I think most auto thefts are crimes of opportunity. It's usuallty not like in movies where they target high end vehicles in order to re-sell them or "chop" them. I'm not saying that there isn't some of that, because I know there is, but I would bet that most auto thefts are just for joy rides or temporary transportation.
For example, the area I grew up in had a lot of auto thefts and probably 90% of the time, the cars would be retreived from small rural communities where someone from there was in town and didn't have a ride back. For obvious purposes, it makes sense to steal an easy target and one that isn't eye catching.
In high school, I worked for a car rental company, and quite often; especially in the winter, I would have to go to rural towns or reserves to retrieve stolen vehicles. Heck, a lot of the time, we would get anonymous calls from people telling us where the vehicles were, which were probably from the people who stole the vehicle. Or sometimes the band office would call us and let us know that they had our car.
