New York City is joining others in suing car manufacturers Kia and Hyundai after experiencing high car stealing and accident reports sparked by the “Kia Boys.”
The lawsuit detailed by The Wall Street Journal stressed that the companies showed negligence by not adding anti-theft devices that could somehow prevent their products from being easily stolen. Specifically, these devices refer to the electronic immobilizers that will prevent thieves from making the ignition of the cars work using simple tools.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York further stated that both car brands only represented 2.9% of cars in the city but made up 19.3% of car theft incidents in 2023. The lawsuit went on to share that this translated to 977 Hyundai and Kia cars stolen from January to April 2023.
The crimes involving stealing Kia and Hyundai vehicles started with a trend on TikTok after the Kia Boys shared with viewers how to bypass the said auto brands using tools. According to the videos, Kia and Hyundai vehicles produced between 2015 and 2019 don’t have electronic immobilizers. Interstingly, other manufacturers have already made it part of their production standards during the same timeline.
The trend went viral, luring many to try it and resulting in stealing and property damage. Even more, it resulted in 14 crashes and eight fatalities. To stop this, it can be recalled that Kia released an update to prevent stealing, but a recent report says that this solution failed. On May 31, a report shared a recent robbery of a Kia car from Cobb County despite having the update. Unfortunately, this could translate to the same issue for up to 3 million Kias with the same vulnerability.
