A year ago, I was certain that my next vehicle would be a Kia or Hyundai EV. I have a 2017 Accent and have enjoyed driving it.
Then came the spike in thefts after it became clear they never installed immobilizers in the vehicles. That itself wasn’t enough to make me lose faith in them, but their response (or lack thereof) did. Instead of quickly fixing the issue so that the thefts would rapidly halt, they blamed TikTok and charged owners up to $2K to install window break sensors.
That didn’t work, so they waited a few months and then released a software update for most vehicles (except mine) that supposedly would mitigate the issue by requiring the driver to unlock the doors with the key fob. As drivers quickly discovered, that fix also didn’t work for all vehicles.
I’ve got zero faith in them anymore. They could have come out ahead by pulling a Tylenol - admit the mistake and rapidly recall the vehicles so that immobilizers can be installed. Deflecting never works.
For the record, 96% of all 2014-2021 vehicles not made by Hyundai or Kia came with immobilizers. Every vehicle made by them which had a keyed ignition did not come with one.