IC ROSNO Presents Rating of Most Frequently Stolen Car Models

OREANDA-NEWS. August 17, 2011. In the first half of 2011, ROSNO paid its MOD clients over 137,331 thousand roubles under the risk of car theft. In total, 130 car thefts were committed during the abovementioned time period, with most of them pertaining to St. Petersburg and Moscow. BMW X6 again reestablished itself as the most frequently stolen vehicle model in Russia’s northern capital, yet it left the top five list of the Moscow rating, which was now led by MAZDA CX9.

In the first six months of 2011, the following cars were most frequently stolen in Moscow:

* This and the next table indicates the share of total number of cars of a given brand insured with ROSNO.

Besides, the following cars were also quite frequently stolen in Moscow and the nearby areas: MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER, MAZDA 3, BMW X6, and HONDA CRV.

The St. Petersburg’s most frequently stolen cars list is as follows:

Various owners of TOYOTA LAND CRUISER and BMW X5 vehicles also regularly fell victims to car stealers.

As compared to the same period of the previous year, the TOP-5 rating underwent significant changes. For example, BMW 6-series finally left the list of Moscow’s five most frequently stolen vehicles. LEXUS GS, holding the 2nd position, and LEXUS LS, occupying the 4th position, remained among the leaders, though changing their rankings. In the last year’s rating they occupied the 3rd and 2nd places respectively. In addition, such models as DAEWOO NEXIA and INFINITY FX entered the top five ranking with 3rd and 5th positions respectively. As for St. Petersburg, in the first half of the running year, the most frequently stolen vehicles were BMW X6, CHEVROLET LACETTI, and BMW 3-series.

"Precise determination of the factors affecting the frequency of stealage of certain car models or brands is quite difficult, and it is virtually impossible to foretell what brand or model will be popular among car stealers next time. Stable popularity among car stealers is „enjoyed“ by such premium brands as BMW, LEXUS, and INFINITI. These brands are usually stolen to have their VIN numbers changed and further be sold to remote RF regions and countries of the former Soviet Union. Yet marking may remain unchanged — there is an increasing number of such cars in Caucasus and Central Asia. Some of the stolen cars get disassembled into spare parts, which can be explained by an increasing demand for spare parts from the owners of such cars, as the cost of new spare parts is quite high, so that car owners increasingly turn to disassembly sites. Also there are such options as „remaking“ of premium-class cars into „insured“ cars. The scheme is as follows: criminals legally purchase a heavily damaged or burnt-out car with all documents, whereafter such vehicle is, as previously agreed, registered without any indications of its present technical condition in the registration documents, and subsequently they arrange stealage of a vehicle with the same specifications. The stolen vehicle’s identification plates are as quickly as possible replaced with the plates from the damaged vehicle, and then the stolen vehicle is sold well below its market price. As for the middle class cars, they also depart for the regions, where they are sold for a mere 25 to 30% of their market value, with subsequent disassembly and sale of spare parts", comments Mr. Dmitry Kuznetsov, head of division in the Motor Insurance Department of OJSC IC ROSNO.