QOTD: Did You Used to Carry One of These Around?

Did you, like myself, once carry a stereo faceplate around because you felt like you had to remove it each time you parked or risk theft?

Read more
Dealer Develops Home-Brew Fix for TikTok-Inspired Hyundai and Kia Thieves

Owners of older Hyundai and Kia models have had a rough go over the last few months. A TikTok video made them the targets of thefts and break-ins after it was discovered that the vehicles didn’t have electronic immobilizers. Some have sued, some are resorting to old-school measures like “The Club,” and others are looking to dealers for help. A dealer service director in St. Louis came up with an answer.

Read more
Thieves Swap 26 Cars From Queens, NY Dealership

Car thieves broke into a car dealership in Queens, New York over the weekend, snatched the keys to 26 vehicles, and took them home.

Read more
Columbus, Ohio City Attorney to Sue Hyundai, Kia Over Thefts

Columbus, Ohio City Attorney Zach Klein said earlier this week that he intends to file a lawsuit against Hyundai and Kia.

Read more
Feds Announce Huge Catalytic Converter Theft Ring Bust

As if living through a pandemic and endless speculation that the United States is sliding away from democracy weren’t bad enough, some people decided that 2020 and 2021 were great times to start stealing catalytic converters at a record pace. The issue has been bad enough to make national news several times, but the Department of Justice just announced a major bust that could at least slow things down for a while.

Read more
Dodge Introduces Three Horsepower Challenger, Charger

Dodge has long been synonymous with high levels of horsepower. Modern-day marketing materials practically scream it into your ear, acknowledging the company’s historic penchant for providing ludicrous amounts of power for hysterically low prices. The reality is a bit more complicated, however. While Mopar brands were indeed offering some of the best bang-for-your-buck muscle cars, back when they were a tad more novel, some of the fastest machines actually came from General Motors and Ford.

Today’s situation is very much the same. When the rest of the industry started downsizing powertrains, Dodge was still trying to squeeze even more juice from its colossal V8 engines — installing them anywhere they might fit. Rivals quickly got wise to its attempt to corner a segment just about everyone else had abandoned, resulting in gems like the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 or Ford Shelby GT500. But with everyone now back on board with the concept of displacement meaning power, Dodge has decided to change tactics.

What if it manufactured the V8 offering the smallest amount of horsepower imaginable?

Read more
Juveniles Cause $800,000 in Damage With Dealership Demo Derby

On January 6th, local law enforcement reported that four kids enjoyed a night of destructive mayhem at a Houston-area CarMax dealership located in the 16100 block of the North Freeway. According to local reports, police were responding to a call where four young males were caught on video surveillance breaking into multiple vehicles. However, things got really interesting after officials learned the cars weren’t being stolen, but rather used to intentionally mangle other vehicles on the lot just for the thrill.

Police claim approximately $800,000 in damages after the group managed to intentionally wreck nearly two dozen automobiles. While none of the suspects’ names have been released, it’s probably safe to assume rowdy teens — mankind’s greatest foe — are to blame.

Read more
Four Arrested in Tesla Theft: Dirty Crooks or the Ultimate EV Fans?

A quartet of suspected baddies were arrested on Friday after being caught with four vehicles believed to be stolen from a Tesla dealership in Salt Lake City. While an automotive theft ring isn’t anything special, the way in which this particular incident unfolded is beyond strange.

According to South Salt Lake police detective Gary Keller, the incident began around 1 a.m. when a Highway Patrol trooper conducting a traffic stop near the dealership noticed a sparkly new Tesla vehicle stop behind his squad car. Smelling something fishy, the patrol trooper assumed the driver wasn’t the owner of the car and called for local backup as he conducted another stop.

Keller said the man had a bag of keys on his person and told police he had come to return the vehicle to the dealership. “I don’t know if he had a guilt complex or whatever, but he claimed his name was Tesla and once [police] started talking to him, he didn’t want to talk to police; he wanted an attorney,” Keller explained.

Read more
City of Detroit Fires Back at Towing Company Accused of Car Thefts

The only people who like towing companies, it seems, are those who make money off them.

A Detroit-area towing company is accused of doing something that will make the rest of us hate towing companies even more, if the allegations are true.

It all started last year, with multiple investigations into Detroit police officers suspected of taking bribes in exchange for giving business to select tow companies.

Nationwide Recovery, the company at the center of this story, sued the city of Detroit in July of this year, claiming that the city pulled its permit illegally. Nationwide claims it had nothing to do with the bribery scheme and so its permit shouldn’t have been revoked. The city of Detroit said that wasn’t true and went to federal court to explain why.

Read more
Thieves Swipe Suburban Working as a Hearse and Dump the Body

There wasn’t anything particularly bizarre happening within the automotive realm last week, so our Freaky Friday posting was absent from its usual rotation. However, while our writing staff was finishing its day, two car thieves threw a Hail Mary of weirdness down the field for a touchdown.

A beige Chevrolet Suburban owned by a contractor working for Daniel & Sons Funeral Home was transporting a corpse when witnesses claim 28-year-old Tanya Albrecht stole it from a convenience store parking lot in Bryan, Texas. The SUV had been left unattended with the keys in the ignition, presumably because the owner assumed nobody would want to steal a car with a dead body in the back.

Read more
'Mystery Device' Unlocks and Starts Over 50 Percent of Tested Vehicles

Over the past two years, we’ve brought you in-depth coverage of a crop of shadowy gadgets designed to give thieves access to parked vehicles.

Like most tools of the trade, the gadgets are very similar, using the same principle to achieve the same result — unlocking a parked vehicle by sending signals to the car’s own keyless-entry system. For vehicles with a push-button ignition, the same gadgets can sometimes start the vehicle, giving that thief an instant lifestyle upgrade.

Now, a “mystery device” purchased by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) has revealed just how vulnerable an average vehicle is to these high-tech slim jims.

Read more
TTAC News Round-Up: Teenage Bandits Steal, and Instantly Wreck, a Pair of Dodge Hellcats

Three Kansas City teenagers took a dream road trip last Friday, only to crash a stolen Dodge Challenger Hellcat and two Charger Hellcat sedans less than a mile down the road.

That, Toyota is finally considering a long-range electric vehicle, Jaguar’s deal with Silverstone goes off-track, and AutoNation is staying put where it is.

Read more
Owners Beware: Halloween Is a Terrifying Time for Cars
As fun as it is to overhype the dangers of Halloween to frighten adults, we all know that poisoned candy and razor blade-filled apples are bunk. The odds of you finding an anthrax-laden piece of taffy are so improbable that they aren’t worth mentioning. You are statistically more likely to harm yourself by drinking a glow stick out of curiosity.That doesn’t mean there aren’t spooky things going on. Plenty of sinister automotive stuff happens on October 31, making Halloween a scary time for cars.
Read more
1990s Hondas Are Still Number One (with Car Thieves)

It’s hard to keep a good car down…or in your driveway.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau released its annual “Hot Wheels” report this week, identifying the most stolen vehicles in the U.S. It seems that thieves just can’t shake their appreciation of Clinton-era Civics and Accords.

Read more
California Car Thieves Still Doing Their Part to Encourage Walking

Where is a parked car not a parked car? The answer is California, where your vehicle will magically transform into an empty spot with a scattering of window glass on the pavement.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) just released its 2015 vehicle theft Hot Spots report, and the Golden State gets top billing, with eight of its cities listed in the top 10.

Read more
  • 3-On-The-Tree I do 80 on I-10 and cars are always passing me pulling away doing well over 100.
  • Fed65767768 So Quebec...the only Canadian province still stuck at 100 km/h. Then again, considering how bad the roads are in this poorly run province, I'm not sure many drivers would be willing to drive much faster.
  • SCE to AUX Seems Canadians don't care about fuel economy, same as in the US.
  • Tassos 'EVERYBODY' DRIVES 20 MILES OVER THE LIMIT"? I only drive 9, (except short burst at much higher speeds to pass) but most others drive SLOWER than I do.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X The joke's on them. Everybody does 120.