HARRISBURG, Pa. — Some auto insurance companies are not allowing new policies for certain Hyundais and Kias, saying they're too easy to steal.
These TikTok videos show the aftermath of how easy it is to steal certain Kia and Hyundai vehicles with a USB cable that sparked thousands of car thefts across the country.
Police departments across the state have warned drivers about the issue and Hyundai and Kia are now offering a software fix for certain models.
Even so, insurance companies State Farm and Progressive say they will no longer issue new policies for certain models.
Dave Buono, Deputy Insurance Commissioner with the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, says it has not received any complaints about dropped coverage yet, but that doesn't mean it's not happening.
"Have we had scenarios that increase risks where insurance companies made adjustments to policies because of it? That can happen. To this specific situation and how social media has helped teach people bad things? We haven't seen this quite yet," said Buono.
Pennsylvania's Deputy Insurance Commissioner says insurance companies can't refuse coverage just because of the location of the vehicle. That's covered in Act 68 of 1998 and the Unfair Insurance Practices Act.
If an auto company stops offering certain coverage, it would have to provide data to the insurance department to prove there is an issue.
Buono said, "They wouldn't be able to necessarily do it because they saw on it on TV. They would be demonstrating to us that this is how it's negatively impacting, this is the information, this is how many more claims we're paying because of it, this is how much more we're paying because of it."
If you try to get coverage and are denied, the state insurance department wants you to file a complaint.
"Reach out to us so we can understand this situation that is happening, where it's occurring, who it's impacting and we can do a little bit of investigating on our own," said Buono.
You can file a complaint here, but it's not just for this issue that you may want to file some sort of complaint. If your insurance is suddenly costing you a lot more or if something seems off, let the PA insurance department know so they can start an investigation.
FOX43 Finds Out reached out to State Farm about the issue and they sent us this statement:
State Farm has temporarily stopped accepting new customer applications in some states for certain model years and trim levels of Hyundai and Kia vehicles because theft losses for these vehicles have increased dramatically. This is a serious problem impacting our customers and the entire auto insurance industry.
We take seriously our responsibility to manage risk and the impact of excess claim costs on all our customers. In this case, it became necessary to take action to protect our policyholders and our business.
We are monitoring this situation very closely and will adjust our approach as appropriate.
For information on auto theft, we recommend reaching out to the Insurance Information Institute and the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
We also reached out to Progressive and we were sent this statement:
During the past year we’ve seen theft rates for certain Hyundai and Kia vehicles more than triple and in some markets increase by a factor of almost 20. In response to this explosive increase in thefts, we have continued to insure our existing customers who own impacted models, but in fairness to our existing policyholders we have also limited our sale of new policies or increased rates in certain locations.
We understand Hyundai and Kia are planning to make available voluntary software updates to certain vehicles. We’re hopeful this software upgrade will be effective at deterring thefts and strongly encourage our customers and other owners to get it as soon as possible. We will closely monitor manufacturers’ actions, consumer adoption rates, and the effectiveness of the updates and as appropriate will recalibrate our pricing and acceptance criteria accordingly.
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