This is the most stolen car in San Francisco — and it's not a Honda or Toyota

San Francisco Chronicle​

25-05-2025

For the 12th year in a row, Hondas were the most frequently stolen car brand in San Francisco.
But over the last two years, another car maker saw one of its models stolen more than any other car in the city.
While car thefts in San Francisco are low compared to prior years, new police department data shows that more than 1,200 Hondas were stolen in the city across 2023 and 2024.
But the most frequently stolen model in San Francisco was the Hyundai Elantra, which a recent national study found was the vehicle most at risk of being stolen across the country. In San Francisco, out of 1,120 Hyundais stolen, more than 500 of them were Elantras.
The second-most frequently stolen car model was the Honda Civic, with 420 thefts from 2023 to 2024. Following that was the Honda Accord, with 339 thefts, and the Hyundai Sonata, with 298 thefts.
Honda, Hyundai and Toyota were the top three car brands stolen most from 2023 to 2024, respectively. The number of brands stolen in a particular city often strongly corresponds with the numbers of cars that are popular in that city or state, said Brian Maas, president of the California New Dealers Association, who said he wasn't surprised to see Honda and Toyota in the top three, given how pervasive they are across the state.
'Californians have expressed a longstanding preference for Toyota and Honda vehicles,' he said. 'It makes logical sense. The more you sell, the more opportunities for those vehicles to be stolen.'
Hyundais were most recently listed as the 7th largest brand in California, Maas said, well behind Tesla and other brands. But in San Francisco, Hyundais saw a sharp spike in theft in San Francisco from 2022 to 2023, when the number of thefts jumped from about 140 to over 750. By 2024, however, thefts of Hyundais had fallen by a third.
Still, the temporary spike of Hyundai thefts aligns with the national study of stolen vehicles, where researchers speculated that the Elantra's 'popularity among thieves' may be because its parts are compatible with other Hyundai models, a boon that makes the models more amenable to black-market resale and chop shops.
Across the country, more than 48,445 Hyundai Elantras were stolen in 2023, according to Tinting Laws, a group of window tinting law experts who analyzed data from the Insurance Information Institute.
Data from the Highway Loss Data Institute found that Hyundai and Kia thefts rapidly increased in recent years across the country, which the institute partly attributed to videos posted to social media that broadcasted the fact that certain car models lacked a security device that would normally stop a car from turning off without a specific fob or key.
Hyundai and Kia agreed to pay upward of $200 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged the companies manufactured vehicles that made the cars easier to steal, the New York Times reported.
Recent theft numbers for Kia in San Francisco may reflect what was happening across the nation. Kia thefts jumped in 2021 from 43 to 97 in 2022. By 2023, they had reached 547. In 2024, thefts had plummeted to 207.
Hyundai Motor America said it had included free software upgrades, cylinder protectors and reimbursement programs to thwart thefts of certain 'entry-level models' that lacked immobilizers, Reuters reported. The company said 68% of vehicles at risk had received those updates.
Tesla — which held 12% market share of vehicles sold in California in 2024 — has not seen significant increases in thefts in San Francisco. Tesla thefts have gone up slightly in the past two years, but not by much. In 2023, there were 33 reported thefts, and those reduced slightly to 20 in 2024, SFPD data shows.
Maas said that although Tesla had moved up to the top three in popularity across the state, their market share seems to be declining and their reshare value has been dropping precipitously, which could explain why the cars are not as attractive to thieves.
'Stealing vehicles is a crime of opportunity. … And you're going to have a harder time getting rid of the parts on a Tesla vehicle than you would on some of those other cars,' said Maas. 'Toyotas and Hondas are going to stay on the road for a long time and consequentially, the value of those vehicles as used cars is going to be significantly higher.'
Nationwide, car theft numbers are seeing decreases. In 2024, about 850,000 vehicles were reported stolen nationwide, according to data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau. 2024 was the first time since 2021 that thefts did not surpass 1 million.
Numbers in San Francisco seem to reflect similar trends. Car thefts decreased by 22% last year, from over 5,100 in 2023 to just under 4,000 in 2024.
Harsha Devulapalli contributed to this report.