The latest insurers’ figures reveal a major surprise: one of the best -selling cars in France is also one of the least frequently stolen.
The GIE Argos, a professional insurance organization, has just published its annual vehicle flight barometer in France for the year 2024. The figures are concern: vehicle flights are constantly increasing. Last year, the trend was confirmed with an increase of 5% of the flights of private and utility vehicles.
In addition to this data, the argos provided the Net Journal of information on the frequencies of flight by model to the Net Journal. This approach allows you to have a more precise vision of the real risk of flight for each type of vehicle, regardless of the total number of flights.
Against all expectations, it is the very popular Renault Captur who closes the walking of the classification, making it one of the models least likely to be stolen. In other words, one of the most widespread models in France is also one of the least popular of thieves. The Renault Captur, it is also one of the most popular cars of retirees, as shown by Autoways data, relayed in 2021 by capital.
This low attractiveness is mainly explained by “a question of supply and demand” affirms Benoît Leclair, director of the GIE Argos, in the newspaper of the net. The Renault Captur is actually less sought after on the international black market, especially in Africa where many stolen vehicles are exported. In addition, it has better security than other models, making it more difficult to steal.
Conversely, the Toyota Rav4 V occupies first place in the classification of vehicles most stolen by frequency, followed by two Lexus models (RX II and NX). These SUVs are particularly targeted due to safety flaws identified by criminal networks. “The first versions of the Toyota Rav4 have vulnerabilities to unlock and start them easily,” said Benoît Leclair in the newspaper of the Net.
Once stolen, these vehicles are mainly exported abroad via large international ports. It is no coincidence that the department most affected by flights is the Bouches-du-Rhône. The port of Marseille is used by international networks linked to organized crime to send stolen vehicles to Africa.
Important precision: the figures of the Argos GIE differ from those of the police. Where the police identify all the complaints, including those which prove to be unfounded – like these “stolen” cars found in pounds -, the argos retains only proven and declared flights to insurance. Another size shade: in the data shared in the newspaper of the net, the argos has only identified vehicles under ten years old, with a threshold of 4,000 registrations for passenger cars and a minimum of 100 flights per year.
