America's Most-Stolen Vehicle Proves Thieves Love the Camaro ZL1's Horsepower

Miami Herald

2 days ago

The Chevrolet Camaro ZL1-the most powerful version of Chevy's discontinued muscle car-is America's most-stolen vehicle, according to a new report from the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), a research arm of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Relative to its numbers on the road, the ZL1 had a theft rate 39 times the average for all vehicles surveyed.
All-wheel drive variants of the Acura TLX were the second-most prone to theft, according to the report, followed by the standard Camaro, the GMC Sierra 2500 (in crew-cab, four-wheel drive form), and the front-wheel drive TLX. Those rankings are based on whole-vehicle theft claims filed with insurance companies for the 2022-2024 model years.
"Muscle cars have often topped this list, as thieves are attracted to vehicles with high horsepower," Matt Moore, chief insurance operations officer at the HLDI and IIHS, said in a statement. "This also helps explain why the more expensive, more powerful ZL1 is stolen so much more often than the standard Camaro."
If its high horsepower makes the Camaro ZL1 a more likely target for thieves, a software vulnerability might make it easier to successfully steal, according to the HLDI. The organization cited media reports that thieves can clone the key fob for newer Camaros using diagnostic ports.
Chevy standardized a keyless pushbutton ignition for the sixth-generation Camaro, which was sold from model years 2016 to 2024, but the HLDI noticed a sharp increase in theft claims for these cars beginning in 2023, peaking in March 2024 with 18.3 claims per 1,000 insured vehicle years (a measurement of one vehicle insured for one year), compared with about 1.3 claims per 1,000 insured vehicle years for the previous 2010-2015 model.
General Motors launched a service campaign in March 2025 aimed at reducing theft risk for 2020-2024 Camaro models, in the form of a free software update performed by dealerships. A similar campaign helped tame a rash of thefts of Hyundai and Kia models that began in 2021, according to a previous HLDI report.
Meanwhile, Tesla monopolized the podium for least-stolen vehicles. The dual-motor Model 3 had the lowest incidence of whole-vehicle theft claims, followed by the Model Y and single-motor Model 3. the fourth and fifth least-stolen vehicles-the Toyota RAV4 Prime and Tesla Model S, respectively-also had charge ports.
That's not a coincidence. Across multiple studies, the HLDI has found that EVs are more likely to be garaged or parked near buildings for charging, making them less attractive to thieves. Plug-in hybrids like the RAV4 Prime are also likely to parked at a charger overnight (assuming owners are using them correctly, that is).
Including the all-plug-in top five, the top 20 least-stolen vehicles included eight all-electric models and two plug-in hybrids, all of which had whole-vehicle theft claim rates that were more than 85% lower than average. It's another potential advantage to buying an EV, albeit one we really don't want to have to think about.
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