroen Berlingo |
152 |
1 for 225
Renault Megane/Grand Coupe |
1 for 235
Mazda 6 |
98 |
1 for 245
Skoda Superb |
76 |
1 to 276
Impreza, the least stolen car on the list/Ronen Topelberg
Model |
How many were stolen in 2023 |
How many were stolen from the cars of the model in Israel
Kia Forte
76 |
1 for 303
Hyundai IX35 |
about 42 |
1 to 304
Mazda 5 |
51 |
1 of 317
Mitsubishi Outlander |
194 |
1 for 320
Kia Sportage |
228 |
1 for 376
Nissan Xtrail |
43 |
1 for 379
Nissan Qashqai |
91 |
1 of 387
Mazda Lantis |
17 |
1 for 470
Toyota Avensis |
15 |
1 for 489
Hyundai Elantra |
60 |
1 for 500
Skoda Octavia |
130 |
1 for 500
Volkswagen Passat |
19 |
1 for 505
Hyundai i10 |
about 124 |
1 for 556
Chevrolet Cruze |
22 |
1 to 607
Seat Leon |
22 |
1 to 618
Subaru B 4 |
14 |
1 for 619
Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid |
86 |
1 to 626
Opel Astra |
14 |
1 to 714
Opel Corsa |
15 |
1 for 741
Hyundai i35 |
39 |
1 for 777
Kia Sid |
26 |
1 to 786
Kia Rio |
34 |
1 for 800
Renault Fluence |
27 |
1 to 833
Peugeot 3008 |
24 |
1 for 872
Nissan Juke |
22 |
1 for 880
Hyundai Accent |
33 |
1 to 893
Mitsubishi Lancer |
27 |
1 to 918
Volkswagen Jetta |
17 |
1 to 918
Skoda Rapid |
20 |
1 to 922
Hyundai Getz |
21 |
1 for 929
Subaru Impreza |
1 to 961
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