The National Insurance Crime Bureau yesterday released its list of the 10 most-stolen vehicles in the United States. We published it, as we do every year. Unlike in years past, however, EN readers complained about the cars on that list. “How long ago did you write this article? All these cars are ancient.” The grumbles and groans went on.

The report, titled "Hot Wheels," examines vehicle theft data submitted by law enforcement to the National Crime Information Center and determines the vehicle make, model and model year most reported stolen in a particular year -- in this case 2011. We have nothing to do with compiling the data. But we hear you, and went back to the NICB for more data.

Here are the late-model cars (model years 2009 through 2011) most stolen in America

NICB President and CEO Joe Wehrle had this to say: “While overall thefts continue to decline (Editor's note: Preliminary 2011 FBI crime statistics indicate a 3.3 percent reduction from the 737,142 thefts recorded in 2010; vehicle thefts have not been this low since 1967), we are seeing a trend toward increases in the thefts of late-model vehicles -- ones that are theoretically harder to steal due to sophisticated key-code technology.

“Today’s vehicle thieves are typically professional criminals who have figured out how to get the key code for a specific vehicle, have a replacement key made and steal the vehicle within a matter of days. We are aware of nearly 300 thefts that took place in the first three months of this year in which we believe replacement keys using illegally obtained key codes were used to steal the vehicle.  We are working closely with our member companies, law enforcement and the vehicle manufacturers to track these illegal key-code transactions and stop the thefts or recover the stolen vehicles before they can be resold here or shipped out of the country to be sold overseas,” Wehrle said.

For more on key-code thefts, watch this video: