Yesterday I was passed by two modified Chargers at a high rate of speed immediately followed by troopers in pursuit. Local news rumor were that the cars were stolen.... A few months ago, an older retired gentlemen had his Hellcat stolen from his driveway. All in a semi-safe suburban county, etc. Which got me thinking, I see the YouTube clips of stupid people doing stupid stuff with stolen cars and the tool of choice seems to be the Charger/Challenger/Hellcat variety.
Are these targeted due to the donut-ability/street cred, accessibly to cars, or are the Mopars easier to steal due to some hardware/software (aka ITRs in the '90s)?
I don't know but it seems like a high percentage of aggressive drivers, red light runners, etc. in Houston are driving some variety of this car. A lot seem to have temporary plates - counterfeit temp plates is a huge scam in Houston by the way, to avoid tolls, and avoid the costly inspections and registration fees. I'm betting a decent percentage are stolen since these cars are exceptionally ratty and noisy.
The car type seems to attract a demographic of "shiny happy people".
Trent
PowerDork
9/22/23 11:17 a.m.
Around these parts most chargers/challengers are decorated with a "toxic" motif, straight piped and their driving habits make the most tweaked out meth heads seem absolutely sane and logical.
aw614
HalfDork
9/22/23 11:33 a.m.
They are getting stolen like modded Hondas of the 90s and 2000s
It's very rare for cars to get targeted for fun, generally it's a combination of value and ease.
johndej
SuperDork
9/22/23 1:29 p.m.
The Hyundai/Kia challenge are absolutely for fun/internet points. There have been a ton where high school kids drive around till they find one of the easy to take ones then film themselves joyriding it for a while before dumping it somewhere.
In reply to johndej :
In Baltimore kids learn to drive on stolen Hyundais and Kias until saving up enough to purchase a new Altima for themselves, which they then in turn drive like they're stolen because that's how they learned...
There's a lot of teenagers in high speed joy rides with stolen Hyundais and Kias around here. They're easy to steal and there are lots of them everywhere so they're easy to find. I have heard of some stolen Hellcats, although I think they're mainly taken from new car dealers. I think a lot of the time the stolen cars are used for committing other crimes - burglaries, drive by shootings and the like. No sense in getting their personal ride shot up, may as well steal someone else's car for the dirty work.
where I work the teens steal kia/hyundai's for a set of wheels and to have a get away car for violent crimes.
there was a crew stealing high end stuff which was getting re-vin'ed and sold on.
90's and early 2000's Hondas are still stolen pretty regularly.
Thankfully we don't have the chargers running around like the bigger cities.
Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:
In reply to johndej :
In Baltimore kids learn to drive on stolen Hyundais and Kias until saving up enough to purchase a new Altima for themselves, which they then in turn drive like they're stolen because that's how they learned...
Who was it that said that the solution to our national housing shortage was to move to Baltimore and buy a cheap house there? 
