Even with upgrade, Kias and Hyundais still remain targets for thieves

Adding to a story we have been following loosely over the last year involving the ease in which car thieves, mainly in larger cities like Milwaukee and Chicago, can steal Hyundais and Kias…

A women in Milwaukee this week has reported her car has now been stolen three times. Even after getting the factory recall upgrade to keep the thefts from happening.

Her 2014 Kia Optima has been found and returned to her each time, this time with damage to the inside and outside of the car. When asked how the car could have been stolen after the upgrade, Kia officials said the car needs to be locked using the key fob for the new software to work.

So far this year, The City of Milwaukee has averaged just over 2 stolen Kias every day. Thefts of the two car companies cars has been a serious problem in larger cities since
October of 2022 when a video surfaced on the social media platform Tik Tok, exploiting a flaw in the vehicles software, allowing them to be stolen in under a minute.

Fond du Lac hasn’t emerged unscathed by the trend as in December of last year, a City of Fond du Lac officer chased a Kia that eventually pulled over, and the driver admitted he had just stole it.

Last week police in Oshkosh announced they were investigating a rash of the 2 car companies
vehicles being stolen in their city.