Unfortunately here's the honest answer regarding police response to a stolen auto.
1) Unless it's in progress and you're watching someone steal your car it's not a priorty response...meaning more serious calls come first
2) By the time you realize that your car has been stolen it has been gone usually for a long time and there is not much that police can do.
3) The best thing that the officer can do is get a report onto the system asap so that the vehicle can be flagged as stolen whic really is where the interaction of the front line officers end. The report will go to the auto squad detectives.
Unless the front line officer is lucky and runs a vehicles plate on the road and it comes back stolen, it's either going to be found abandoned, in a chop shop or never found at all. If it's a high end luxury vehicle or sports car, it'll be on a shipping container and out of the country by the time you realize it's gone.
Unfortunately...if a person is caught with a stolen car, all they can be charged with is possession of stolen property...