The city of Tonawanda joins the list of cities suing Hyundai and Kia

The City of Tonawanda has been added to the list of local governments that plan to file a lawsuit against Kia and Hyundai over the continued theft of their vehicles.

The City Council voted unanimously to file the lawsuit, saying the vehicles were easy to steal due to the companies’ “departure from industry standards and failure to install engine immobilizers in the majority of their vehicles manufactured for sale in the United States between 2011 and 2021.” ”

“The city has had a tremendous amount of Hyundai and Kia thefts,” City Supervisor Joseph Eminger said. “Most importantly, over Memorial Day weekend, one of our police officers was seriously injured and dragged 30 feet by someone who stole a Kia. He has not yet returned to work. We feel that there is compensation that should be awarded, and we believe that is the case.” “It is in the best interests of the residents and taxpayers of the City of Tonawanda to file this lawsuit.”

According to Eminger, the number of Kia and Hyundai vehicles stolen in the Town of Tonawanda has jumped to an alarming rate. He says that in 2020, four of these vehicles combined were stolen in the town. So far this year, police say the number has jumped to more than 60.

“We started looking for ways to hold them accountable for this work,” Eminger said. “Not only for the loss of his time, but also for the loss of time that our investigators have to spend on these thefts due to the increased activity that has occurred over the past four years.”

The law firm representing the Town of Tonawanda, Keller Rohrback, says talk about the security lapses in these vehicles has spread across social media and “a wave of car thefts has swept across the country, primarily driven by tweens and teens stealing Kia and Hyundai vehicles.”

Buffalo, Rochester and New York City are among the local governments also suing the companies. The cities of Yonkers, Seattle, Cleveland, Cincinnati, San Diego, Milwaukee and Indianapolis also filed a lawsuit after they said they were seeing a crime wave of stolen cars.

The only statement Spectrum News 1 This year I received it from Kia in January, where a spokesperson issued the following: