Hyundai and Kia will pay up to $9 million after a coalition of state attorneys general found that as many as 9 million of their vehicles left the factory without engine immobilizers, the anti-theft technology that’s been standard across most of the industry for decades. The multistate settlement, announced by 36 states and the District of Columbia, forces both automakers to install free anti-theft hardware, keep reimbursing theft victims, and put immobilizers in every US model going forward.

An engine immobilizer stops a car from starting unless it reads a chip embedded in the actual key. Hyundai and Kia skipped it on a huge swath of their lineup built between 2011 and 2022, relying instead on a standard metal key you could turn with a screwdriver. According to Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office, only 26% of Hyundai and Kia vehicles carried immobilizers as of 2015, compared with 96% of vehicles from every other automaker combined.

That gap turned into a national crime wave once TikTok caught on. The so-called “Kia Challenge” showed teenagers how to start an ignition-vulnerable Hyundai or Kia with nothing more than a USB cable, and theft numbers exploded. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office reported that thefts of the two brands in New York City jumped from 148 in the first four months of 2022 to 977 over the same span in 2023 — a more than sixfold increase — with Monroe County logging over 1,400 stolen Hyundais and Kias in just the first half of 2023. In Syracuse, more than half of all stolen vehicles that year were one of the two brands.

What the Settlement Requires

• $4.5 million goes toward reimbursing owners for theft damage and repair costs; the other $4.5 million is split as penalties among the participating states.
• Hyundai and Kia must install free zinc-reinforced ignition cylinder protectors at dealerships for owners of affected models.
• Every Hyundai and Kia sold in the US going forward must ship with a standard engine immobilizer.
• The companies must publicize the anti-theft fixes for five years.
• Roughly 173,000 vehicles are covered in Massachusetts alone, out of the millions nationwide named in the settlement.

The hardware fix builds on a free anti-theft software update Hyundai and Kia began rolling out in 2023, which required a police report before a dealer would install it and didn’t stop every theft attempt on its own. This settlement adds a physical ignition cylinder protector to the mix and puts a legal reimbursement structure behind it. Owners whose vehicles already received the software update and who experienced a theft or attempted theft after April 29, 2025, are eligible to file a claim, according to New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s office, one of the other 34 states that joined the action.

“Automakers have a moral and legal obligation to produce cars that at bare minimum meet industry safety standards and are equipped with anti-theft technology to preserve public safety,” Campbell said in her office’s announcement. James put it more bluntly: “No one should have to fear for their lives on the road, and car companies have a responsibility to protect their customers from basic safety flaws.”

What Owners Should Do

• Check whether your Hyundai or Kia is a 2011-2022 model without a factory immobilizer.
• Contact your dealer about scheduling the free ignition cylinder protector installation.
• If you already got the 2023 software patch and were later a theft victim, look into the claims process through your state attorney general’s office.