19
votes
State Farm declares 105 Kia, Hyundai models ‘ineligible’ for new insurance in Georgia, Louisiana, Oregon, Washington, and Pennsylvania
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Published
- Feb 1 2023
- Word count
- 684 words
For those out of the loop (this has been an ongoing thing in car circles for awhile) Hyundai/Kia went cheap and stopped offering immobilizers as standard on most of their cars. Now this shouldn't be a huge issue, millions of cars didn't have immobilizers for nearly a century and you still couldn't steal them within a few seconds (despite what the movies tell you). Thing is it takes near-zero knowledge to steal these Hyundai/Kia models because they can be started by merely prying off the plastic steering column and using the USB cable that nearly every Hyundai/Kia driver already has in their car. The thefts have skyrocketed because of a "Tiktok challenge" teaching and encouraging users to go on joy rides, which may be the cause of at least one accident that resulted in the deaths of four teenage joyriders.
Yikes! As the owner of a 2022 model of one of the affected cars, I'm feeling like I dodged a bullet, maybe. But also not super jazzed about Hyundai/Kia's general security posture, for this to become a thing in the first place. What other surprises are yet to be discovered in the newer ones?
Confirm that your car does have an immobilizer - some models were not equipped until 11/22, which is well into the 2022 model year.
(I own an 2021 Kia, hoping that Kia does the right thing and recalls/updates all of the cars.)
Interesting, thanks for the info! I went looking for how to tell if my car has one, apparently all Kias with "smart key" push-button start have immobilizers. Mine does, so I should be covered. Glad I looked into it though.
This is why it's important you switch to USB-C. It turns out Apple was trying to save us all this whole time.
I'm not sure I follow, how would using a different connector change anything here?
The part that sticks out of the internals of a Hyundai/Kia ignition switch is the perfect size to fit into a USB Type A connection. The joke being a USB-C would be too small to fit.
Wow, that is hilarious. I hope other insurance providers follow suit. The sheer ineptitude of Hyundai's security is laughable. Every one of these vehicles should be recalled and outfitted with an engine immobilizer, and have the security hole patched.
The fact that it is easier to steal a car than an iPhone is ridiculous.
It should be fixed (at Hyundai's expense) but it really sucks for the people who own these cars. Especially if other insurance companies follow suit.
I own one, screw that. Hyundai should develop and deploy a fix for free, tbh, and there should be a period in which to get it applied.
That's what I mean by a recall.
For the insurance, the alternative is that you pay high premiums because your car is more of a liability.
I missed that apparently.
I recently got insurance thru StateFarm for my car. Thought it was interesting that they wanted a picture of my Kia's push start button (but no other pictures of the car), seems like this is why!
Correct. All Hyundai/Kia models with push button start have immobilizers as they are a requirement of a keyless ignition.