> Modern transponder key based systems made the original LoJack starting system obsolete
Transponder keys aka immobilizer systems.
All those Kias being stolen in the US are being stolen because the US does not mandate any form of immobilizer, and thus Kia on their cheapest models didn't include one.
Canada mandates immobilizer systems. Guess where the whole "Kia boys" phenomenon isn't a problem?
This is one of many examples of how our "democracy" isn't working. The vast majority of the US populace would agree that an immobilizer system which prevents a car from being started with a screwdriver is a good thing.
Every time it's been proposed in congress, the automotive lobby has told congress how very expensive it would be for them (and by very expensive, we're talking probably less than $100 per car.)
The expense to society (the owner losing their likely sole means of transport to work, health care, social activities and suddenly having a massive expense), police response to do something (er, just collect the report, I guess), the lost productivity, emergency services, and medical costs of people injured (victims or perps) from joyriders...all that goes unmentioned, because nobody's spending money to put someone in front of Tommy Tubletone from chucklesville to tell him that it'll cost everyone less to mandate the things.
Consider that ABS was not mandated in the US until 2012, along with traction control.
Compared to a lot of european "socialist" countries, we have much worse alignment between public opinion and legislation, and it's because of how powerful lobbying and corporate election funding is here, and a pervasive, insidious effort to portray anything other than wild-west free-market attitudes as "communism."