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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis is joining a national lawsuit against Kia and Hyundai in response to widespread vehicle thefts, city officials announced Wednesday.
The lawsuit alleges that certain Kia and Hyundai models lack the industry-standard technology needed to prevent the vehicles from being stolen. Videos that show people how to steal the vehicles have recently gone viral over social media.
“In many cases, thieves use tools no more advanced than a USB cable,” the lawsuit reads. “Hyundai’s and Kia’s business decisions to reduce costs, and thereby boost profits, by foregoing common anti-theft technology have resulted in an epidemic of thefts.”
The lawsuit Indianapolis has joined includes claims on behalf of several other cities, including Milwaukee, New York City, Cincinnati, Cleveland, St. Louis and Seattle. The lawsuit asks for a jury trial and seeks reimbursements for the public safety costs associated with the thefts.
“Indianapolis is joining in a multi-state lawsuit to hold these manufacturers accountable for the costs it has imposed on our law enforcement, emergency responders and our broader community,” Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said. “Simply put, when a company puts profits over safety, we all are impacted.”
From Jan. 1 through July 17 in 2022, 99 Kia vehicles were reported stolen locally. In the same time period this year, that number surged to 513 thefts–an increase of more than 400 percent. Local Hyundai thefts grew from 95 to 331 in that same time period–an almost 250 percent increase. The thefts of vehicles made by two carmakers account for more than 25 percent of all cars stolen in Indianapolis this year.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Deputy Chief Kendale Adams said the department is moving another detective into the auto theft unit to focus specifically on Kia and Hyundai thefts.
“It’s frustrating for us because we’d like to focus on violent crime and we’d like to continue to drive down shootings and violence, and to have to pivot to do this, it’s frustrating,” Adams said.
Adams said IMPD recommends people who own certain Kia and Hyundai models to take measures such as parking their cars in well-lit areas and installing an anti-theft alarm system.
Hyundai said in a statement that the automaker is working to increase installations of anti-theft software in its vehicles.
In a statement, Kia said that “the lawsuits filed by municipalities against Kia are without merit,” and underlined the development of a free security software upgrade for customers and the distribution of steering wheel locks.
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You can’t get for Cadillac for a Kia price!
This just seems frivolous to me. I would like to hear an attorney make a good faith and rational argument on the merits of the action. Are we going to make liable all manufactures of valuable items without anti-theft deterrents? My computer doesn’t have anti-theft, if it gets stolen is it Apple’s fault? My ring doesn’t have anti-theft, if it gets stolen should we sue the jeweler. This seems absurd. It seems like municipalities that cannot control crime in their cities are looking for a deep pocket to pass the costs onto. Should Kia do better, probably. Did they violate law by not having anti-theft devices on these models, by no means.
Wade D.
+1
This is a money grab. Pure and simple.
Cities should hold the criminals accountable, not the manufacturers.
Second, the private sector can resolve this easily. Insurance companies
will jack the rates up of these two models or stop insurerring them.
In short people will stop buying them.
Thank you, Wade. Frivolous police runs to the same locations week after week and nothing seems to be done in that area.
It turns out there is a cost to the public for a manufacture that makes something so cheaply that anybody can steal it. Insurance rates go up as pay-outs for stolen cars escalate and everybody’s rates go up to cover the cost. The police force is now having to devote extra manpower to stolen cars. So, no it’s not frivolous.
With the manufacture pocketing the extra money, and the consumer still paying for a what they thought was a “standard” product, it almost makes the case for congress to get involved, and pass one more bit of government regulation.
Hyundai/Kia initiated an anti-theft software update back in February to address this problem in later models:
https://owners.hyundaiusa.com/us/en/resources/technology-and-navigation/anti-theft-software-upgrade.html