Major insurance companies like Progressive and State Farm are denying coverage to many new Kia and Hyundai owners due to considerable increases in theft.
The massive jump in thefts — from 273 to 3,958 in St. Louis, representing an increase of 1,450% — is being blamed on a TikTok video showing exactly how to break into and drive off in many 2011-21 models of the South Korean-made vehicles using just a screwdriver and a USB charging cable.
And current Kia and Hyundai owners are seeing huge increases in their renewal premiums.
When Kia and Hyundai owners in the St. Louis area apply for a quote online, Progressive automatically issues a denial message: Based on the vehicle’s make and model, and high theft rates in the area, the company is unable to offer a policy. That same message pops up for drivers in other parts of the country where theft rates are particularly high, said Jeff Sibel, a spokesperson for Progressive.
When Kia and Hyundai owners in the St. Louis area apply for a quote online, Progressive automatically issues a denial message: Based on the vehicle’s make and model, and high theft rates in the area, the company is unable to offer a policy. That same message pops up for drivers in other parts of the country where theft rates are particularly high, said Jeff Sibel, a spokesperson for Progressive.
“I’ve been in this industry for 15-plus years. It’s hard to call a precedent for this,” said Michael Barry, spokesman for Insurance Information Institute, a consumer education organization.
Meanwhile, some cities are suing the manufacturers for making their cars too easy to steal. Yes, really.
Related: Who You Gonna Call (When the Cops Aren’t Allowed to Help You)?
Instead of beefing up police presence in high-theft areas and getting prosecutors to start giving the maximum sentence to the thieves, Seattle is suing Kia and Hyundai for not making their products theft-proof.
The City of Seattle filed a lawsuit against automakers Kia and Hyundai this week, saying they disregarded public safety for profitability by failing to install immobilizers on their cars. Those cars quickly became easy targets for thieves, burdening law enforcement and other officials in the city, and costing the city an unspecified amount of money, according to the lawsuit. Seattle’s lawsuit may not be the first against the automakers—other cities’ attorneys general has said they would consider suing the automakers—but it’s the largest so far.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Washington, outlines similar claims that other cities have reported. In the lawsuit, Seattle’s city attorneys allege that Kia and Hyundai knowingly refused to install immobilizers on their cars sold in the U.S. between 2011 and 2021 to boost profits. In 2015, 96% of vehicles sold by other manufacturers were equipped with immobilizers, but only 26% of Hyundai and Kia vehicles were equipped with the anti-theft technology. Hyundai and Kia’s vehicles were sold in other markets during that time period with the immobilizers because they were mandatory, but not in the U.S.
The “public safety issue” is that Kia and Hyundai made it too easy for stupid kids to steal their cars and subsequently die in police chases. Getting killed while committing a felony should not elicit much sympathy from anyone but lefties who see an opportunity to cash in.
I don’t want to belabor the point. but the information about the lack of immobilizers in the vehicles was not a national security secret. I remember thinking of buying a Kia in 2014. I heard about the deficiency back then — not that it influenced my decision not to buy one. But the suit is presupposing that someone wouldn’t buy a vehicle solely because of the lack of an immobilizer.
That’s a hard sell to a jury.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member