First post here in 10 years... because my catalytic converter was stolen :-(

Thanks for asking.
I like it just fine, personally I wanted a Camry Hybrid and found one but my wife threw a fit at the dealership and I had to walk away. In SoCal there were waitlist and refundable $500 deposits required. All dealers were MSRP plus $1300-5000 in dealer installed options (no choice) and an additional "Market mark up" up to $7000.
I settled on the 2023 COROLLA Hybrid LE, no market mark up. MSRP plus about $1400 in dealer add ons (non negotiable)
I never got on any waitlist, I just kept looking and lucked into a few and jumped on it.
I just tanked up today, my 2nd paid tank after the original dealer full tank.

I have about 825 miles on it, so I would say that it isn't broken in yet.
My top speed so far has been 75 mph in a 75 mph zone.
I've averaged 54 mpg so far. My 2009 Prius best highway trip mpg was 54 mpg on a 250 mile stretch . It averaged about 45-46 mpg if it was mostly highway miles.
So it looks like I'm getting about 6-9 more mpg.
The COROLLA backseat has less room in the back seat, and it seems like a "regular" car
I do miss the hatchback and the bigger storage on my Prius.

 

An engraving tip: With a word editor I typed both the license plate number and the VIN, pretty much as large as it would fit on the page. Printed it and taped to the side of the Cat, then went over it with an engraving pen.

 

In my state you can have that done for free.

Indiana offers free anti-theft catalytic converter marking | PriusChat

At first I thought some of the funding came from a grant program set up in a new Federal law, but I was mistaken; that bill never got out of committee in the last Congress. It's just been reintroduced in this Congress. (The new bill is so new I can't see the text yet. The old one would have done two things, required VIN stamping of new catalytic converters, and established grant funding for programs to engrave existing ones. The new one's title is "To prevent the theft of catalytic converters and other precious metal car parts, and for other purposes". I hate when congresscritters pull that "and for other purposes" stunt.)

Anyway, I went to the local Jiffy Lube, which is the business that Indiana has partnered with to do the marking, and it only took a couple minutes, mostly for my paperwork. I drove over their pit and somebody down there marked the cat, and that was all there was to it.

I didn't see how they did it. It made scratchy noises down there, and in my mind I had a picture of somebody with a Dremel and I hoped decent penmanship.

But when I got home and looked, the serial portion of the VIN was stamped into the steel in dot-matrix form. The tool must have been this sort of thing:

handheld dot peen - Google Search

 

I wonder if property marking is really much of a deterrent?

The guys out every night stealing cats already have a pipeline to a shady metal dealer who doesn't ask for a VIN, title, proof of purchase etc. No questions asked...

 

I think it's more to help the cops, make convictions stick, trace Cats back to their owners.

 

A cheap CAT shield and motion alarm on the car is the best deterrent. While painting & etching the CAT will help the cops; it doesn't keep the scumbags from cutting them out.

When the scumbags jack-up the car; alarm blaring - they will likely drop the car and run; rather than wait for the owner to step out of their their house with a shotgun.

 

There was a news story last week about individuals who were in a local car holding area late in the evening stealing Catalytic Converters.

There were caught held by the yard attendant who was wielding a double barrel shotgun. They were very lucky. This particular holding yard has attack dogs that are released when the yard is unattended. If they had attempted these monkey shines a little later in the evening, they would have only found skeletons in the morning.

Note to Catalytic Converter thieves - stick to Washington, Oregon or California maybe even large metropolitan areas.

Here is a multiple-choice question for these thieves:

If you attempt to steal Catalytic Converters in the rural south, You will be:
A. Shot
B. Torn limb from limb by attack dogs
C. Beaten within an inch of your life
D. Any combination of the above

 

In norcal up here, the headline would be “Desperate father in need to feed children resorting to cat collection.”