Hyundai And Kia To Retrofit Millions Of Cars After Years Of Theft

                                        https://www.carscoops.com/author/mikecarscoops-com/                                    

The fallout from the ‘Kia Challenge’, a wave of car thefts fueled by a method that spread across TikTok and other social media platforms continues.

A bipartisan coalition of 36 attorney generals has now announced a settlement with Hyundai and Kia for selling vehicles with lax security. This made millions of models easy to steal, which left authorities and owners dealing with the aftermath.

Before you get too excited, the settlement is pretty weak and appears to favor states over vehicle owners. That’s pretty clear from the get go as Hyundai and Kia will pay dozens of states and the District of Columbia $4.5 million to “defray the costs of the investigation.”

More: Hyundai And Kia Offer New Ignition Cylinder Protector To Help Prevent Thefts

Hyundai and Kia owners, on the other hand, will only receive up to $4.5 million in restitution. These funds will be restricted to “eligible consumers whose cars are damaged by thieves.”

That’s a paltry payout, especially considering the California Attorney General’s Office noted consumers would have their vehicles stolen or rendered unusable, and then get slapped with “significant costs for repairs and towing.” Even people who didn’t become victims saw resale values plummet and likely incurred higher insurance rates or even dropped coverage.

The Hyundai/Kia Multistate Immobilizer Settlement website provides a few more details and says that if your vehicle suffered a “Qualifying Theft,” you could get up to $4,500 if it was a total loss or up to $2,250 if it was a partial loss. If thieves made a qualifying attempt, you’ll only get up to $375.

Those figures are pretty sad as even a failed theft attempt could easily result in a broken window and a destroyed steering column. Good luck getting both fixed for $375.

Cylinder Reinforcements for Millions of Owners

Besides some pretty modest payouts, Hyundai and Kia have agreed to equip all future vehicles sold in the United States with engine immobilizers. The automakers will also offer free, zinc-reinforced ignition cylinder protectors to up to 7.1 million owners (about 4 million Hyundais and 3 million Kias), including those who were previously only eligible for an anti-theft software update.

Reuters pointed out Minnesota’s Attorney General said installing the protectors could cost the automakers more than $500 million. However, that’s if all eligible vehicles get them and the price tag is based on estimates from Hyundai and Kia.

While the whole situation has been a mess, the California AG’s Office noted that between 2011 and 2022, “Kia and Hyundai manufactured and sold cars with easily bypassed ignition locks and without anti-theft devices, called engine immobilizers, that were a standard feature in almost every other new car manufactured during that period, including the same Hyundai and Kia models sold in Canada and Europe.”

The Theft Surge

This questionable call made cars easy to steal and videos highlighting this fact quickly spread online. This had a huge impact as thefts of Hyundai and Kia vehicles soared approximately 85% in Los Angeles in 2022, which meant they constituted roughly 20% of all stolen cars in the city.

The office also noted Hyundai and Kia had the first, second, and fifth most commonly stolen vehicles in the United States last year. These were the Hyundai Elantra, Hyundai Sonata, and Kia Optima.

While stolen cars are bad enough, California noted “many of the stolen vehicles were used in connection with other crimes and were involved in traffic collisions, some fatal.” This means there were many victims besides the vehicle owner.