Based on MoneyHub\u2019s detailed Stolen Car Analysis, head of research Christopher Walsh isolates multiple trends for the six months ended December 20:<\/p>\n
\u2013 Hilux thefts now average more than one a day.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Toyota dominates: eight of the top 20 most stolen vehicles are Toyotas, including four of the top five. Nearly one in three stolen cars is a Toyota \u2013 30.7% of all car thefts, with 1010 vehicles taken.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Canterbury is the ute theft capital \u2013 the region is now the No 1 location for Hilux, Courier, Landcruiser, Commodore and Navara thefts.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Northland remains the highest-risk region per capita:14 vehicles stolen per 10,000 people, nearly five times the rate of Southern (3 per 10,000).<\/p>\n
\u2013 The average stolen car is 22 years old, the median age is 19 years, and 70% of stolen vehicles are 15-plus years old (pre-2010). Only 2% are newer than five years.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Silver, white and black vehicles account for 64% of thefts \u2013 though this probably reflects their prevalence on the road.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Monday is the worst day for car theft: 722 vehicles are stolen on Mondays, compared with542 on Saturdays.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Thefts climbed towards year end: November recorded 823 thefts, the highest month in the six months surveyed.<\/p>\n
Specific \u2018non-standard\u2019 thefts included:<\/p>\n
\u2013 The oldest car stolen was a 1942 Ford Pickup \u2013 83 years old \u2013 taken in the Bay of Plenty.<\/p>\n
\u2013 1971 Pontiac Le Mans and 1974 purple Ford Falcon XB stolen in Waikato \u2013 thieves going after classic \u201cAmerican muscle\u201d in these cases.<\/p>\n
\u2013 1966 Holden Premier stolen in Waitemat\u0101 \u2013 a 59-year-old Australian classic was poached.<\/p>\n
\u2013 90 BMWs stolen, the most targeted luxury manufacturer, followed by 54 Audis and 44 Mercedes-Benz.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Three Porsches were taken, including a Panamera in Canterbury and two Cayennes.<\/p>\n
\u2013 A 2017 Maserati Levante was stolen in Counties-Manukau.<\/p>\n
\u2013 26 Harley-Davidsons stolen, one every week on average.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Six pink vehicles stolen, including a 1992 Toyota Corolla in the Bay of Plenty and a 2004 Honda Fit in Counties-Manukau.<\/p>\n
\u2013 27 Nissan Skylines taken \u2013 the boy racer favourite is still on the target list.<\/p>\n
\u2013 New cars aren\u2019t immune \u2013 five brand-new 2025 models were stolen, including a Toyota RAV4 (Auckland), Hyundai Tucson (Counties-Manukau) and MG ZS (Waikato).<\/p>\n
New Zealand\u2019s most stolen cars \u2013 average frequency and theft locations<\/p>\n
As outlined by MoneyHub in its dedicated stolen cars report:<\/p>\n
A warning from MoneyHub Founder Christopher Walsh<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re financing any car, especially a high-theft model like a Hilux or Ranger, make sure your insurance payout would actually cover what you owe,\u201d Walsh warned.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people don\u2019t realise there can be a gap between market value and their loan balance \u2013 and that gap needs to be paid by the borrower if and when a car is stolen, which can be significant.\u201d<\/p>\n
MoneyHub senior researcher Christopher Walsh. Photo \/ MoneyHub<\/p>\n
Walsh said their analysis was grouped based on six months of police data, recognising that areas with higher populations have a correspondingly higher likelihood of theft.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo add context to these figures, we\u2019ve reported the riskiest and safest areas for car thefts in relation to population size.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Based on MoneyHub\u2019s detailed Stolen Car Analysis, head of research Christopher Walsh isolates multiple trends for the six…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[121870,121873,121865,121874,121872,121867,121853,121871,121868,121869,121866,3225,8133,95,121856,22509,121860,121862,5432,111998,3944,121685,39682,11652,7500,121859,14768,63677,1644,71,121854,89817,33262,121861,78,13419,121855,6176,5289,121852,3025,121857,117,111,43,139,69,675,121864,78342,15267,1518,121851,1857,4736,11208,223,14168,46870,121858,121863,6845,5977,49493,80],"class_list":["post-197513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-121870","tag-121873","tag-121865","tag-121874","tag-121872","tag-121867","tag-121853","tag-121871","tag-121868","tag-121869","tag-121866","tag-according","tag-analysis","tag-and","tag-aqua","tag-areas","tag-atenza","tag-axela","tag-between","tag-bounty","tag-car","tag-commodore","tag-corolla","tag-courier","tag-december","tag-demio","tag-every","tag-examined","tag-financial","tag-from","tag-hiace","tag-hilux","tag-hour","tag-impreza","tag-in","tag-june","tag-landcruiser","tag-legacy","tag-models","tag-moneyhub","tag-most","tag-navara","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-police","tag-prius","tag-ranger","tag-reported","tag-research","tag-riskiest","tag-site","tag-stolen","tag-swift","tag-the","tag-theft","tag-thefts","tag-tiida","tag-triton","tag-vehicle","tag-which","tag-wish","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}