Progressive, State Farm refuse to cover certain Hyundai, Kia models due to theft

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Two of America's largest auto insurers won't write policies in certain cities for some older Hyundai and Kia models.

Progressive and State Farm have stopped offering insurance on vehicles that have been deemed too easy to steal in cities like Denver and St. Louis.

According to the Highway Loss Data Institute, some 2015 through 2019 Hyundai and Kia models are roughly twice as likely to be stolen as other vehicles of similar age because many lack basic auto theft prevention technology. The SUVs and cars don't have electronic immobilizers, which can stop the car from moving if it doesn't have the right key.

While immobilizers were standard equipment on 96% of vehicles sold for the 2015-19 model years, only 26% of Hyundai and Kia models had them at that time.

“State Farm has temporarily stopped writing new business in some states for certain model years and trim levels of Hyundai and Kia vehicles because theft losses for these vehicles have increased dramatically,” the insurer said in a statement provided to CNN. “This is a serious problem impacting our customers and the entire auto insurance industry.”

Progressive is also cutting back on insuring these cars in some markets, spokesman Jeff Sibel said in an emailed statement.

“During the past year we’ve seen theft rates for certain Hyundai and Kia vehicles more than triple and in some markets these vehicles are almost 20 times more likely to be stolen than other vehicles,” he wrote. “Given that we price our policies based on the level of risk they represent, this explosive increase in thefts in many cases makes these vehicles extremely challenging for us to insure. In response, in some geographic areas we have increased our rates and limited our sale of new insurance policies on some of these models.”

Locally, that same trend has been an issue.

According to LMPD data, there were more than 3,200 cars that were reported stolen from January to mid-October of last year. While all major manufacturers were on the list, two stand out to police as being particularly susceptible to theft.

"Since Sept. 1, over 1/3 of the vehicles stolen in Louisville Metro are Kias and Hyundais," said Maj. Shannon Lauder.

In the first half of 2022, fewer than 100 Kias and Hyundais were stolen, but by Oct. 13, Kias saw thefts rise by 57% and Hyundais by 26%.