Chicago Mayor Suing Auto Makers for Building Cars That Are Too Easy to Steal
“The failure of Kia and Hyundai to install basic auto-theft prevention technology in these models is sheer negligence, and as a result, a citywide and nationwide crime spree around automobile theft has been unfolding right before our eyes.”
Car theft and carjackings have been on the rise in Chicago for a while now, and rather than using the police to crack down on this problem, Chicago’s new mayor is suing car companies.
You see, Brandon Johnson cannot acknowledge that crime is the problem, because that would be admitting a failure of Democrat governance, so instead he is deflecting his anger at car companies. This is beyond stupid.
Julio Rosas reports at Townhall:
The Nonsensical Way Chicago’s Mayor Is Attempting to Crack Down on Crime
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) announced on Thursday the city is suing automakers Kia and Hyundai for “their failure to include industry-standard engine immobilizers in multiple models of their vehicles,” which according to the city, is the reason for the high rate of crimes involving cars.
“The impact of car theft on Chicago residents can be deeply destabilizing, particularly for low- to middle-income workers who have fewer options for getting to work and taking care of families. The failure of Kia and Hyundai to install basic auto-theft prevention technology in these models is sheer negligence, and as a result, a citywide and nationwide crime spree around automobile theft has been unfolding around our eyes,” Johnson said in a statement.
The lawsuit is the latest move by the new mayor as public safety continues to be a major issue for the city’s residents due to soft-on-crime policies and judicial system. Stolen cars are often used by criminals to carry out other crimes, such as drive-by shootings and robberies, so it is an acceptable loss should they have to ditch it afterwards.
Mayor Brandon Johnson announced today the city of Chicago will sue Kia and Hyundai over a spate of auto thefts that mostly comprise those car models pic.twitter.com/qMvfgkrSGH
— Alice Yin (@byaliceyin) August 24, 2023
Johnson’s office actually put out a press release about this:
City Of Chicago Files Suit Against Automakers Kia And Hyundai
Mayor Brandon Johnson announced today that the City has filed a civil lawsuit against Kia America, Inc., Kia Corporation, Hyundai Motor America, and Hyundai Motor Company for their failure to include industry-standard engine immobilizers in multiple models of their vehicles, resulting in a steep rise in vehicle thefts, reckless driving, property damage, and a wide array of related violent crimes in Chicago.
The complaint, which was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, alleges that Kia and Hyundai failed to equip their U.S. cars, sold between 2011 and 2022, with vital anti-theft technology, which almost all other car manufacturers made a standard feature over a decade ago and which Kia and Hyundai include in their vehicles sold outside of the country. The Complaint alleges that Kia and Hyundai deceptively assured consumers that these vehicles possessed “advanced” safety features, despite knowing about this critical defect and its consequences.
“The impact of car theft on Chicago residents can be deeply destabilizing, particularly for low- to middle-income workers who have fewer options for getting to work and taking care of their families,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson. “The failure of Kia and Hyundai to install basic auto-theft prevention technology in these models is sheer negligence, and as a result, a citywide and nationwide crime spree around automobile theft has been unfolding right before our eyes.”
Jazz Shaw of Hot Air adds this:
The problem isn’t that the Kias and Hyundais are too easy to steal. It’s that the city has too many car thieves. Chicago’s gangs have turned car theft into a more popular sport than tennis or golf. And they don’t just steal cars to sell them, though that’s very popular to be sure. Sometimes they just steal them for use in other crimes such as drive-by shootings…
If Brandon Johnson was being honest, he would admit that Kia and Hyundai are not at fault for all of this vehicular theft. The people stealing the cars are to blame. And with enough resources and the backing of the administration, the Chicago PD could get the gangs back under control. But that’s clearly not going to happen under the Johnson administration. So if you’re planning to visit Chicago, you’re probably better off renting a car than bringing your own. Or perhaps a tank if you can find one.
It’s positively stunning that the people of Chicago have agreed to be led by this moron.
What’s next? A lawsuit against purse makers for purses that are too easy to steal?
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Yes, described in the summation, he’s a MORON.
A concise way of spelling Democrat. They voted him in.
This problem is mostly the fault of one race in America.
To be fair, this dumbass could not have been elected without serious non-black support.
His nonblack supporters (and likely all his black supporters) have their hands in the till up to their elbows, and this dummy enables the corruption graveytrain to keep rolling.
Then again, Biden is white. But this really is Obama’s third term.
Affirmative action in action.
Wait till war with China starts, and you see what dummy Lloyd Austin really is, along with the affirmative action generals Obama and Biden have seeded the military with.
My point exactly:
Air Force Colonel, Selected for Promotion to Brigadier General, Pushes DEI, CRT, and Racist Dogma:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/08/air-force-colonel-selected-for-promotion-to-brigadier-general-pushes-dei-crt-and-racist-dogma/
The military and the DoD have a plan to prevent war with China. The next time China threatens us, we just surrender. Problem solved.
Appropriately, he’s got a point on his head.
Not much different than suits against drugstores for “failing to police” pain-killer prescriptions. That is, not lawsuits against known prescription mills (too much work to investigate?), but suits targeting Walgreens, CVS, and other legitimate pharmacies (because they have big bank accounts). Government fails in its war on drugs and gins up lawfare to finance its failure.
No, both have big bank accounts. The difference is that the Rx developers have better, more expensive lawyers.
Also, they own an awful lot of politicians.
Liberla Playbook: Always claim victim status especially when caught red-handed.
That’s the left’s ultimate goal: to destroy American society and then take it over. The “liberal playbook” is towards that end.
The problem is the people who buy low cost cars that don’t include more expensive anti-theft devices.
Poor people shouldn’t be allowed to buy inexpensive cars – they should be forced to walk or bike or public transportation their way around.
And then they need to be held accountable for being too easy to mug.
Actually bikes can be stolen. In fact a bike lock manufacturer, Kryptonight, had a massive recall of locks around. The keys looked like the top of a bic crystal pen. Unfortunately some bright guy figured out how use the top of a bic crystal to open the locks.
https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/kryptonite-recall-for-round-key-locks.74337/
I remember some ultra-whizbang lock BMW fitted decades ago. Within a week, a “white hat” showed the police how he could get one open and started in seconds using nothing more than a small-bore bristle brush.
Actually, it wasn’t a manufacturer problem. ALL the “Ace locks” made had this intrinsic design defect, whether they were on bike locks, vending machines, toolboxes, gun safes, or anything else.
“The problem is the people who buy low cost cars that don’t include more expensive anti-theft devices.”
More expensive devices don’t keep expensive cars from going up on a flat-bed, and being on the streets of someplace in Africa within six weeks.
That was precisely the reasoning behind the 1968 ban on “Saturday night specials”. It was an explicit attempt to disarm the poor. So are the modern versions, such as the proposals to put a 10,000% excise on scary-looking rifles with the shoulder thing that goes up.
Yes, welcome to the party, folks.
It took the federal government to pass a special one-off law to prevent Democrat chaos-fomenters from suing gun manufacturers incessantly for selling devices that jumped out of gun safes and shot innocent people.
Democrats can’t blame their constituents, so they blame the manufacturers of the tools they abuse. It’s in the playbook.
This dummy mayor forgets to mention the number of carjackers bypassing ANY theft control system. Then again, he is a dummy.
Ya know you’re a Democrat when nothing, nothing ever ever ever, is your fault.
Don’t want your vehicle stolen? Learn to drive standard shift and that problem ends. Of course it will take some effort and settling for other options to find the right vehicle.
Older corvettes tend to be cheap. Like $10000 but the insurance costs.
Even better, but rare as hen’s teeth. Find a mid-60s Citroën with “Citro-Matic Drive” Now, that is a challenge unless you really know what you are doing!
Thinking of the superb DS21 and DS23 Citroën!!! Would love to own a late model 23. If anyone wants to know more about this care… the attempted assassination of De Gaul is a great example.
https://www.realclearhistory.com/2021/08/23/when_a_citroen_saved_charles_de_gaulles_life_791038.html#!
better version of history
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/citroen-helps-de-gaulle-survive-assassination-attempt
The sister of a good friend bought an ID-19 used. Four on the tree, basic, but with that amazing suspension. It sailed down the road as if on a cloud yet the handling was amazing. It was just, plain, fun to drive.
(1) Mayor Brandon Johnson announced today that the City has filed a civil lawsuit against Kia America, Inc., Kia Corporation, Hyundai Motor America, and Hyundai Motor Company for their failure to include industry-standard engine immobilizers in multiple models of their vehicles,
(2) The Complaint alleges that Kia and Hyundai deceptively assured consumers that these vehicles possessed “advanced” safety features, despite knowing about this critical defect and its consequences.
****************
“Safety features” do not equal “Anti-theft features”.
And if a person does not read, cannot read, or reads but doesn’t comprehend the federally required sticker on every new automobile for sale that lists all of the “Safety Features” (eg. anti-lock breaks, collision avoidance system etc) and “Anti-Theft Features” (eg. engine immobilizer, car alarm etc.) then how is that the problem of either Kia or Hyundai. What you get and what you don’t get is all fully disclosed on that federally mandated window sticker.
The best “Anti-theft features”. are found outside cities.
wonder if he has “standing?”
Courts usually count being a Leftist as having standing to sue for anything.
Subotai Bahadur
Like many Democrats as they wield tortured Lawfare against the innocent, this deranged goofball certainly gets a point for creativity for coming up with such an asinine approach. That’s like suing a bank over customer loss because the gun-wielding thief forced the manager to open the “too easy to open” vault.
This guy could be worse than his idiot predecessor.
Not even. He’s just plagiarizing anti-gun lawfare.
True. The guy is a Soros paid tyrannical anarchist. Some Heavenly smiting might fix “the problem”…unfortunately the brain-dead residents in what is left of Chicago will simply vote another reprobate moron in his place, like Wack-A-Mole.
I recently got a recall notice on my 2012 Santa Fe. There were three items, two dealing with corrosion mitigation since the car began its life in New York and one concerning anti-theft. The anti-theft recall gave me a free steering wheel lock bar which should make the car hard to steal. We don’t live in an area where car theft is unusually common but I have the bar if I need it. Thieves will look for easy targets.
If such a simple, inexpensive measure can make the car less of a target, it should be employed by anyone who is concerned about his car being stolen.
.
Hornet, when I worked as an auto theft adjuster, the most popular steering wheel locking device, a bar across the wheel with a lock cylinder, was called “The Club.”
We joked that it was more useful as a club than an anti-theft device. Thieves took to carrying a pair of bolt cutters to snap through the steering wheel and slip off the bar. I saw many recovered vehicles with the discarded, locked bar still lying on the floor.
Last ship I served on a few of the sailors were coming back late one nigh- and a teeny bit tipsy… and one of them was carrying The Club. And one of the others said something to push him over the edge- and you can guess the rest. Next day they were all at Captain’s Mast. Not the only time I’ve heard of The Club being used as a club. Easier to carry then a tire iron.. Carry one of those around and the police assume if you’re not guilty of something you soon will be.
Maybe the automakers should sue him for making it to easy to get away with stealing cars.
How about capital punishment being based on total amount of crime and severity committed? Things are way out of hand.
Again: see: Carjacking in Chicago:
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/tag/carjacking/
It’s the car manufacturers’ fault for theft , it’ the gun manufacturers’ fault for shootings. It’s the women’s apparel sellers’ fault for rape. It’s never the fault of the criminal. This silently reinforces the fact that the ideology of the Left breeds (literally) criminals and confirms the bigotry of low expectations.
Lawsuits, sanctuary city status, corruption, gang warfare and just plain stupidity.
You voted for this Chicago so just bend over and spread em.
Will he be suing well-turned-out, young blondes for presenting too tempting a rape peril?
Not if the right key is used to start the blondes. It’s called a “golddigger” key.
I bet Cornell Law is a reputable source to explain ‘frivolous lawsuits.’
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/frivolous
Common consequences for filing frivolous lawsuits may include sanctions by the court against the plaintiff: payment for reasonable expenses, and attorney’s fees, fines, contempt of court, and in extreme cases, jail time.
However, since this is the age of no one is held accountable EVUH in politics, this Chicago clown will not even receive a sternly worded letter.
There are laws that restrain vexatious litigants.
Restrain? Uhm … nope.
I had a wire break in my Subie between the fuel pump relay and the pump. We bypassed it by running power from the trailer hitch running-lights circuit. My light switch now doubles as a kill switch. I consider it a feature. FWIW, it takes about 15 sec to pull the fuel pump fuse from the panel if you are going on vaca.
Oh, and I have a stick too. 😉
How about we sue the Mayor for making it too easy to commit crimes in Chicago?
Judging by this one, the previous mayor of Chicago, the present mayors of SFO, NYC, Baltimore, and DC, I think stupidity must be a requirement to hold office.
And are they not all
Demand black?
Phone changed my wording
All Democrats and black?
What’s up with that
Auto correct.
Woke-correct
Yes, but didn’t want to go there on LI. I might have gotten my paw slapped for pointing out the obvious.
It’s us who are stupid: the Big Grifters are using stupid guys like this one to enable their looting of the cities, state and federal governments.
Kia’s and Hyundai’s unlawful and reckless actions have caused a car theft crisis.(pg. 1 ❡ 5)
Would someone care to link to the actual “law” that mandates that Kia & Hyundai install “anti-theft devices” on their cars? Because if it’s “unlawful” not to do so then why isn’t Mayor Brandon having them charged with a criminal offense and not simply filing a civil suit against them.
A civil suit has monetary rewards for the plaintiffs while a criminal case doesn’t. It’s all about the Benjamins.
Someone should sue him for making murders and crime in general too easy.
I don’t see them around much anymore, but don’t they still sell “The Club”, that steering wheel lock?
Sure it can be defeated with some effort, but a thief would sooner pick a car without it.
You know what happens when cars are hard to steal – carjackings.
The law of unintended consequences. See my remark elsewhere about flatbeds and shipments to Africa. I’d be willing to bet the price of a good lunch that a double digit percentage of Escalades, Suburbans, Yukons, and Lincoln Navigators in places like Dubai and major African cities started life owned by someone in the USA.
Nah, this has an easy fix – just mandate that all cars registered in $#!+cago be manual transmission. That will easily cut down car theft by 90% guaranteed.
Problem solved!
Or a device on each car that requires you to enter your employer’s ID.
Next, sue knife makers for making the knives too sharp. And glass makers for making glass too breakable,
You are aware of this, I assume?
Obviously, British thugs are too stupid to discover screwdrivers.
Is there case law that is on point here?
I doubt that case law is necessary. When the cars were built by Hyundai/Kia, they met US Federal safety and emissions standards.
Yes, Hyundai cheaped out and refused to install inexpensive immobilizer devices into their keyed ignition switches, even as more than 95% of all other auto manufacturers were doing so at the time — and Hyundai was installing immobilizers in their mid-market and premium vehicles at the same time. They effectively penalized buyers of the low-line, “no-frills” models, as the consumers who purchased them are the ones now suffering through the damage, expense, and increased insurance rates.
Hyundai is now paying a high price in repairs, retrofits, software updates and security devices, as well as the economic and reputational hit that will be evident on their balance sheets for years to come. This will cost them more than would losing a municipal lawsuit even if a court would agree to hear the case.
“They effectively penalized buyers”
Using the left’s terminology is a bad choice.
Next, you’ll argue that homebuilders penalize starter-home buyers by not including master suites with hot tubs.
My first thought was that I hoped Judge Sophia Hall would toss this as a frivolous lawsuit.
What a boxing day gift.
The problem isn’t Hyundai and Kia, it’s Jamal and D’antavious.
I think Mayor Brandon Johnson is correct. For example, look at the wheels on cars: they are perfectly round. Without any effort, they can roll away, and POOF, the wheels and car are gone. Clearly car manufacturers have colluded to do this in order to boost the number of wheels and cars that have to be purchased to replace the ones that have rolled away. Those capitalist automaker pigs are diabolical. Thank goodness for Mayor Johnson.
I remember seeing a map of Chicago shortly after the mayoral election that showed where this idiot received the most support. Aside from his support in black neighborhoods, he received significant support from those safe, fashionable, rich white ciphers who live on the north side near the Lake. These are the people who wouldn’t be caught dead in Kias or Hyundais, and who drive into the club in their Teslas with those fading Biden and BLM stickers on the bumpers. Chicago richly deserves Brandon Johnson and it will continue to get his ilk until the thieves regularly start hitting the upper north side of Chicago.
So the victim is to blame, and the answer is for the victim to pay up. Carried to it’s logical end, the answer to home break-ins will be to mandate homeowners install upgraded security features, rape victims are to blame for not wearing chastity belts, murder victims were asking for it by not outfitting themselves with bullet proof vests. Idiocy.
But they made bullet-proof vests illegal, and if you defend yourself with a gun, you’re the criminal.
The ultimate in anti-theft equipment is a manual transmission
“Jazz Shaw of Hot Air adds this:
The problem isn’t that the Kias and Hyundais are too easy to steal. “
As someone who is currently saddled with investigating the onslaught of Kia and Hyundai thefts I can assure you Jazz Shaw doesn’t know shit about what what he or she is talking about. Although I don’t think the mayor has any standing to launch a lawsuit, these cars are absolutely easier to steal. The blame for the thefts is on both the thieves and the company who makes it possible for a 14 year old to steal multiple cars a night with no special skills or knowledge in car thievery. Before now the majority of the thefts that took place were idiots leaving their keys where they can be accessed by car burglars. It’s so simple to steal the Kias/Hyundais they’re stealing them for no other reason than to wreck the dog shit out of them and immediately steal another parked nearby. Even after the supposed updates Kia/Hyundai do they’re still easily stolen. What should happen is Kia should be forced to buy their junk back so people can buy a car from a different manufacturer.
Isn’t this like swatting at flies when a tiger is in the house? Forget the stupid carjackings or car thefts and go after the MURDERerS! This is as bad as the Fulton County DA going after Trump for RICO activity when the jail she booked him in had a man die from malnutrition and neglect! The place is literally a Mexican jail of the worst kind.
The Moron of Baltimore beat him to it by five months.
https://mayor.baltimorecity.gov/news/press-releases/2023-05-11-city-baltimore-files-lawsuit-against-hyundai-kia-over-car-thefts
How about Chicago sues each and every of the little shits that post HOW TO TO STEAL Hyundais and Kias on the freaking “social media?” I would think, minimally, that would be accessory before the fact.
I sense new funding for the Chicago Teachers Union: Sue Nordstrom, GUCCI, 7-11 and Dollar General for building stores that are too easy to rob.
Absolute Progressive/Democrat/Socialist/Ghetto brilliance!
If they worked as hard at medicine, cancer would be in our rearview mirror.