the 9th circuit court of appeals reversed a dismissal and ordered the case reopened over insurer claims over immobilizer-free Kia and Hyundai models, raising fresh questions about theft risk and future anti-theft tech.

Kia and Hyundai are back in federal court over a theft wave that made national headlines for years, and this time insurers hold the wheel. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a dismissal on September 14, ordering a Santa Ana judge to reopen claims worth more than $1 billion.

 About 200 insurance companies allege that the automakers' Korean parent entities knowingly shipped vehicles without engine immobilizers into California ports.

The theft spree traces back to a design gap nobody outside the factory noticed for years. UCLA anthropology professor Jeffrey Brantingham put it bluntly: "Thieves didn't know these Hyundai and Kia cars were easy to steal until about 2020." Once TikTok tutorials spread, that changed fast.

Los Angeles saw thefts roughly double between the summer of 2019 and the summer of 2020, a spike researchers tie to idle cars sitting through pandemic lockdowns across the county's nearly 8 million registered vehicles. A UCLA study now projects elevated theft rates for these vulnerable Hyundai and Kia models will persist through 2042.

https://www.motor1.com/news/808629/ninth-circuit-revives-1-billion