Back in 2021, owners of thousands of Hyundai and Kia vehicles in Milwaukee, Wisconsin fell victim to a new trend. Thieves–sometimes teenagers following what they saw on social media–figured out that some Hyundai and Kia models are easy to steal. In 2021, Milwaukee residents were the victims of 10,479 vehicle thefts. Just a year before, the number was less than half at 4,500 vehicles stolen. Before the year was even out there was a clear difference in what was getting stolen, too. According to WISN 12 News, more than two-third of the cars stolen were Hyundai and Kia models. This year, cities all over the United States from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Memphis, Tennessee are all seeing similar trends on their streets. Car thefts are on a sharp rise in those cities and as Carscoops reports, the two brands stick out as popular targets.
What’s Making These Cars So Attractive To Thieves?
As we reported last month, thieves have discovered that Hyundai and Kia vehicles with keyed ignitions can be started with just a USB cable. These people break into the vehicle by smashing a window. Then they pull apart the steering column before defeating the ignition switch and shoving in a USB cable. Repair shops and police claim that the targeted vehicles don’t have immobilizers, from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The vehicles being targeted are generally newer model years with keyed ignitions instead of a push-button start. It’s unclear exactly which models and years don’t have immobilizers. As a reader pointed out last time, at least some Kia and Hyundai vehicles with keyed ignitions do have immobilizers. As a response to these claims, Hyundai and Kia say that as of the 2022 model year, all vehicles from both brands have immobilizers. Either way, immobilizer or not, it seems based on what I’m seeing online that many of these vehicles can be stolen in less than a minute. And it doesn’t take any real skill to do it. I’m fairly sure that a 5-year-old could pull it off. Stealing these cars has become a social media trend. Some who claim to steal these vehicles call themselves the Kia Boyz. In social media videos tagged or associated with the Kia Boyz, you can see allegedly stolen Kia/Hyundai vehicles driving recklessly on city streets, being driven into crowds of people, or intentionally leading police into chases. A recent video seems to show an allegedly stolen Hyundai being ditched into Lake Michigan:
I actually learned the process from a now-deleted how-to video from TikTok. And unfortunately, some people have died in crashes involving stolen Kia/Hyundai cars. This has been horrifying for owners of these vehicles and families of the victims. Some of these people have stood by as their vehicles have been stolen before their eyes. But it still gets worse from there.
Kia And Hyundai Owners Face Insurance Issues
As ABC 7 News Denver reports, owners of some vehicles in Denver, Colorado are reportedly getting a cold shoulder from Progressive Insurance. As the report states, Progressive is declining to offer coverage on some new policies due to the rate some Kia and Hyundai models get stolen. Customers who request a quote are told that based on the vehicle information they provided, Progressive cannot offer a policy at that time. Progressive has released this statement to ABC 7 News Denver: Those who aren’t getting their new policies declined are apparently seeing higher rates. ABC 7 News Denver further explains why this is happening: It appears that the insurance struggles of Hyundai and Kia owners aren’t isolated to Denver, either. A Reddit user in Milwaukee noted last year that when they tried to insure a leased vehicle through Progressive, they were told that the insurer could not offer them a policy. Kia and Hyundai owners in these cities have little choice but to shop around. And they may find higher premiums due to these vehicle thefts. “They’re also looking at the market that we’re in,” Walker said. “Colorado now tops the list for auto theft. So, your car insurance company is looking at that risk, determining the premium, how much it will cost to repair and replace that vehicle, but also how likely is it to get stolen, and then destroyed or damaged when it is stolen.” I have reached out to Progressive Insurance with a few questions and for a comment on this matter. I requested a list of Hyundai/Kia vehicles that it will not insure, and I asked if the company is aware of any potential vulnerabilities in the targeted vehicles. The company has not responded as of publishing. I also reached out to other Geico, Liberty Mutual, Farmers, Allstate, and State Farm to see if those companies are doing something similar. State Farm got back to me with a short statement: State Farm continues to welcome customers regardless of the make of their vehicle. I didn’t hear back from the other companies as of publishing. Our lovely designer, Adrian Clarke, says that this situation reminds him of something similar that happened about three decades ago. The Ford Sierra Cosworth had incredible insurance premiums because the vehicles were infamously easy to steal. People still joke about it in the modern day on online forums. There are some things that owners of a Hyundai or Kia can do to slow down or discourage a theft. Authorities recommend the use of a steering wheel lock. If you’re in Milwaukee, you can get a free steering wheel lock from police after showing proof of vehicle ownership. You can also pick up an aftermarket immobilizer or install a cut-off switch. I spoke with a tow truck operator who often tows some of these vehicles after they’ve been abandoned or crashed. Their recommendation is a low budget one: disconnect the battery. Their thinking is that if the car won’t start, they aren’t going to waste time trying to diagnose why. Hopefully they’ll give up, and you get to keep your car. [Editor’s Note: For $13 you can buy a battery disconnect switch. You simply disconnect one of your battery cables, bolt it to this switch, then connect the switch to the battery terminal. When you leave your car, you just pop the hood and twist the knob, and boom: your car won’t start. You’ll have to reconfigure some of your infotainment settings, but it’s worth it. -DT] None of these will defeat someone who is really determined to have your car. But they may slow them down enough that they’ll pass up on your vehicle. As the story of these thefts continues to develop you can expect us to follow along. Hopefully, with time this trend will die and owners can begin to breathe easy. Author’s note: In fairness to Hyundai and Kia, we haven’t done a comparison on how easy vehicles from different marques are to steal. And neither brand’s vehicles made it onto the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s top ten list of most stolen vehicles of 2021. Yeah if you are/have one it’s hard to complain. But it’s unfair for a product that’s mandatory to buy (unlike a fancy watch etc). They don’t touch old cars. At all. An old favorite joke: The first Kangaroo in the U.S. is taken to the Washington Zoo. Not knowing anything about kangaroos, they put it in a corral with a 2 meter high fence. They next morning the keepers find it wandering the zoo grounds. A phone call at great expense to Australia tells them that “Crikey, those buggers can jump!”. So the keepers make the corral 3 meters high, but the next morning, he’s out again. So 4 meters, then 5. Then 6! 7!!! The other animals watch in amazement and admiration. One early morning as the kangaroo wanders loose past the monkey house, one the great apes -a mighty Silverback Gorilla – says to the Kangaroo, “Man, you are amazing! How much longer do you think you can keep it up?” The kangaroo shrugs and says, “I don’t know; until they start locking the door, I guess”.
I suppose “easy to steal” doesn’t exactly fit the criteria for a safety recall, yet, damn it seems like an immobilizer is something they could retrofit and via an internal service action for the effected vehicles and solve the problem. How these cars got out the factory door without an immobilizer defies logic. Probably accountants got involved.
- Minimum $20,000 ARV for GS-R and minimum $60,000 ARV for Type R at initiation; must provide photographs and submit to independent appraisal upon request 2. Original title must be kept in a secure location such as a fire safe or safe deposit box and provide a notarized copy 3. MUST be parked in at minimum a locking garage with a security system or a locking garage behind security fence, secure storage with multi-layer security and on-site staff STRONGLY preferred, and yes you do have to prove it. 4. If insured as inoperable, MUST provide detailed information and photographs as to cause, and MUST take photographs, keep receipts, and provide serials or VIN etchings for all replacement parts 5. Absolutely no salvage or theft history unless they were the insurer at time of salvage I used to have a jerb at this GHETTO… Im talkin PO-lice there everyday, place gettin knocked over EVERY OTHER day… THIS place was BAAAD and yet Ive got my car parked SQUAT in the middle of the lot within 4′ of the front door. SO all I gotta do is run out.. and be gone. THEY AINT NEVER TRY. Partially.. they be like.. WHO IN THE HELL WANTS THAT… There’s a nice pic at the top of this articles which makes it quite clear: https://www.thedrive.com/news/how-thieves-are-stealing-hyundais-and-kias-with-just-a-usb-cable They can not be bothered with a steering wheel lock. Oh wait.. I already do — 05 Element. So yeah, don’t mind me playing the world’s smallest violin over here. There are reasons I’m not a Progressive customer. ( I’m Just keeping with today’s BOT theme) 😉 “Our lovely designer, Adrian Clarke, says that this situation reminds him of something similar that happened about three decades ago. The Ford Sierra Cosworth had incredible insurance premiums because the vehicles were infamously easy to steal. People still joke about it in the modern day on online forums.” But thanks to the cross-team efforts of Streeter and Clarke, I went down a rabbit hole of finding out how easy the Ford Sierra Cosworth actually was to steal – a car that wasn’t even for sale in the US. Little nuggets like this count, thank you! If the wannabe thief can SEE the steering lock he’s not gonna bother, but before he finds out the car won’t start due to the battery disconnect he’ll have to break windows and tear apart half the dash, so way less fun for the car’s owner afterwards. AND I trade my 05 Element to Hyun Kia… just shoot me in the face.. or beat me with my 5′ alum pole (commonly found under my backseat.) Don’t some of the remote start devices have immobilizers? Granted it would be a pain but may be worth it along with some big window decals to warn away casual thieves. Done right you don’t have to reset your clock and have your car learn how to run itself again every time you use it. The answer is a simple fuse holder and a pair of ring terminals. Connect one end to the bolt on your OE terminal and one to the bolt on the disconnect. Put a 10 to 20 amp fuse in it, depending on the vehicle, and you are good to go. You don’t actually disconnect the computers and radio power but if you try to use the starter the fuse will pop instantly and prevent the starter from functioning. Note this won’t work well on most hybrid cars, since on most of those the 12v battery doesn’t actually start the car it just boots the computers and closes the HV battery contactors. (I “jump” started the wife’s hybrid with the small battery I use for testing which is equipped with a 20a fuse.) But neither or those devices will stop a guy with a flatbed or trailer from just scooping it up and hauling it off to a shop where they can defeat all my security devices and sell the car out of the country or something. So mine stay locked in my garage. Can they bust into my garage and steal them anyway? Sure, but then I have my backup devices – two very barky little poodles! 🙂 Insurance companies are businesses, usually for-profit ones. They are not required to bankrupt themselves. Or they could be @ssholes and just leave their customers in a bad spot. I was using SAFELITE to do the repairs. Those fuckers could fuck up COLD BLACK COFFEE! I used David’s recommended battery disconnect method on my NA Miata. It’s a great idea. The extra perk of a disconnect is that sloppy wannabe thieves can’t completely fry your electrical systems while shorting random wires together because they learned hotwiring skills from 90s action movies. (My old Camry was totaled due to electrical damage from an attempted theft. $600 in labor just to take the car apart enough to diagnose everything that was fried.)
- They are actually very to steal. As it happens, we have access to one of these vehicles and we’re going to see just how quickly we can replicate the process and start the car with just a USB cable. I suspect that we can do it in under a minute.
- I’ll defer to Root on that one. But seeing that these cars are so easy to steal, yet aren’t even on the top 10 list, it’s probably safe to say that Hyundai/Kia isn’t the only brand with weaker security. 3…and yes, I know you didn’t ask three questions) WE HAVE COMMENT EDITING NOW!!! 😀
- No, YOU have comment editing! I still don’t. 🙁 Anyway!
- Under a minute I will dispute, because I presume you do not want to break the steering column to bits. Stealing a car in under a minute WITHOUT damaging it requires practice, technique, or “hey I can turn this shit with a screwdriver.” It’s going to take you at least a minute to remove the shroud without damaging it, because everyone loves fiddly little clips that break. Also there’s screws. They may be insecurity bits, requiring you produce your credit card to the fine folks at Horrible Fraught for a set at $7.99.
- They very, very much are not. MOST Kia/Hyundai cars do have an immobilizer, which is inconvenient enough to make them ‘secure.’ But they get their doors blown off by the theft rate on 11th and 12th gen F-series. Now, reminding everyone that I am not the world’s foremost car thief by any stretch… look. Anything ‘commercial’ also means ‘bottom dollar’ and ‘decontented’ which predictably includes things like security features. Especially on older models, which are by their nature, less secure. Sure, you’ve got maybe 25k, 35k Kias that you can steal with a USB cable and go joyriding in. But let’s consider an 11th gen F-series. How hard is one of those to steal? Well, you’re going to need a slim-jim and an ignition cylinder punch or knowledge of hotwiring. Or a coat hangar, screwdriver, and willingness to bust up the steering column. Or you find out that you can bypass the immobilizer by entering a 4 digit PIN which is on a predictable, algorithmic, rotating sequence and have a little app on your phone that gives you the password of the day. OOPSIE! Or you have your professional tools that send the right signals to the near-field immobilizer reader while you turn the cylinder with a screwdriver. Oh dear. You can buy those tools off AliExpress and the like, as long as you’re a “professional.” What? No they don’t need to see your license. So don’t single Kia/Hyundai out by any means. Or think that immobilizers actually do anything against professionals or even mid-level folks. They stop the casual thief and the joyrider, but really, that’s about it. And most of the manufacturers treat immobilizers and RF fobs as though they were a magic bullet, inscrutable and unbreakable, and therefore no other physical security matters. Despite all proof to the contrary. Simply put, car manufacturers do not take security very seriously at all. Enough to deter the casual joyrider at most, and all security past that like immobilizer failures? Yeah, those are almost always just defects. And of course, never forget this: if there’s a backdoor for people ‘allowed to have it’ then there’s a backdoor for everyone. Applies equally to encryption and cars alike. Difference with cars is, once that backdoor for mechanics to bypass broken security systems is out in the wild, that car isn’t getting a security patch. Who said anything about not damaging it? When they stole mine, they seem to have just pried the shroud off. And screwdrivered the ignition lock and pried that off. We’re not talking about thieves who want to keep the car pristine. Though mine did in fact clean all the trash out of the car, which is now cleaner inside than it’s been for the last 5 years. This thief wasn’t a pro, he probably just wanted to take his friends for a ride. I’m now using a steering wheel lock. And a USB plug for an ignition key, until I can get an appointment with the body shop (they’re all backed up). The steering lock is a bit of a pain, but as someone pointed out, unlike an immobilizer they can see it before they start breaking things., I’m presuming Mercedes and the team has a loaner they would like to return to the owner in the same condition they received it. It will take them more than a minute to do things the right way so they don’t leave permanent damage. These professional thieves you’re talking about probably couldn’t give two shits about base model Elantras and Optimas otherwise, nor do they care about other plain-jane commuter-mobiles. Those other cars, however, have the immobilizers and such that can stop the amateur kids doing TikTok challenges. Hence, they’re stolen less and taken on fewer destructive joyrides. If a professional thief uses his black box thing to mimic my car’s key fob signal and takes it, good for him. He now has a 2016 Mazda to do with as he pleases. slow clap If you don’t, let me know! We’re still building the commenting platform so the feedback has been great. And thanks for the other answers! Praise be to Jeebus, this truly is Autopia! Nice job.
