Why Toyota, Honda autos are car-jackers’ darlings

“With Toyota, the 2012 Camry saloon (nick-named ‘Anaconda’) seems to be the most attractive to armed robbers,” a police source disclosed. He added that other models recovered over the months include Yaris, Avensis and the Highlander (15 of the popular SUV were recovered). Out of Honda brands, the Accord saloon appeared to be the most […]

“With Toyota, the 2012 Camry saloon (nick-named ‘Anaconda’) seems to be the most attractive to armed robbers,” a police source disclosed. He added that other models recovered over the months include Yaris, Avensis and the Highlander (15 of the popular SUV were recovered).
Out of Honda brands, the Accord saloon appeared to be the most attractive, with a total of 102 stolen. On the side of Nissan, the most-snatched was the Murano SUV (12 were recovered). Others include the Pathfinder SUV, Primera, Maxima and others.
A report, made available by the Lagos State Police Command, said out of the total number of 1,184 vehicles recovered, 622 of them were made up of over 20 other different various automobile brands and models. “Though the statistics was not broken down on monthly basis, it was a total summation of the recovered vehicles by the men of the Lagos State Police command for 2012,” the report said.
Referring to Toyota and Honda products, a police spokesperson attributed the cars’ popularity with armed robbers to easy maintenance, readily-available market and spare parts, Toyota and Honda were the favourites of armed robbers.
Car dealers attributed the popularity of the brands with men of the underworld to their high social value, efficiency and ease of management. One of them, however, said it is because the brands generally have second-hand value.