Who says Americans don't want to drive station wagons? They just don't want to pay for them. At No. 7, with an incident rate of 9.9/1,000 vehicles, the Dodge Magnum was the 2nd most popular car on the IIHS's 2008 list of Most Stolen Vehicles. Everything above it was a truck or an SUV. Nice work.
IIHS: Ten Most Stolen Vehicles For 2008 [jalopnik]
[note: whoops, the Dodge Charger is ahead of the Magnum. I switched it in my head with the Durango. Thanks DT commenter Tom for the catch. Also, can we agree that Dodge's anti-theft systems division should NOT receive a federal bailout?]
uh.....the Dodge Charger was ranked #4, ahead of the magnum.
And they canceled this car because it was unpopular! Dumbasses.
Anyway, this sucks because I have been seriously looking at buying one of these. You can get a used 06-08 R/T for 17-22K (340HP) and an SRT-8 (425HP!) for 22-27K. Where are you going to get that performance for the bucks and be able to fit a stroller in the back? Plus, I only drive 5000 miles a year, max, so who cares about the mileage? (the R/T does ok though, with 18/25)
Now I am sure if I checked, my insurance rates would be through the roof. Dang.
unpopular may be the wrong word; how about, 'popular with the wrong demographic'?
This Charger SRT8 was spied across the street from my apartment: http://jalopnik.com/cars/news/manhattan-murder-mystery-stripped-srt+8-225981.php
At least they didn't get the whole thing.
It's too bad that the Magnum targets a demographic that adds rims, extra chrome, and other effects that equate to hanging a "steal me" sign on the car. I would imagine that the theft rate is much lower for factory spec Magnums with strollers in the trunk (unless that stroller is a Marc Jacobs Bugaboo). I imagine that everybody's insurance rate rises because of the theft rate among a subset of the car owners.