In the last 12 months, thieves stole 380 vehicles a day on average, a 17% decrease from the previous 12-month period, according to a report on stolen car statistics by the Mexican Association of Insurance Institutions (AMIS).
Despite car insurance being obligatory on federal highways and in many states, the reality is that in Mexico, many cars are uninsured. So out of the nearly 140,000 vehicles stolen over the past year, fewer than 63,000 had insurance, leaving 54.8% of victims without any support to cover the cost of their loss.
Of the insured cars stolen, close to 29,000 were recovered, AMIS director Norma Rosas said. The recovered cars represented 46% of those stolen, a percentage that has steadily risen over the past five years.
México state, Jalisco, Mexico City, Guanajuato, Puebla and Veracruz had the most robberies, with seven out of 10 thefts happening in one of those states. The most-stolen models were the Nissan Versa, the Nissan NP300 pickup, the General Motors Aveo and Beat, and the Nissan Tsuru.
The organization also shared its data on vehicle accidents where both parties were insured, which peaked in June with more than 30,000 reported accidents.
There were also 6,906 thefts of tractor-trailers, buses, trucks and other heavy vehicles, a 21% decrease from the same period last year. Rosas credited the decrease in thefts to work her organization undertook in coordination with authorities and other industry organizations.
“We have a working agenda with the Citizen Security Ministry and Canacar [the National Chamber of Cargo Transporters], which has strengthened the safe roads program,” Rosas said.
With reports from Forbes México
