Lots of strange things took place during the pandemic, and one of the stranger occurrences was the fact that car thefts really spiked during that timeframe, especially thefts of super-valuable cars and...wait for it...cars that were really easy to steal.

Two particular car manufacturers found their cars to be dead-center in the bullseye for car thieves: Hyundai and Kia. Specifically, Kias and Hyundais that were built between 2015 and 2019.

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This Problem Came To National Attention In Milwaukee In 2021, When Nearly 6,000 Hyundais And Kias Were Stolen Over The Course Of That Year

Once more people learned that certain models were far, far easier to swipe than some others, it was open season on these two brands, according to the New York Post:

Videos shared on social media demonstrated how the ignition systems in mainly 2011-2021 Kias and 2015-2021 Hyundais with physical keys could be easily hacked using a screwdriver, pliers or the end of a USB cable, because the vehicles are not equipped with immobilizers that require the presence of a key fob with a transponder to work.

With no immobilizer in the vehicle, thefts skyrocketed, but when the immobilizers were retroactively added to some Kia and Hyundai cars, the theft rates began to head back to "normal" levels.

Car Thief tries to start the car
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Two Of America's Largest Auto Insurers, State Farm And Progressive, Now Say That They Are Refusing To Issue Car Insurance Policies (In Some Cities) For Older Hyundai And Kia Models Because They Are Too Easy To Steal

I can see their point, given that CNN reports that thefts of certain Kias and Hyundais in various cities have gone up over 300% in the last couple of years.

Without going into much detail, both insurance companies did confirm that they're taking action on the heightened theft numbers of these two brands...by not writing new policies.

State Farm's statement in response to the news:

State Farm has temporarily stopped writing new business in some states for certain model years and trim levels of Hyundai and Kia vehicles because theft losses for these vehicles have increased dramatically. This is a serious problem impacting our customers and the entire auto insurance industry.

And, Progressive's statement:

Given that we price our policies based on the level of risk they represent, this explosive increase in thefts in many cases makes these vehicles extremely challenging for us to insure. In response, in some geographic areas we have increased our rates and limited our sale of new insurance policies on some of these models.

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LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

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