Ford F-250 pickup -- the new favorite of auto thieves

automobiles

Paul A. Eisenstein The Detroit Bureau

5 hours ago

VarnHagen, Sam / AP

In this March 2, 2010 photo provided by Ford Motor Co., the 2011 Ford F-250 Super Duty is shown. This truck just topped the list of the most stolen vehicles in America

The big Ford F-250 pickup has become the favorite of U.S. car thieves, replacing the Cadillac Escalade, the luxury SUV that had topped the theft chart for nearly a decade.

But although the big Caddy fell to only sixth place in the annual survey by the Highway Loss Data Institute, Cadillac?s parent General Motors still had eight of the top 10 spots in terms of theft claims.

Pickups, in particular, proved extremely popular with thieves during the 2010 to 2012 period covered by the new study, accounting for the first five vehicles on the list. Following the four-wheel-drive crew cab version of the F-250 were:

* The Chevrolet Silverado 1500 crew cab;

* The Chevrolet Avalanche 1500;

* The GMC Sierra 1500 crew cab; and

* The Ford F-350 pickup

The rest of the top 10, in order, were the Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Suburban 1500, GMC Sierra 1500, extended cab, GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe.

The fact that the Escalade fell so sharply after leading the theft list since 2003 may be a positive sign for an embarrassed GM, which has promised to improve its anti-theft technology ? something it plans to integrate into new versions of the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups for the 2014 model-year.

?General Motors has put a lot of effort into new anti-theft technology, so that may help explain the decline in the Escalade?s theft rate,? said HLDI vice president Matt Moore, who cautioned that, ?On the other hand, sales of the Escalade have fallen in recent years, so there may be less of a market for stolen Escalades or Escalade parts.?

(Heads-Up! New Tech Lets Drivers Keep Their Eyes on the Road)

Ford, meanwhile, contends that it is also taking steps to reduce thefts with new technologies.

Nonetheless, the F-250 had a claim frequency of nearly six times the average for all vehicles sold in the U.S., or seven per 1,000 insured vehicle years, according to HLDI. That?s the equivalent of having seven vehicles stolen out of every 1,000 over the course of a year.

In terms of the average loss payment per theft claim, the F-250 came in at $7,060, second only to the F-350 at $7,517 among the 10 most stolen vehicles.

Then again, the average payment came to $13,803, HLDI reports, for the Audi A4 sedan. But insurance companies don?t pay out very often on that model, which had the third lowest theft rate according to the new study.

(Cadillac Kills Mercedes S-Class Fighter - But Has a New Halo Car in the Works)

The five least stolen vehicles, with just 0.4 thefts per 1,000 insured vehicle year, were the Dodge Journey 4WD, the Volkswagen Tiguan 4WD, the Audi A4 sedan, the Acura RDX and the Toyota Matrix.

To a large degree, the vehicles at the top of the theft chart are higher-volume vehicles that thieves find they can either sell whole or strip for parts. Those at the bottom are either relatively unpopular products or lower-volume luxury models, such as the Audi A4. But there also are some more popular vehicles, like the Honda CR-V, ranked seventh from the bottom, that may benefit from improved anti-theft technologies.

Automotive immobilizers, designed to prevent a vehicle from being hot-wired, were standard in 89 percent of all vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2012, the last of the three years covered by the latest theft study.

Nonetheless, a separate report released a week ago by the National Insurance Crime Bureau found that the national rate for car theft rose 1.3 percent in 2012, largely led by California and other western states. It was the first increase the NICB has reported in eight years.

(China Now GM's Biggest Market)

The average theft rate for all vehicles, HLDI notes, was 1.2 per 1,000 insured vehicle years, and the typical claim payout came to $6,532.

More business news:

Follow NBCNews.com business onTwitter and Facebook

Copyright ? 2009-2013, The Detroit Bureau

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663286/s/2e6bf6f9/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cford0Ef0E250A0Epickup0Enew0Efavorite0Eauto0Ethieves0E6C10A575428/story01.htm

Harbaugh brothers superbowl commercials randy moss randy moss OJ Brigance What Time Does The Superbowl Start 2013 Psalm 91