(The Center Square) – Hyundai Motor America is preparing a formal response to the City of St. Louis’ letter demanding the car manufacturer and Kia “mitigate the defective conditions” allowing its automobiles to be stolen.
“Our vehicles are not defective and comply with all applicable safety regulations,” Ira Gabriel, a spokesperson for Hyundai, wrote in an email to The Center Square. “Notwithstanding this, we have been working cooperatively with the St. Louis Police Department and the police departments in other communities to provide our assistance in responding to these thefts.”
Earlier this week, Dan Isom, Public Safety Director for the City of St. Louis, told reporters City Counselor Sheena Hamilton wrote a letter to the legal officers of Hyundai Motor North America and Kia America, Inc., stating the vehicles were defective due to a lack of engine immobilizers.
Thieves demonstrated in videos posted on social media how to bypass a theft-prevention standard. Hamilton wrote the thefts of the vehicles caused a public safety crisis, as the stolen vehicles were being used in several crimes.
“We have provided the St. Louis Police Department and police departments elsewhere with steering wheel locks so that they can distribute them to our customers affected by these criminal acts,” Gabriel wrote. “We continue looking for meaningful ways to support law enforcement efforts. In addition, an aftermarket security kit that targets the method of entry used by these thieves is scheduled to be available at authorized installers starting on Oct. 1.”
The security kit will apply to 2016 to 2021 Hyundai vehicles without an engine immobilizer.
Hamilton’s letter says Kia and Hyundai “admittedly failed to install engine immobilizers in many of their vehicles, and the respective failures have caused an epidemic of car thefts throughout the nation.” In St. Louis, an average of 21 Kia and Hyundai vehicles were stolen each day in July, and 356 were stolen during the first 13 days of August, according to Hamilton’s letter.
Hamilton gave the automobile companies 30 days to make satisfactory progress to “mitigate the public nuisance you have created,” according to her letter. Hamilton didn’t state specifically what legal avenues she would pursue, but wrote “all legal remedies available to the city, including directing the Affirmative Litigation Unit in the city’s civil law department to file suit.” An email sent to Hamilton’s office seeking additional information on possible legal action wasn’t immediately returned.
