Following recent news that at least two big auto insurance companies have refused to write new policies for certain Hyundai and Kia vehicles, WWL News in Louisiana said it received a list of affected models and model years. State Farm and Progressive are the two insurers noted so far as banning some Hyundai and Kia products that aren’t equipped with engine immobilizers. On top of the vehicle count, the news program said two State Farm employees relayed that the affected states in addition to Louisiana are Georgia, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington. When WWL asked State Farm about the information, the company verified taking the measure but wouldn’t verify the states. A printout shows the models excluded from new policies include the:
Remember, even among the models and model years listed, the restrictions only apply to vehicles with mechanical keys. Push-start models were built with immobilizers. According to the report, current policyholders who own models without immobilizers will remain insured. It’s possible their rates will go up, though.
KOBI5 news in Portland, Oregon said Progressive has begun denying new policies for some Hyundai and Kia vehicles. The Portland Police Bureau maintains a stolen vehicle dashboard. The number of cars stolen annually in Portland has risen more than 70% from 2019 to 2022; however, neither Kia nor Hyundai features on the list of Top 5 Makes or Top 10 Models until 2022, when Kia ranked fifth among makes and the Hyundai Elantra and Kia Soul took the last two spots among models.
In the state above, Washington, the city of Seattle is suing Hyundai and Kia over the thefts, the number of stolen Kias there rising 363% from 2021 to 2022, the number of stolen Hyundais rising 503%.
Missouri wasn’t on the list State Farm’s Louisiana employees gave to WWL, but previous stories out of Missouri say buyers of certain models in the state are being denied. KCUR in St. Louis quoted National Insurance Crime Bureau statistic citing 1,207 stolen Kias and Hyundais in Missouri 2019, but 6,120 combined thefts in 2022. The
Hyundai and Kia fitted all of their products with immobilizers during the 2022 model year, so this shouldn’t be a problem going forward. The pressure on both automakers now is to come up with a solution for current and future owners. Portland’s KGW said it got a statement from Hyundai that the automaker has “taken a series of actions to reduce the claim frequencies associated with affected vehicles,” and that Hyundai will launch a software update for the affected vehicles next month.
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