Hello, I currently drive a 2007 Toyota Prius which has now had its catalytic converter stolen twice (in 2 different states!). The damage on the car is pretty bad after the most recent theft, so I am in the market for a new car. I would love to get a newer 4th gen Prius model but do not want to deal with more cat thefts. Are newer models any safer from cat theft than older models? And any advice on preventing future thefts? Thanks in advance
welcome! safer to some extent, gen2 had the most precious metals. no car is safe though, except a bev. you can add a theft plate as well.
yeah the old model was desirable to thieves because it had an oversized cat relative to the size of the car. Toyota can now deliver the same emissions scores with a smaller part containing less precious metal, so the new model is less of a target.
There are heaps of threads on this - the short answer, there has only been one reported (but not verified I believe) Gen 4 Cat theft. There are 2 cats on Gen 4 - one is totally inaccessible (unless you remove either the body or the engine!!) - and the other is only small compared with the "valuable" ones of past models.
It's not just Prius cars that are targeted. Ford Super duty gasoline powered trucks (F250 and F350) have BIG converters in them that are easy to reach. The Gen2 cars were/are targets because the converters are particularly easy to remove AND had lots of precious metals. I put a plate on my 2009 and made it harder to remove the fasteners used to install the plate. Anything that slows them down or makes the theft loud will cause them to move on to the next car, at least in Los Angeles county Ca. Out here you can't swing a dead tofudabeast without hitting a Prius. They rely on being fast and quite to get the theft done quickly before being caught. It's a bit like outrunning a grizzly bear when hiking with friends. You don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun your friends. I am also going to put a tilt switch in my car that will trigger the alarm. (and maybe another surprise or two) But to show you how broad of a problem this is, even the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile had it's converter stolen while it was visiting Lost Wages (Los Vegas NV) the other day. "Precious Cat stolen from iconic Dog on Wheels in hotel parking lot." Nothing is respected when it comes to these thieves. Pinback
So... they can die? Be careful about the other surprise or two. People got sued for booby-trapping their detachable T-tops back in the 80s.
Yes, I have thought about the moral, and legal issues around a booby trap. But a system that plays an additional 120db alarm @3250Hz pointed under the car would, I think, fall short of that. Or a system that activates a PA system playing a sound file saying, "Catalytic converter theft in progress, police summoned to these GPS coordinates!" That should be OK too. My demented mind tends to run wild in this area. Perhaps the PA could say "Caution DiNitrogen gas release in process! Please move away from the vehicle." I could keep a small canister of Liquid LN2 in the car and dump it through a port underneath the car. The visual should be great, but that would be somewhat expensive to maintain. A recording of an algebra lecture on say, partial fraction decomposition of polynomial expressions, might do the trick. But, that would almost certainly be seen by many courts as cruel and unusual punishment. It is a fine line. Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - What It's Like I say, "Mess with the nerd's vehicle, pay the nerd's price." Seriously, just the onboard alarm system would start to blow their cover and hopefully get them to move on to another area. Pinback
Dye packs.....brake fluid....deer pee......but I'm from the school of....," It's not waterboarding if it's diesel...."
Puddles... Intriguing idea, but it only rains a few times a year here when we are lucky. Deer pee... That gets me to thinking: There is a rather friendly skunk that hangs out around my house and at one point had kits in the garage. I could make up a certificate stating that the scent oil was all natural, free range, organic, cruelty free, gluten free, but not vegan I guess. That would probably make any California judge say, "Well it's alright then." And Leadfoot has a point that out here, the thief WOULD sue and might win. Going back to the PA announcement idea; maybe I could just have it read the standard prop 65 warning in several different languages. Bureaucratic nonsense always gives me the willies. Here is an example. Most restaurants now put this on every meal they serve out here. (except Milliways of course.) California Prop 65 Labels - Bilingual Full Generic Warning, 1 1/2 x 1 1/2" S-23442 - Uline Pinback *** "The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose." James Baldwin
I sense some denial on these forums about the risk of cat theft in the newer Prius models. My mechanic said he is now seeing newer Prius models with stolen cats. It is just a matter of time. After the thieves have stripped all of the Gen 1, 2, and 3s, they will just move up to Gen 4 and Gen 5 (Sure, they might not be quite as easy to get, but they are resourceful and will find a way). They will not stop until every cat is stripped out and shipped overseas. This problem been going on for 5 years and is only getting worse. There is no incentive to stop it. When mine was stolen, the cops did not even bother looking at the parking garage video footage. Insurance companies don't care - they can just jack up insurance rates. Scrap yards don't care, and in fact, benefit. The after market cat manufacturers don't care - more business for them. The only loser is the individual car owner. I don't like those odds stacked against me. I am not buying another Prius or any car with an expensive prize dangling underneath that can be stripped out in 60 seconds.
