Car theft in 2015: more thefts, more damage

S UV are extremely popular as new cars, a trend that also continues with the car thefts, as can be seen from the current figures of the General Association of the German Insurance Industry (GDV).

GDV

Berlin remains the stronghold of car thieves. Bavaria sleeps more calmly.

Among the most frequently stolen vehicles are several high-priced SUVs such as Range Rover, Toyota Land Cruiser, Lexus RX350, Audi Q7, BMW X6 and X5.

The most popular brands among car thieves were Land Rover and Jaguar. Almost 200 of the current Range Rover series were stolen, and the insurers paid an average of almost 66,000 euros for each case. For all of the Land Rover models, the statisticians at GDV determined a theft rate of 5.2 per 1,000 cars with comprehensive insurance. Jaguar (theft rate: 1.7) came in second place in the manufacturer comparison, followed by Audi (1.3), Porsche (1.2) and BMW (1.0).

Overall, the economic damage from the car thefts amounted to more than 291 million euros (+ 11%). The average compensation for each theft reached a new record high of 15,611 euros.

Berlin remains the capital of car thieves

The development of car theft varied in the federal states: More cars were stolen in Hamburg (+ 14%), Lower Saxony (+ 18%), North Rhine-Westphalia (+ 11%), Thuringia (+ 11%) and Saxony-Anhalt (+ 11%). There were fewer thefts in Baden-Württemberg (-5%), Saxony (-7%), Schleswig-Holstein (-5%) and Saarland (-22%).

The GDV recorded the highest theft rate for Berlin with 3.5 thefts per 1,000 cars. Hamburg follows with a rate of 1.8,Brandenburg comes to 1.3. Car owners can sleep most quietly in Bavaria. Here the stealing rate is only 0.1.