Car thieves hit gas

97% more hot wheels than in ’20

City car thefts have soared 61% so far this year, according NYPD data.

So far, 2022 has seen 4,467 car thefts, compared with 2,769 in the same time period in 2021. The crime category has jumped 97% compared with 2020, the data show.

The Ford Econoline is the preferred vehicle of the sticky-fingered set, followed by the Honda Accord, Honda CRV, Honda Civic and Toyota Camry, according to the NYPD.

Bronx motorists have been hit the hardest: 1,437 vehicles have been boosted so far this year, a 70% spike from the same time last year, when 845 cars were stolen.

In Brooklyn 1,183 vehicles have been ripped off in 2022, compared with 806 in 2021, a 47% surge.

Auto larceny in Queens is up 63% in 2022, with 1,107 incidents compared with 678 the year prior, and has jumped 62% in Manhattan, which saw 604 thefts to 2021’s 373 incidents, the data show.

Even Staten Island, the so-called “cop borough,” isn’t safe. While it logged the fewest car thefts in the city this year with 136, that number is a 103% increase from the 67 vehicles snatched last year.

The island “has become a hot spot for car-theft crews — some of which operate out of New Jersey — to snatch luxury vehicles and ship them overseas within hours,” the Staten Island Advance reported following a sitdown with the borough’s top cop.

Hondas especially drive auto thieves gaga because the catalytic converters can be removed in minutes. They contain rare metals like rhodium, palladium and platinum, which trade for four and five figures per ounce on the black market. Converters typically include 3 to 7 grams of these precious metals, experts said.

The NYPD has blamed bail reform in part for the spike.

A charge of grand larceny auto merits only a desk appearance ticket under the reform law.