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Comment by danw1979 | Hacker News Reader

danw1979

Toyota should be recalling every Prius to have a CatLoc or similar fitted.

As an owner of two Prii that have both had their cats stolen I find it astonishing that they are admitting there is such a fundamental design flaw with their vehicles but only making the fix optional.

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There is no design flaw. The catalytic converter is mounted in the same place as on most cars. It's larger than on most cars and tends to get less corroded, both consequences of the hybrid design, but that was not a problem when the cars were new. These thefts mostly affect the second-generation Prius, which was discontinued in 2009.

The "design flaw" is that, in the few years leading up to 2021, the price of platinum nearly doubled, the price of palladium nearly quadrupled, and the price of rhodium increased more than tenfold.

I claim no expertise. These facts aren't hard to find.

> There is no design flaw.

I love my promaster... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK4FlN2qYjM

But they’re making the fix to their _current vehicles_ optional ! How can you interpret this as anything other than a design flaw ?

They’re still selling vehicles that are vulnerable to having very valuable components removed with ease in minutes without any particular skill required, and they are admitting this is a problem by selling an optional fix for it.

I wouldn't call "having a catalytic converter" installed in an industry standard manner a "fundamental design flaw."

The design flaw is industry wide. Unskilled theives are able to remove thousands of pounds worth of components from cars in minutes with simple tools. This is something the car industry needs to fix.

Similarly to Kia and Hyundai, and their incredibly-hot-wireable cars.

If we only had a government agency that could hold these companies to account for anti-consumer design.

Perhaps we could form a similar agency that could find and prosecute those stealing the catalytic converters.

Isn't that local law enforcement? Or have they decided that's not their job anymore?

They will not respond to car thefts, break-ins, or hit and runs. They will not even respond if you have a GPS tracker, video of the people stealing your car with clear faces, and the coordinates lead to an obvious chop shop in someone's back yard.

So what happens if someone figures out a simple way to bypass immobilizers?

You can always look back at something and say that it's dumb or that the fix was obvious, but back when those cars were made, they were cheap, and theft wasn't as big of a problem. Did you notice that they weren't getting stolen until the flaw ended up being broadcast all over?

Just about every Honda from the 70s through the 2000s can be easily stolen. All you need is a key from any other Honda. I've unlocked my Hondas and my friend's with my other Honda's keys tons of times. We even moved my friend's Nissan pickup across our high school campus with my other friend's Sentra key. Should we go back in time and go after them too? There are tons of easy tricks to steal just about any car, this is just the one that got publicity.

I mean, if they should have designed them like this, why did insurance companies choose to insure them in the first place? They are the first people who should be aware of the anti-theft measures in a car, and charge accordingly. Instead, they look back and go "woops, we didn't know this would be a problem, so now we're dropping Kias and Hyundais" It's literally their job to assess risk, and even they didn't think that the missing immobilizer was a problem.

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