Can you imagine taking hours and hours searching for the perfect car? You’ve spent months to years saving your hard earned money.  You somehow made it through the car shopping experience and even felt that you came out on top.

You chose an economical car, a great color, better interior, and even better gas mileage.  You drive out of the car dealership knowing that it just dropped in its worth the moment you leave the dealership. You’ve been waiting your life for this experience.  And you are happy.

Hundreds, no thousands, no hundreds of thousands of us have done this exact same thing. Others are frugal and have found a used vehicle that they love just as much as someone who bought a new car.

Showing off your new car is almost as good of feeling as driving it off of the lot. You may be much more likely to run errands than usual, or take your high school friends for a drive, or even that hated nephew to his soccer game, just for another chance to drive your new car.

One night, you’re out with friends, enjoying a drive with the windows down on a summer night and a meal at your favorite restaurant. You’ve said several funny things during the night and had a good time. It’s time to go, or move onto the next hot spot and you walk out to your car.  That’s when life changes. That’s when everything goes wrong.

The parking spot, the one that you just left your new vehicle in, is now empty.  You blink several times and still you see nothing. Then it hits you….you have Alzheimer’s and can’t remember where you parked your new car.  That can be the only explanation you say to yourself.

But, the look of empathy on the faces of your friends tells you only one thing.  Your new car has been stolen.

This one statement, changes you forever. Doubt, anger, sadness, longing, regret, and another round of more anger are your close companions for the next several weeks.  You call the police, only to learn, that your car is on the list of the ten most stolen cars in America. The likelihood of finding your car, in one piece, is almost zero.  And you think to yourself, why didn’t I know which cars were more likely to be stolen?

According to CNN Money – The Cadillac Escalade and Honda Accord are two of the most stolen vehicles in the U.S.

Added to that list are Honda Civics, Toyota Camry, GMC Yukon, Ford F-450, Dodge Minivan, along with many others.

It’s interesting because two sets of data are reviewed when correlating these types of lists. The first is the overall number of cars stolen and that glory would go the Honda Accord year 1994.  The second list looks at the vehicles that are reported to the insurance company – and that car would be the Cadillac Escalade.

This essentially means, that a lot of older cars are not reported to the car insurance company.  You must wonder, if the owner feels the vehicle has relatively little overall value. What does the person stealing the vehicle see?

Since 2000, and considering only the overall stolen vehicles: Honda and Toyota have held the top three spots each of the last eleven years.

So, this year, when you are out shopping for a new car, keep this little information in mind.  Though, it really shouldn’t deter you from picking a car. It is something interesting to think about.  The next important step would be to see the number of the cars on the street versus the number of cars stolen. If only five cars are sold of a certain type and three of them are stolen, that is very risky.  But, if a million cars are sold and only a few hundred are stolen; that could be considered a very reasonable risk.

Food for thought, the next time you’re car shopping.