St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones addressed residents on Monday to announce that the city is suing Hyundai and Kia in federal court. The suit revolves around late model vehicles, and the rampant thefts that have emerged because of what some describe as a fault.
“St. Louisans should not be forced to bear the cost of their negligence,” Jones said, flanked by Police Chief Robert Tracy and City Counselor Sheena Hamilton. She blamed the automaker’s decision not to install engine immobilizers in certain vehicles for the remarkably high number of vehicle thefts in the city.
Reports of stolen Kia and Hyundai vehicles skyrocketed in the city last year after a viral TikTok video showed how easily certain of the automaker’s vehicles can be stolen. The rate of thefts for the vehicles rose 1,350 percent in 2022, according to St. Louis Today.
Since May 2022, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said it received more than 4,500 reports of stolen Kias and Hyundais. That amounts to 61 percent of all stolen vehicles in the city, or more than all others combined, per NPR.
Read: Attorneys General From 23 States Call On Hyundai And Kia To Do More About Theft Threat
“By refusing to follow industry standards, making their cars so easy to steal that a child could do it, Kia and Hyundai created a public safety hazard across the country and put a target on the backs of their customers,” said Mayor Jones.
Kia and Hyundai maintain that the lawsuit against it is “without merit,” saying that immobilizers are not required by law. They add that they have made efforts to reduce rates of theft. Indeed, they have handed out steering wheel locks to police departments and rolled out a software update for certain vehicles, which should make them more difficult to steal.
However, owners have been beset by difficulties, and many are now struggling to find insurance. Progressive and State Farm have reportedly declined to open new policies for the automakers’ vehicles, and existing policyholders are stuck paying rising premiums.
According to Chief Tracy, the problem extends farther than that. He claims that the stolen vehicles are being used to commit other crimes, pointing to shootings and a fatal hit-and-run that stolen Hyundais and Kias were involved in.
St. Louis is looking for “in excess of $75,000” in attorneys’ fees and punitive damages. That figure is the threshold for civil action in federal court. The city joins others, including Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, Milwaukee, Minnesota, San Diego, California, and Seattle, Washington, in suing the automakers.
