Catalytic Convertor Stolen Even with Cat Shield

bummer. what we need is cat insurance

 

Over the past couple of years, I've seen many caches of catalytic converters recovered from thieves. Fortunately, I have seen non that has been painted orange. Apparently, painting the car with orange header paint works.

 

That sucks.
The Guard is a deterrent and slowed them down, but they must have still been efficient?

How did they remove/ bend down the shield?
Did they grind the rivet heads off?

 

I'm thinking of taking an early retirement and getting schooled in cat theft as a second career.

 

Aluminum rivets are easily drilled out with a low speed battery powered drill.

The way to go is with stainless steel rivets and washers. When installed, a drill bit will bite into the rivet's center hole but will spin, because there is not enough friction to keep it from doing so. A pair of diagonal pliers must be used to grab each rivet head to hold it to keep it from spinning. This makes removal of multiple rivets very tedious.

 

That’s what comprehensive insurance covers. With older cars the conventional wisdom is to drop collision and comprehensive, when insurance rivals the cars value. But something to consider.

 

In South Carolina, we have incentive to keep comprehensive, because it covers 100% of a broken windshield replacement, even if there is a $500 deductible on other claims.

 

In BC, Canada, the main insurer is a semi-connected to the provincial government: ICBC (Insurance Corporation of British Columbia). Rates are “reasonable”, increases capped.

For our 2010, with $500 collision and $300 comprehensive, we’re looking at around $1200 yearly. That’s with safe driver and age discount.

(all numbers CDN)

 

A cat shield is like a door lock.
I suppose it will stop some of the rookies out there, but it will only slow down the pros.

Insurance......
Even IF you have a “wind pool” (dot.gov acting as the insurer of last resort) then they are not going to tolerate punching out $1500 checks for $3000 cars over and over.
Eventually they will start excluding this type of claim or they will price-adjust the comp coverage.

 

Until then, insurance up? And MAYBE, when they start digging in their heels someone will wake up the gov, nail these sob’s?

 

Miller has stainless steel for Gen 3 and up

Stainless Steel MILLERCAT 2010-2015 Prius Gen 3 Cat Shield™– MillerCAT Corp

 

That might work for some people, but there's been reports of older cars being "totaled" from just a cat robbery because the replacement costs more than the car's value.

Plus there's still the deductible, which if you lower that raises the premium.

I also would like to hear a confirmation on this but I've heard that places with high cat thefts have much higher insurance premiums. So in essence they just pass the cost on to the customers.

Thinking of my own situation I get penalized about $100 more per car per month ($200 for two cars) to have comprehensive. And that's with a $1,000 deductible. So if a cat replacement costs $3,400 then I'd need to have at least one theft a year to make it worthwhile. And that's not considering they might "total" the 2006 Prius because it's getting to the point it might not be worth $3,000 on paper even though I might be throwing in a brand new HV battery some time soon.

 

$100 is a rough guess. I'm 36, have one speeding ticket my whole life (7 years ago, one point for 9mph above speed limit in 40mph school zone) one other driver on the policy (wife who's actually a tad older) and my insurance premium for just one car (2013 Toyota Avalon Hybrid) with comprehensive is $153 per month with a $1,000 deductible. And I've tried to shop around for better quotes but can't find any. I vaguely remember it being around $50 for just collision back when I had just the 1985 VW Golf diesel. Maybe it's more expensive here in Colorado? Any suggestions on how to lower it?

When I got the Prius and put it on with only basic collision it actually lowered my premiums by about $18 per month due to the monthly multi-car discount being greater than the collision-only premium. Now I pay $135 per month for two cars. Go figure.

I do want to ask how much it would cost to put the 2006 Prius on with comprehensive. But should I wait until I have the car's exterior fixed up? They'll probably ask if it has any damage, and right now it's in pretty poor shape due to a deer accident and hail damage (I bought it that way for $300).

 

I just did Progressive's online estimate.
Going with exactly what I have now I'd save $3 a month. But that includes bundling it with my home owner's insurance which I need to call in to get that quote. So there's a chance that that could be $3 more and in the end the cost is the same.

By adding the Prius to comprehensive it only raised it $24 to $146. But that's with the same $1,000 deductible I have now. Making both have a $500 deductible puts me at $174 per month, or about $40 more. So no, it's not $100 per month for another car to be put on comprehensive.

Kelly Blue Book places my Prius' worth at $3,500, assumming I get it in "good condition." Looking around I see others of the same year in "good condition" going for $4,000. That's probably all the insurance company would pay, minus the deductible. So a $1,000 deductible means that if the repair cost is near $2,500-$3,000 then they'd probably just "total" it.

Decisions, decisions...

 

Maybe CAT theft could get specific peril status with insurers?