(WBEN) - Frustration continues to mount as Kia and Hyundai car owners are continuing to get their vehicles stolen locally and nationwide due to failure from the two car manufacturers to install engine immobilizers in a majority of their vehicles sold in the United States since 2011.
Collision shops tell WBEN since the inception of the viral TikTok trend, "The Kia Challenge," they have noticed a large increase in Kias and Hyundais coming into their repair shops and, unfortunately, there is a backlog when it comes to getting the proper repair parts to fix the damages caused by mainly adolescent thieves.
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"Since the TikTok video came out, we've been getting five to seven stolen and recovered [cars] per location, per week and we have three locations," says Jeff Mucciarelli, owner of Gabe's Collision. "It's been going strong and hasn't really let up."
"A lot more vehicles recently in the last two to three weeks," noted Gabor Karpati, a estimator for Gerber Collision. "There's a flux of, more than usual, Hyundai's and Kias coming in, moreso Kias."
Karpati says many Kia and Hyundai parts are on backorder and Mucciarelli adds that it could take months to get the proper parts.
"Certain makes and models of the Kia and Hyundai parts are available and other ones are not. If we can get lucky, we get the parts within a few days, we can have their vehicle back to them six to eight days away. When we get unlucky, and a part is on backorder, which we're seeing more and more of, the car could be there for as long as two to three months," said Mucciarelli.
If the parts take months to come in, this presents the vehicle owner with another problem if they have to rely on a car rental for an extended period of time.
"These consumers, they put these claims through their insurance companies and their policies, they have a rental car that only lasts for 30 days. At the end of the 30 days, either they have to pay for their own rental, or they have to turn it in and be without their car. That's been creating a huge problem."
Mucciarelli highlights what he has been seeing with the stolen cars.
"They break the right rear window, they get into the front seat, they break the steering column, and they remove some of the connections in the steering column and start the car with the screwdriver, and they can do that in about 30 to 45 seconds. The cost to bring that car back to pre loss condition can range anywhere from $4,000 to $6,000 and that's depending on if they didn't damage any other parts of the car while they were riding around in it."
According to Mucciarelli, both car manufacturers are using different vendors to make parts and some of the parts may look different or not fit correctly. Gabe's Collision professionals are even starting to see repeat customers, as their customer's cars are not only stolen once for a joyride, but are stolen twice.
"We sympathize with them. We do everything in our power to track down a part anywhere in the country. We're calling Kia and Hyundai together to try and get them to cover [extend] their rental coverages a while until they get us a part. We've had some luck, but not all the time. I just hope this comes to an end soon."
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