Australia's most stolen cars revealed

THE Holden Commodore remains Australia’s most theft-friendly car, with all models accounting for about one in every 10 vehicles stolen in the 12 months to March 31, statistics show.

The latest National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council data reveals that the late 2000s-era VE accounted for most of the thefts – 986 of them worth a staggering $12.9 million.

Those stealing a Commodore-badged Holden didn’t worry too much about age. Not far behind is the late 1990s-era VT Commodore with 633 thefts worth $2.3 million, while the 2000-era VX (571 worth $2.5 million) and 2002-era VY (541 worth $3.0 million) rounded out the numbers.

The most stolen single model was the N15 Nissan Pulsar, a drab, conservative mid 1990s-era hatchback that 1023 car thieves found attractive. Their combined value? About $2.1 million, according to the council.

The most stolen Ford model for the year was the 2002-era BA Falcon, with 598 going missing, touting an estimated worth of $3.3 million.

The Toyota Hilux was also a popular choice, with the decade-old model (679 worth $9.3 million) being the pick of the underworld. Examples of the Toyota utes built between 1998-2004 (440 worth $2.2 million) and 2012-15 (406 worth $11.2 million) were also very popular.

Criminals who wanted something other than a Hilux badge fell for a late-model version of the Nissan Navara, with 446 - worth a combined $8.6 million - going missing.

Some trends have emerged, with the four-door Holden VZ Crewman ute (77 stolen worth $572,000) and VY version (32, worth $189,000) proving popular. Early models of BMW’s X5 SUV (68 worth $734,000) and the Audi A5 (66 worth $3.1 million) also stood out, as did the E-Series HSV GTS (also 66, worth $2.1 million).

Performance cars are scattered through the list. Aside from the HSV GTS, the W204 version of the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG was the most coveted ‘bahn-stormer, accounting for 29 losses worth an estimated $2.4 million. Its slightly bigger sibling, the W212-based E63, accounted for just four thefts worth $431,000.

Showing that some car thieves have no taste, 16 second-gen Volkswagen Beetles worth just over $101,000 were removed from their owners.

Spare a thought for the big end of town, too. At least a couple of Maserati Ghiblis worth $264K, two Audi S8s ($122K) and RS4s ($181K), a single Audi R8 ($119K), an RS6 ($218K), an early model Bentley Continental ($159K), and a late-model Jaguar F-Type ($149K) were all listed as stolen.

The NMVTRC is an industry lobby group that aims to reduce the number of vehicle thefts in Australia. In the 12 months to March 31, there were 46,509 vehicle thefts throughout Australia worth more than $574 million.