Why a Ford pickup isn’t the most-stolen vehicle in America

If you've read any auto news over the past 24 hours, you likely saw at least a headline proclaiming that the Ford F-250 pickup had replaced the Cadillac Escalade as the most stolen vehicle on American streets. It's an honor that seems misplaced: Ford sells a lot of F-250 pickups every year, but it sells far more Mustangs, Fusions and Focuses, and no medium-duty pickup truck ranks among the top 20 vehicles sold every month. Why would thieves target it over more common, easier-to-steal models?

In fact, they don't. The F-250 isn't close to being the vehicle swiped most by U.S. car thieves, who may be making a comeback after several years of declines. Here's the real story.

The reports all stem from the same study by the Highway Loss Data Institute, part of the Insurance Institue for Highway Safety, the research arm of the insurance industry. Its numbers showed that the four-wheel-drive F-250 crew cab had the highest losses per insured vehicle year for 2010-2012 models, averaging $7,060 per claim. That average displaced the Escalade, which had topped the rankings since 2003.

To its credit, the HLDI never says its data shows the F-250 gets taken whole from its owners more than other vehicles. Because it only has insurance claim payments, the HLDI can't say what happened in any particular case — and clearly states that its numbers don't distinguish between thefts of entire vehicles and thefts of property from inside or outside one, which helps explain why five of the top 10 vehicles in the HLDI list are pickups. Given that the F-250 comes with an anti-theft ignition immobilizer and weighs more than three tons, moving one against the owner's wishes takes some skill and a large tow truck — but the recent re-growth of the construction business means more such trucks are back on the road with expensive tools in their beds.