Some Kia and Hyundai fashions are so extremely simple to steal that insurance coverage corporations in some states are refusing to cowl them. What began as virtually a meme has turn into against the law wave hitting those that depend on essentially the most reasonably priced automobiles available on the market to get round. So, simply how did we get right here?
What began as a curious pattern within the Milwaukee space in 2021 took the nation by storm utilizing, what else, social media. Vox has an excellent breakdown of the worrying TikTok pattern from begin to current day:
The Hyundai and Kia thefts are really easy to do and have turn into so prevalent that a number of the tales and statistics are absurd. Individuals’s vehicles are stolen twice in at some point. Some wait months for repairs to their stolen and recovered vehicles as a result of there’s a again order of components because of so many stolen vehicles needing them on the similar time. Sixty-one % of automobiles stolen in St. Louis within the final 12 months are Kias and Hyundais, as are 88 % of tried thefts. Kia and Hyundai thefts elevated by 767 % in a 12 months within the Chicago space, and so they’re up virtually 2,400 % in Rochester, New York. The highest seven out of 10 vehicles stolen in Wisconsin, the place the pattern started, in 2021 and 2022 have been Kias and Hyundais. In 2020, solely the Hyundai Sonata made Wisconsin’s high 10. Insurers are refusing to cowl sure Kia and Hyundai fashions, or jacking up charges.
The harm isn’t simply to vehicles, nevertheless. A number of teenagers have died or been severely harm by crashing stolen Kias and Hyundais, which officers have attributed to the problem. There are additionally crimes dedicated by folks driving the stolen vehicles. There have been accidents (and in at the very least one case, probably a loss of life) to individuals who have been hit by stolen vehicles. And there’s property harm, like homes that the stolen vehicles crash into.
Ugh. The entire thing is an actual mess. Kia and Hyundai didn’t assist issues with their lackluster response both. These children are stealing the a number of the extra modest automobiles available on the market in their very own communities, seemingly pushed by people they know and who can ill-afford to dick round with insurance coverage or wait round for backed up repairs. All for the views.
Your complete rundown from Vox is fascinating. You possibly can learn it right here.