The pandemic year 2020 was apparently also a year of crisis for car thieves: According to German insurers, 10,697 vehicles were stolen last year.

That was not just almost a third less than the year before.

But also a tenth of the thefts in 1994: At that time, almost 105,000 vehicles were stolen.

Falk Heunemann

Business editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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On average, three out of 10,000 cars are stolen each year.

The General Association of the German Insurance Industry, which has compiled the figures on the basis of the reported claims, assumes that the sharp decline in the past year was mainly due to the pandemic.

North Hesse safer

If you want to minimize the risk, you should move to a western or southern German area.

In terms of the number of vehicles, the city states of Berlin and Hamburg as well as Brandenburg have the highest theft rates nationwide, while Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland have the lowest.

In Hesse, the north is much safer than the south: In Frankfurt, 4 out of 10,000 cars were stolen last year, a total of 100. However, this makes Frankfurt one of the most theft-proof cities, in Berlin, for example, 23 out of 10,000 vehicles disappear every year. In absolute terms, most of the cars were stolen in the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and very few in the poorly populated Saarland.

In addition, buyers in need of security should opt for an Opel.

According to a comparison of 20 brands, Opel is the least popular manufacturer among thieves, based on the number of vehicles.

The car manufacturer from Rüsselsheim landed in the ranking of the General Association of the German Insurance Industry behind Seat and Skoda.

On average, only one in 10,000 Opel cars is stolen each year.

Volkswagen and Ford are also relatively safe (three out of 10,000 each).

Landrover cars, on the other hand, are most at risk, 19 out of 10,000 vehicles are disappearing, as are Porsches (10 out of 10,000).

The models most popular with thieves are the Land Rover Velar, the BMW X6 and the Kia Stinger.

The association's statistics take into account all thefts of cars that were partially or fully insured. 1.7595438