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Comment by icedistilled | Hacker News Reader

Name and shame the car company - this must have been a hyundai or kia (KN).

Those companies have been in the news for having easy to steal cars due to leaving out cheap and completely standard on all other brands anti theft stuff just to save a few bucks.

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(author) It was indeed a Hyundai, and I'm guessing its vulnerability is what motivated the thief to steal my cheap car instead of any of my neighbors' six-figure cars parked next to it.

From the second I read the headline I knew that it was going to involve a Kia or Hyundai. It is utterly reprehensible that these companies were selling new cars without immobilizers as recently as last year! No layperson buying a new car would have any reason to suspect that this was the case especially when you consider that my Honda Fit (hardly a luxury ride) was equipped with one way back in 2010. Their choice to save pennies during manufacture has directly led to a staggering amount of damages to people whose only mistake was trusting a car manufacturer to do the right thing. I hope they get sued and I hope that they get taken to the cleaners.

IMO, the best anti-theft device is a clutch. Almost nobody knows how to drive stick anymore.

european enters the chat

Dunno about other countries, but in Poland they steal either total shitboxes (below 2000 PLN - around $500 AFAIR in value) or luxury cars. My friend's parents had their week-old SUV stolen from them. Then they bought another one from insurance money and it was stolen as well. Of course, no traces of the thieves...

I had a recent opportunity to overnight in Warsaw and decided against it on account of many stories like this one. Having a vehicle stolen when you're near your home is bad enough, but whilst on a trip it is on another level entirely.

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