March 14, 2023

My city is suing Hyundai and Kia for not making their cars harder to steal.

65 comments:

Iman said...

F.F.S.

Readering said...

Tiktok!

Does not seem like municipality the proper plaintiff. Owners and insurers, though. Class action.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Maybe Madison should prosecute car thieves. Just a suggestion.

The same thing is happening here in WA. It's only property! Insurance will pay! The poor car thieves! They're just trying to make a living!

Kevin said...

Not the Onion.

gahrie said...

But your honor...they made me steal the car by not making it harder for me to steal.....

tommyesq said...

Wasn't she Phyllis from "The Office?"

tommyesq said...

Nowhere in the article is there any reference to what legal theory Madison would advance, much less one that would provide Madison with standing. Anyone know?

tommyesq said...

Rhodes-Conway attributes the dramatic spike to recent TikTok trends and a lack of anti-theft safety features, like engine immobilizers, that most other car companies utilize.

Is she suing TikTok too? If they are posting videos on how to steal these particular cars, there seems to be more of a theory of liability here than against the car maker.

n.n said...

Critical Displacement Theory

Limited blogger said...

Peak insanity almost attained

Enigma said...

I thought the ease of theft was a feature to allow rapid asset transfers to those in need of a vehicle? I thought all cars were The People's Uber before Uber existed? I thought one could go into any drugstore and fairly take anything off the shelves because corporations and billionaires make too much profit anyway?

Bernie Sanders said it's morally wrong to have any billionaires, so we should thank Hyundai and Kia for this!

I'm so confused!

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/us/politics/bernie-sanders-wealth-tax.html

https://truthout.org/articles/sanders-rips-into-billionaires-for-creating-oligarchic-society-in-us/

Mason G said...

Perhaps the Madison City Council should consider holding a protest at a Kia factory? I understand that's a progressive thing. Don't forget to dress in black and wear masks.

Butkus51 said...

she should open a lemonade stand.

RideSpaceMountain said...

The smugly grinning black chick in the foreground of this photo is very appropriate for this story.

Super glad she was in frame when it was snapped. She looks super glad to...I wonder about what.

Greg the Class Traitor said...

Why don't they sue the DA for not prosecuting people for car theft, instead?

Wa St Blogger said...

Can we sue Tommy Hilfiger for making teens too desirable?

Dave Begley said...

Nebraska, more or less, decided that issue about two decades ago in Stahlecker v Ford Motor Co. There is no duty to foresee criminal conduct.

Lawsuits that I know will lose tag.

chuck said...

Great SNL material ... if SNL were funny.

tim maguire said...

I suspect Madison is vulnerable to an unclean hands defense.

traditionalguy said...

Sounds like Hyundae needs to include a Glock 17 as an accessory for criminal hell holes like Madison.

William said...

I refuse to make any joke regarding the manufacturers of yoga pants and the women who have been subjected to sexual harassment or worse while wearing such clothes. Such a joke would not be amusing.

Big Mike said...

All you need is a tape that starts playing if remotely activated:

“This is a 30 second bomb. This is a 30 second bomb.

29

28

27”

Maynard said...

Novel Madison idea: Hire lawyers to deal with crime rather than cops.

Temujin said...

Yeah. We have a lot of homeowners in my area who should be sued for not making their homes harder to break into.

And San Francisco? They've got a boatload of potential suits against business who don't make their stores harder to steal garbage bags full of goods.

What's wrong with all of us?

Tomcc said...

Doesn't this warrant a "lawsuits I hope will fail" tag?

madAsHell said...

"I'm fighting for you!!"

"I'm making your free market choices safer!!"

PM said...

Number of cars stolen/pop.
Korea: 5.4 per 100,000
USA: 268 per 100,000
We just like jacking.

West TX Intermediate Crude said...

Next they will sue drunk college women in short skirts for getting assaulted.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Lawsuits I hope will fail.

Jupiter said...

What's you cut?

alanc709 said...

So, will Kia and Hyundai be allowed to introduce the left's Defund the Police policies as exculpatory evidence?

n.n said...

Diversity, bag limits, ethical religion, social progress reflux disease.

Humperdink said...

Chicago Mayor Hammertoe recently chastised local businesses for not hiring enough security. You see it's their fault for the robberies.

donald said...

Get those two big gals a little exercise and they’d make decent line clogging defensive tackles.

William said...

The ease of theft is a feature not a bug. Too many cars are difficult to hot wire. This has led to an alarming number of armed car jackings. The victims of armed car jackings should sue the car's manufacturer for not making their cars easier to steal and thus forcing the thieves to use physical force in their proceedings. We should aspire to a society where thieves are less violent when they go about their trade.

Sheridan said...

Ahhh, Big Mike! Shades of Heinlein's Starship Troopers. The book not the miserable movies.

Narayanan said...

is it illegal for homeowners to leave house door open?

Narayanan said...

and also what about windows?

n.n said...

Progressive prices, availability, and DIEversity policies create incentives for redistributive change to relieve personal "burdens" through creative (pun intended) choices.

Narayanan said...

PM said...
Number of cars stolen/pop.
Korea: 5.4 per 100,000
USA: 268 per 100,000
We just like jacking.
=======
what are the numbers for cars stolen/total cars owned

Joe Smith said...

Good luck with that, morons...

Now, prove that black folks get their cars stolen more often and you've got a slam-dunk case based on equity!

Art in LA said...

Back in the day, most everyone in California used "The Club" as an anti-theft device. That's that long stick you'd lock to your steering wheel minimizing drivability. $40 on Amazon nowadays if you have concerns about your KIA/Hyundai. My new car, an Acura Integra, is a 6-speed manual. That's an anti-theft device too, LOL.

rehajm said...

OMG that's so fucking dumb...if you Madisonians had any sense you'd be embarrassed...

rehajm said...

Sue the 1960s and 1970s for making cars easier to steal while you're at it...

Sebastian said...

Next up: suing Target for putting all their stuff, like, on shelves.

On second thought, I remember now, mere theft doesn't cost blue jurisdictions any time and effort. So Target is safe from prog lawsuits.

Jim at said...

Seattle brought the same suit a few months ago. It's an upside-down world in lefty land.

Michael K said...

Blogger Maynard said...

Novel Madison idea: Hire lawyers to deal with crime rather than cops.


I think here is a career choice for Stanford trained lawyers. Go out on the streets of Portland or even SFO and try to shout down the muggers and smash and grabbers.

SoLastMillennium said...

Not from Madison...

All posts should first state if the live in Madison or not. (Riverwest refuge here)

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Back in the day, most everyone in California used "The Club" as an anti-theft device. That's that long stick you'd lock to your steering wheel minimizing drivability. $40 on Amazon nowadays if you have concerns about your KIA/Hyundai. My new car, an Acura Integra, is a 6-speed manual. That's an anti-theft device too, LOL.

A sawzall will make short work of the Club. They're less than $200. Just got to make sure the battery's charged.

Wince said...

Wait until they realize the optics are like blaming anti-Asian violence on Asians.

Known Unknown said...

"Number of cars stolen/pop.
Korea: 5.4 per 100,000
USA: 268 per 100,000
We just like jacking.
=======
what are the numbers for cars stolen/total cars owned"

Also, why compare Korea to the United States? How else do we compare Korea to the U.S.?

Yancey Ward said...

I don't understand the legal theory for this lawsuit. Does anyone? Is Madison really that hard up for revenue?

Mary Beth said...

I used to have a Hyundai. Loved it. Drove it for 17 years. Now I have a Kia. Love it and plan on driving it forever. Fortunately, it has push-button start and so isn't one that can be stolen with a USB cord. (Only works with the ones with key ignitions.) As much as I like the cars, this really was a crappy design. Sure, we should punish the car thieves, but I doubt most of them get caught and the ones that do are 14-years-old or something ridiculous like that.

If it was a problem with all makes of cars, that would be one thing, but it's just Hyundais and Kias that were sold in the US. The Canadian ones had kill switches so this technique doesn't work on them. They decided to cheap out on the US ones and that made them vulnerable. I'm glad they are getting sued. Maybe that will motivate them to do what they should have already done. They need to do a recall and install kill switches on all of the keyed ignition cars.

Mary Beth said...

I should have said "immobilizer" instead of "kill switch".

Jim Gust said...

Minnesota and/or Minneapolis are also talking about doing this lawsuit.

We live in interesting times.

Tommy Duncan said...

If these were electric vehicles there would be no issue.

Regarding the chicks in the photo: I'm doing my best to suppress my urge to fat shame.

n.n said...

Hyundai and Kia should countersue Madison for establishing a religion and social incentives for processing redistributive change.

Rosalyn C. said...

I had no idea. My car is so old I am still using the same old anti-theft "Club" on the steering wheel which apparently is now a brand new idea again. Am I to believe that new cars don't get stolen anymore because of the built in security features?

Dave64 said...

I hear SVB is looking for new officers and board members.

cubanbob said...

Better way to curb auto theft is for the manufacturers to offer a Truck Monkey's as upgrade option.

cubanbob said...

Better way to curb auto theft is for the manufacturers to offer a Truck Monkey's as upgrade option.

Aggie said...

Defund the Police and then sue the automakers because: theft happened.

Delicious. Simply delicious.

Tom said...

R Lee Emery said that he hates unlocked footlockers because if it wasn’t for unlocked foot lockers, there wouldn’t be thieves in the world.

Bunkypotatohead said...

Hyundai and Kia should close their Madison dealerships and tell the mayor to kiss their asses.

AalamFarooqi said...

I used to have a Hyundai. Loved it. Drove it for 17 years. Now I have a Kia. Love it and plan on driving it forever. Fortunately, it has push-button start and so isn't one that can be stolen with a USB cord. (Only works with the ones with key ignitions.) As much as I like the cars, this really was a crappy design. Sure, we should punish the car thieves, but I doubt most of them get caught and the ones that do are 14-years-old or something ridiculous like that.
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