STOLEN PRIUS? Has anyone, or have any of you ever heard of a late model Prius being stolen? I would think a car thief would have one heck of a challenge trying to drive off with a Prius that has SKS! Feeling secure,
Yes their was a story about someone stealing Prii back in 04-05 when they were in top demand. The person ran a repair business and I guess you would say a chop shop. He bought titles to totaled Prii, "fix them" Then stole good Prii for parts to make the ones he had title to work then apparently was going to sell off other parts he could. He uses a flat bed to steal the Prii, of course. It was some where down south Alabama or Georgia? I am no longer sure but it was in the paper. I also read some where about a group in LA that stole cars including Prii by setting up a fake Valet parking and have the owners had over the keys! It can be done with an investment in a THHS, new ECUs, fobs etc and the amount of time it would take to disassemble the dash and install your "friendly" ECUs!
NHTSA.GOV has some data about auto theft rates. Prius data, below, shows the year of manufacture and the rate of stolen/1,000 produced. As a comparison, the vehicles with the highest theft rates were over 10 stolen per 1,000 produced. 2004 0.4169 2003 1.1572 2002 1.0116 2001 0.4438
We're all secure until the day when none of us are secure. As long as nobody cracks the SKS system, we're all in pretty good shape. Once it's cracked, we're all pretty much sitting ducks. So, enjoy it while it lasts, and then after it's cracked, we might as all just leave the keys on the dash, doors unlocked when we park it.
The story I heard is probably apocryphal, as I don't know where or when. Somebody went to a party at a nightclub and left their purse on a table. Someone merely took the fob out of the purse and kept pressing the Unlock button in the parking lot until a car responded.
