Car theft is a profitable business that is growing even better, especially since the end of the Covid-19 epidemic, a pandemic that has somewhat slowed down this “market”!

Indeed, as we showed you in our study published in Auto Plus magazine, around 134,000 cars were stolen in France in 2022. This is equivalent to 367 car thefts per day, or one every four minutes.

There are many flight technicians today, and they are still multiplying as technology advances. Nowadays, it is very common to steal a car without any signs of a break-in.

Why do thieves focus on a specific item?

But even apart from car theft, thieves no longer try to steal the car itself, as certain parts are enough to make them happy. And in this little game, there’s a car that’s particularly affected because of just one part of it: the Toyota Prius.

The hybrid model of the Japanese brand especially attracts thieves with an important part: its catalytic converter. In all vehicles, the catalyst, which performs the function of transforming exhaust gases to make them less toxic, contains precious metals such as platinum, palladium and rhodium.

The Toyota Prius contains much more than average, thanks to the very high temperature of the exhaust gases. Thieves understood this well and aimed precisely at these catalytic converters, sometimes resold on the black market for over €1,000 !

Too simple

And to further annoy thieves, the Prius’s catalytic converter was too exposed. With only a jack and a meat grinder, thieves could cut a pan in just a few minutes. What is the point of stealing a car in this case?

Faced with a sharp rise in this phenomenon, the manufacturer responded by offering its customers to protect them by adding a metal plate available as an option to make it more difficult for thieves. This solution, priced around €130 excluding installation costs, is now also offered on other Toyota and Lexus models.

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