Fortunately, car theft is on the decline. Every stolen car is one too many, but compared to four years ago it looks a lot better.
In 2020, ‘only’ 9,671 cars were stolen in the Netherlands, calculated comparison site Autoverzekering.nl based on data from the police. This is a decrease of 26 percent compared to 2016. Autoverzekering.nl has not stated the cause of the decrease, but it has been pointing out improved alarm systems and stricter registrations that make it easier to find stolen vehicles.
Thieves will find it even more difficult in this area, because from this year dealers in used car parts, among others, are obliged to register all their products in a digital register. The National Vehicle Crime Information Center calculated last month that no fewer than 3,500 cars have been ‘recovered’ since 2018 because parts of them turned up at rogue dealers. To prevent such trade, traders must register their purchased parts in the Digital Buyers Register from this year onwards.
The LIV also recently discovered that three-year-old cars in particular are often stolen. That is the ‘most popular’ category among car thieves. The absolute leader in that category last year was the Toyota C-HR, followed by the Toyota RAV4 and Fiat 500. Overall, last year was the Volkswagen Golf, followed by the Volkswagen Polo and – again – the Fiat 500.
Regional differences
The number of stolen cars sometimes varies considerably per region. As in 2016, South Holland was the province where car thieves struck most often. In North Holland, the number of stolen cars fell much less sharply than the national average. Amsterdam plays a major role in this, because almost one in six stolen cars was stolen in the capital. Zeeland was the safest province to park your car with 69 car thefts. The situation has improved most in Friesland in the past four years, where the number of car thefts fell by 60 percent. Drenthe has also become a much less popular hunting area for car thieves with a decrease of 54 percent, Autoverzekering.nl reports.