Hyundai and Kia can take a step back from grand theft auto limelight, as new figures from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety-Highway Loss Data Institute shows that a muscle car now has the best odds of being stolen.
Specifically, the Virginia-based automotive safety watchdog says that the 2022–2024 model years of the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 were the most stolen vehicles in America, with examples of the 650-hp machine a stunning 39 times more likely to be boosted than the average for passenger vehicles. Not far behind was the non-ZL1 Camaro, which had a whole-vehicle theft rate 13 times higher than the national average, according to theft data from the last three years.
"Muscle cars have often topped this list, as thieves are attracted to vehicles with high horsepower," said Matt Moore, chief insurance operations officer at IIHS-HLDI. "That also helps explain why the more expensive, more powerful ZL1 is stolen so much more often than the standard Camaro."
Unlike Hyundai and Kia models, which were often stolen due to ease because they lacked immobilizers, Chevrolet Camaro thieves are getting inside these muscle cars by cloning the owner's key fob. Once thieves entered the vehicle, making a new fob was simply done by accessing vehicle data through the OBD-II ports on newer-generation Camaros. This is a known problem that has previously been reported on, forcing Chevrolet to acknowledge the potentially faulty software in March 2025. The Detroit-based automaker now offers free updates to 2020–2024 Camaro owners.
This spat of Camaro thefts has been relatively new among car thieves, according to IIHS data. Camaro variants were stolen at a pretty steady rate until 2023, when the rate of theft rose sharply — and continued to climb through most of 2024.
Notably, the software issue that allowed these American muscle cars to be stolen so easily coincided with the keyless, push-button start system that was introduced for the 2016 model year. All 2016-2024 Camaros had a rate of 18.3 theft claims per 1000 insured vehicles in March 2024. For context, the national average for 2010–2015 model year vehicles sits at 1.3 claims per 1000 insured vehicles. The majority of the thefts occurred in California and Texas, though Tennessee, Mississippi, and Maryland weren't far behind.
"We expect powerful and high-value vehicles to be targeted, and these models check both those boxes," Moore said. "But it stood out to us that Camaros that were nearly 10 years old had such high claim frequencies."
Other vehicles with particularly high theft rates include the Acura TLX (in FWD and AWD forms) as well as the GMC Sierra 2500 and 3500. (Notably, AWD variants of the Acura TLX came in second only to the ZL1, coming in at 21 times the average.) On the flip side, electrified vehicles continue to be undesirable to automotive bandits, as three Tesla models and the Toyota RAV4 Prime topped the list of least stolen vehicles. And as it so happens, Volvo's XC90 and XC40, as well as the Subaru Crosstrek and Ford Mustang Mach-E, were all but spared from being stolen when it comes to the 2022-2024 model years.
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