A recent study from the German Insurance Company Federation shows that, among the top 15 cars stolen in the country, 11 of them are cars that have been around longer than a decade. Who cares about what happens in Germany, right? Wrong. It’s important because the same holds true here in the U.S. If you haven’t already glanced at the top 10 “hot” (and not in a good way) cars you might want to note that 8 of those cars are more than a decade old. Thieves are targeting older cars not just for their salvage value, but also because they’re simply easier to steal.

Newer cars, those that have systems with built in electronic security features, are just so much more difficult to steal that it’s generally not worth the time or effort to the would-be thief. Time is money to a thief, just like the rest of us. He’d rather go look for an older car without all of the gadgets and gizmos that protect it. Most crooks assume that an older car won’t be “worth” getting retrofitted with an internal alarm system, so if they don’t see the “Club” or some other obvious deterrent, they’re likely to think your older car is fair game.

The bottom line is if you want to keep your car, no matter how old it is, you need some sort of theft deterrent for it. Whichever security feature you choose - whether it be bottom of the barrel or top of the line - you’ve taken the single most important step toward keeping your car from ending up in the clutches of a creep.