Kia Owner Abandons Car At Dealership After Repeated Theft Attempts

Photo: Chris Harris/UCG/Universal Images Group (Getty Images)

Kia and Hyundai cars have been the target of hot new theft trends for years, since bored teens discovered the cars lacked immobilizers and could be started with a USB jammed into the ignition. After a series of unsuccessful fixes, it seems at least one owner is turning to a more extreme measure: Throwing in the towel.

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After a theft, recovery, and act of vandalism all inside of a few days, one Seattle Kia owner simply gave up. Behrouz Alimoradi drove his car back to the dealership where he’d purchased it, parked in the lot, and walked four hours back home. He spoke with Fox 13 Seattle about why:

“I’m tired, you know. I swear I’m tired about this car,” he said.

Alimoradi says in two years, he has dealt with four different incidents involving this car. He says he’s paid thousands of dollars out of his own pocket to get the vehicle repaired, but this most recent incident is the last straw.

“This situation is too much bad. I don’t want it,” he said.

Alimoradi says he was so upset with the situation that he dropped his Kia off at the dealership and walked about four hours back home.

Aside from being a scathing indictment of the Pacific Northwest’s car-dependent infrastructure, Alimoradi’s long walk home shows just how despised his Kia had become in his eyes — four hours of walking, in Seattle, in late November, was better than owning the car for another second.

Without any kind of immobilizer retrofit on the horizon from Kia, it’s tough to see the situation getting much better for owners of affected cars. The promised anti-theft update doesn’t appear to have had the effect owners would hope, and cars are continuing to disappear out from under owners’ noses. Still, abandoning the car likely isn’t the best outcome — if your car is affected, you should still be able to get at least a few bucks for it on trade.