Photo: Car thefts have fallen sharply in the US (Getty Images) Author: Konstantin Shirokun
The number of car thefts in the United States has decreased by 17 percent, a positive trend not seen in over 40 years. In 2024, 850,708 cars were stolen in the United States.
This was reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to Carscoops.
The sharp improvement in the car theft situation is linked to Hyundai and Kia: the Korean automakers have drawn conclusions and worked on making their cars more resistant to thieves.
The surge in car thefts in the US occurred after the pandemic, when a challenge to hack a Kia or Hyundai went viral on social media. After that, both insurance companies and regional authorities sued the South Korean companies. The carmaker had to react, urgently update the software and even give away blockers for free.
The wave of car thefts seems to have subsided, with all states (except Maine) recording a decrease in the number of thefts. However, the most stolen models are still “Korean”: Hyundai Elantra (31.7 thousand thefts per year), Hyundai Sonata (26.7 thousand), Chevrolet Silverado (21.6 thousand), Honda Accord (18.5 thousand) and Kia Optima (17.5 thousand). The safest region is Washington (District of Columbia), where there were 842 thefts per 100 thousand residents.
Interestingly, despite the bad situation with car thefts in the US, people continue to leave cars with the keys in the lock. Every year, tens of thousands of crimes are recorded where the thief simply jumped into the empty car and started the engine without breaking anything.
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