COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A 2023 lawsuit filed by the City of Columbus, which alleged Kia America and Hyundai Motor America did not do enough to theft-proof their vehicles, costing millions of dollars and putting lives at risk, recently cleared a legal hurdle, allowing it to move forward.
In a California court, the automakers asked for an en banc rehearing to reconsider a previous ruling that would have ended the negligence claims filed by Columbus and other cities, according to legal news publisher HarrisMartin. The en banc rehearing would have required the full 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the former ruling, which was first heard by a small panel of judges. The court unanimously denied Kia's and Hyundai's request on Aug. 1.
The original lawsuit, filed in February 2023, was in response to what the city called “skyrocketing rates of thefts of certain Kia and Hyundai models that lack industry standard antitheft technology.” The specific “technology” refers to engine immobilizers, which lock out the “engine control module if an attempt is made to start the vehicle without the correct key or to bypass the electronic ignition system.”
“The taxpayer cost of Kia and Hyundai’s negligence continues to rise as local law enforcement diverts limited resources to investigate thefts, respond to crimes and assess property destruction,” Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein said in a news release at the time. “It’s time we held these automakers accountable for cheating consumers and passing the buck and responsibility to clean up the mess they made onto the rest of us.”
The city pointed to the “self-named 'Kia Boyz'” as the majority of the perpetrators, indicating that the juveniles known for posting their exploits on social media were able to carry out the crimes due to the “substandard” security systems. One example included an 11-year-old who was arrested twice, days apart, for allegedly stealing both a Kia and a Hyundai.
Beyond the millions in taxpayers' money used to police the situation, the city also argued that the consequences of “Kia’s and Hyundai’s misconduct” were injury and death. Included in the complaint was the story of the deaths of two 14-year-olds and the serious injury of a third, which took place in a crash of an allegedly stolen Hyundai.
Ohio bill would ban lawmakers from accepting free professional sports ticketsIn August 2023, Kia and Hyundai announced a software fix to prevent the theft of the affected models. It was offered free to owners of millions of vehicles across the United States. Since then, the nationwide trend of spiking vehicle thefts began to subside. Still, the National Insurance Crime Bureau found that two Hyundai and four Kia models ranked at the top of the list for vehicles stolen the most in Ohio in 2024, with the Hyundai Elantra coming in at No. 1.
In a separate class-action lawsuit put forth by Kia and Hyundai owners, the automakers agreed to pay roughly $200 million in May 2023 to “provide cash compensation for customers who incurred theft-related vehicle losses or damage not covered by insurance, in addition to reimbursement for insurance deductibles, increased insurance premiums, and other theft-related losses.”
See the city's lawsuit below.
2-23-cv-00654-1-complaint-2.15.2023DownloadHence then, the article about columbus lawsuit against kia and hyundai cleared to proceed was published today ( ) and is available on NBC4 ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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