Be careful where you park if you drive a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. The supercharged sedan earned the dubious honor of being America’s most stolen vehicle built between the 2020 and 2022 model years, according to a study released by the the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), a division of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The study analyzed claims of whole-vehicle thefts, meaning an incident where a car is stolen. This differs from standard theft reports that can include claims of parts stolen off of a car and claims of items taken from the cabin. Dodge’s super-sedan secured the top spot on the list by a wide margin, and the non-Hellcat-branded Charger powered by a naturally-aspirated V8 engine took second place. Alarmingly, HLDI’s data show that Charger thefts have increased in recent years. “These numbers are unbelievable,” said HLDI Senior Vice President Matt Moore.
For context, the 2020-2022 Charger SRT Hellcat posted a relative claim frequency of 6,128; the industry average is pegged at 100. The non-Hellcat Charger’s figure stands at 2,197. Third place goes to the Infiniti Q50, with a relative claim frequency of 878, while Dodge’s Challenger ended up in fourth place with a score of 766. Well-documented problems that make certain Kia models relatively easy to steal allowed the Sportage, the Rio, and the Forte to end up on the top-20 list, while big SUVs like the Range Rover and the BMW X7 are also popular targets.
“The Q50 has been a perennial feature on the most-stolen vehicle list since model year 2014 for reasons that remain a mystery,” HDLI said.
At the other end of the spectrum, the study found that the all-wheel-drive variants of Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y tied for the least-stolen car, with a relative claim frequency of three. Second place goes to the Volvo XC90 (6), and the GMC Acadia finished in third place (7). Several other EVs appear on the list of least-stolen cars, and it’s not because their limited range and long charging times make them poor getaway cars. “This may be because they are often parked overnight in well-lit and comparatively secured areas for charging,” HDLI explained.
With the Dodge Charger set to go electric soon, it will be interesting to see whether thieves still find it appealing.
