Corporate Canada Steps Up!

With the increase in car prices and decrease in the availability of new cars due to COVID-19 came an increase in people fixing their cars instead of buying new ones. Of course, with an influx of cars in repair lots came an increase in break-ins. Hyundai stood up and went above and beyond for an impacted customer. A Hyundai owner in Ontario, Canada left their car to be repaired at a dealership last month only to find that the catalytic converter had been stolen out of the car. In fact, in the US alone catalytic converter theft is up more than 300% from 2019 to 2020. Why the catalytic converter? The resale value, of course. Depending on a variety of elements, catalytic converters can be sold for $50 to $500. What’s in a catalytic converter that makes them worth so much? Platinum, palladium, and rhodium.

There have been reports of multimillion dollar catalytic converter trafficking operations that span multiple states, so this is not quite a "little" issue of the part being stolen and then pawned somewhere. The problem is that insurance doesn't always cover the part replacement and out of pocket you're looking at at least $3000 or more for a replacement if the thief didn't break anything when stealing the catalytic converter.

Can you drive without a catalytic converter? Sort of? The purpose of the catalytic converter is to reduce pollutants, so while it's not exactly vital to the function of your vehicle it will trigger the check engine light. If the thief only took the catalytic converter, then maybe depending on your car. More often than not, that's not the case with the thief ripping out the catalytic converter with the other parts it's attached to. Not only will you be breaking your state's emissions laws, you'll also probably be dragging parts too which will likely mean you'll need to replace those parts too.

Back to the stolen Canadian catalytic converter - apparently, this wasn't the first case of theft on the lot and a few months before the same thing had happened to another vehicle. The dealership refused to replace the stolen part and instead wanted to push back on the customer for complaining. That's when Hyundai the company came in. Of course, with how this particular case was handled by the dealership, it ended up in the news. Globally. Hyundai Canada had the customer's car towed to a different dealership where they had the catalytic converter and exhaust pipe replaced. They also provided a rental car to the car owner for a week and gave the owner a $500 gas card. When the owner took their car home from the second dealership after repairs and it started smoking on the way, Hyundai Canada stepped in again to have the car looked at and repaired once more.

Moral of the story? If you're a dealership owner, try not to be rude. And if you're a car owner, make your broken vehicle a globally reported issue and maybe the dealership will step in.

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