Thieves Are Targeting The Camaro ZL1 With A Vengeance

It used to be Hellcats were thieves’ favorite targets, but now they’re zeroing in on the Chevy Camaro ZL1 as hot prey. In other words, if you or someone you know owns one of these, it’s time to step up security and recovery measures substantially or risk it being gone forever.

Street racers attack firefighters responding to a car crash.

According to the Highway Loss Data Institute, the theft rate for the Camaro ZL1 is 39 times the average for vehicles from the 2022 to 2024 mode years. For comparison, the Camaro lineup in general has a theft rate of 13 times the national average.

We’ve covered before how Camaro owners claim their key fob are easily hacked, allowing thieves to just get in and drive away with their muscle cars. Once theft rings figured out how to exploit that or some other security weakness, the theft rate for the Chevrolets in cities like Los Angeles skyrocketed.

But it seems thieves really like the ZL1, which is the most expensive version of the sixth gen Camaros out there. Speaking with CBS News, Matt Moore, chief insurance operations officer at HLDI gave some insight into why that might be:

“What all vehicles in top 20 have in common is that they are relatively expensive, relatively powerful and in many cases they are pickup trucks.”

As we already know, thieves love muscle cars because they offer the kind of horsepower you get with supercars, only they’re more common and easier to steal.

Interestingly enough, HLDI describes another security vulnerability in Camaros involving the software. Chevrolet has released an update to tighten that up and hopefully prevent theft. While you should get that update, we would recommend an aftermarket pre-ignition anti-theft device professionally installed.

Also, getting a GPS tracker or even dropping a couple of Apple AirTags into your ZL1 isn’t a bad idea, just in case.

Interestingly enough, there’s nary a Hellcat in the HLDI’s top twenty most targeted vehicles by thieves.

Image via Ali Tahhan/Facebook Marketplace