Erik Mclean on Are cars too easy to steal?
Theft on the rise since start of pandemic
After having their Toyota SUV stolen from their driveway, an Ontario resident is wondering if automakers can be sued for car theft. Saying that she believes they’re too easy to steal.
The Canadian Press spoke with Laura Paquette, who said her Toyota was stolen from her home on January 10th. She woke up to the sound of the lock chirp, but the vehicle was gone before she could get to the door.
Police recovered the car, but it required repairs. Paquette told the CP she was out $2,000 in costs for a rental and had to make $700 monthly car payments and $230 monthly insurance payments.
She said that based on how easy it seemed for thieves to take the vehicle, automakers should face “accountability.”
“If I invested money in a security door for my house, and if everybody with a blank key fob could come into my house, I would kind of feel defrauded, right?” she told CP. “That’s how I feel about my vehicle.”
“Why is it on the consumer to protect ourselves?” she said. “Vehicles are big investments, so why are they so easily stolen? Why do I have to go to extremes to prevent that?”
So, she is discussing her legal options.
In the U.S., a class action lawsuit filed against Hyundai and Kia over U.S.-market vehicles that were considered exceptionally easy to steal was recently settled for U.S. $145m. Those cars did not contain an anti-theft immobilizer, a feature that was not mandatory in the U.S. but has been in Canada since 2007.
Car theft has seen a massive increase, especially in Ontario and Quebec, since the start of the pandemic. A low supply of vehicles, especially luxury models, means higher prices in countries that care less about a vehicle’s history before it got there.
Insurance group Équité Association says that car theft was up 48.2 percent in Ontario and 58 percent in Quebec from 2021-2023. The group said that since a national summit on auto theft, which occurred in February, ” there has been some real momentum in the fight against auto theft” as the result of collaboration between the insurance industry, law enforcement, and border services.
