Honda is a hot ride

When it comes to "hot" cars, nothing's hotter than a Honda, officials say.

While the price of cars like the Honda Civic and the Honda Accord might pale in comparison to the cost of a luxury automobile, sports car or SUV, Hondas are still the most popular choice among Utah's car thieves.

Sgt. Curtis Stoddard, of the Utah Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division, said there are several reasons why these cars are stolen more frequently than others, but he said the biggest problem is illegal street racing.

"Racer groups like those cars," he said.

Because of their fast engines, Hondas are a popular choice for street racers, Stoddard said. Generally, street racers won't adopt a stolen car as their own, he said. Instead they use parts from stolen vehicles to "soup up" their own cars.

As of Friday, the MVED was looking for 83 vehicles that had been reported stolen. Of those, Stoddard said Accords, 11, Civics, 10, and Acura Integras, 8, were the most numerous.

A report released last week by CCC Information Services, a Chicago-based insurance company, listed 1999 Acura Integras as the most stolen vehicle nationwide. But Stoddard said the numbers used in that report might not be accurate because not all cars are insured.

According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, the top three stolen cars of 2003, the most recent report available from the company, were: (1) 2000 Honda Civic, (2) 1989 Toyota Camry and (3) 1991 Honda Accord.

In Utah, the NICB reported that 1997 Honda Civics, 1992 Honda Accords and 1989 Jeep Cherokees were the most stolen cars in 2003.

"Frankly, the Civic and Accord have replaced the '57 Chevy as the 'cool car,' " said Mike Spencer, a spokesman for Acura, a division of the Honda corporation. "And the Integra is very close to that same genre."

Spencer said the cars' popularity is somewhat of a double-edged sword.

"It's a Catch-22 really," he said. "You want the car to be popular, but you don't want them to disappear from people's driveways. They might be slightly too popular among the underworld crowd."

As for the popularity of Jeeps in Utah, Stoddard said the four-wheel drive of Jeeps and other SUVs makes the cars a more popular target during the winter.

Using stolen cars to commit other crimes is another motivation for thieves, Stoddard said, because "you can't identify me if it's not my car."

Stoddard also said that thieves continue to steal Hondas because they have the know-how.