UCLA Study Says the ‘Kia Boys’ Could Still Be Stealing Cars in 16 Years
The Drive ·
Statistics suggest that vulnerable Hyundais and Kias will be targeted by thieves for at least another decade and a half. The post UCLA Study Says the ‘Kia Boys’ Could Still Be Stealing Cars in 16 Years appeared first on The Drive .
Did you think the “ Kia Boys ” mess was long gone? Think again. According to a recently published study from UCLA , thieves will be targeting Hyundai and Kia models ( vulnerable or otherwise ) for at least another decade and a half. Cool.
“In our study, we examine the growth in thefts of Hyundai Sonatas in Los Angeles, CA, in relation to the rise of the ‘Kia Boys’ social media phenomenon, and then use a comparative mathematical model to forecast the long-term temporal and spatial pattern of thefts through 2050,” the study authors said.
In plain English, they created a model that examined the trends in Hyundai and Kia thefts relative to all of the major factors that contributed to the Kia Boys’ rise in the first place. It accounts for how many vulnerable cars are still in circulation, how popular the trend remains on social media, and how similar scenarios have played out in the past. Think Honda Civics and Accords in the late ’90s, assuming you’re old enough to remember the late ’90s.
“Model-based forecasts suggest that thefts of the vulnerable Hyundai and Kia models in Los Angeles will remain elevated over baseline levels through at least 2042, dropping to negligible levels between 2043 and 2050 largely because vulnerable vehicles will have become rare due to scrapping,” the authors said. OK—bleak, but OK.
“The long-term impact will vary across the city, however,” the authors continued. “Higher-income areas of Los Angeles will have forgotten about the ‘Kia Boys’ vulnerability as older, at-risk cars are traded in for newer ones. Lower-income areas of the city will continue to absorb vulnerable cars as they change hands in the used market before moving toward eventual scrapping.”
If you hadn’t picked up on it, the study focused on Los Angeles, so, as the saying goes, your mileage may vary, but the trends are applicable to some degree just about anywhere in the country . Hyundais and Kias were targeted nationwide by joyriders after viral videos demonstrated how easy it was to steal them. Once they gained access to the car, thieves only needed to pop off the ignition cover and turn the cylinder with any object they could jam inside it , such as a flat-head screwdriver or the business end of a USB-A style charging cable—something drivers often conveniently leave behind when they exit their vehicles.
The process only works on cars that weren’t equipped with an engine immobilizer, which in this case, means the cheaper ones. Apparently Hyundai and Kia sold a lot of the cheaper ones, because the viral phenomenon lead to an epidemic of thefts that ultimately rendered many of the automakers’ cars almost completely uninsurable . The Hyundai Elantra went from the sixth-most-stolen vehicle in the country in 2022 to #1 in 2023, with thefts more than doubling nationwide according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau ( via III ).
After Hyundai made immobilizers standard equipment and began distributing security upgrade kits for older cars, thefts began to subside, but they haven’t gone away completely—and it looks like that will remain the case for a while longer.
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