A snapshot of vehicle theft last year in Australia just released by insurance company Compare the Market has revealed some interesting facts about the numbers and types of cars stolen Down Under.
According to the most recent figures available, an average of 156 vehicles were stolen every day in 2013.
From a total of 43,380 passenger cars, 13,780 or 32 per cent were stolen in NSW, followed by 9989 (23 per cent) in Victoria, 9127 (21%) in Queensland, 5318 (12%) in West Australia, 2843 (7%) in South Australia, 988 (2%) in Tasmania, 757 (2%) in the Northern Territory and 575 (1%) in the ACT.
Holden's VT Commodore was the most popular passenger car target for thieves, with 966 stolen, followed by the Holden VE Commodore (830), Hyundai Excel X3 (758), Holden VX Commodore (600) and Toyota HiLux (573).
Of the top 30 stolen vehicles by make, 3798 were Commodores and 1391 were Falcons in 2013 (when Holden sold 27,766 new Commodores and Ford sold just 15,289 new Falcons).
No less than 75 per cent of all stolen passenger cars were recovered, but up to 50 stolen vehicles became scrap metal every week and an average of 50 were stolen and exported overseas.
Almost half (48 per cent) of all vehicle thefts occurred at a residence, more than 30 per cent of vehicle thefts happened on Fridays and Saturdays, and 31 per cent took place between 8:00pm and midnight.
Apart from passenger cars, crooks stole 92 buses, 59 tractors, 43 forklifts, seven rollers, 5 dozers and a crane.