Skip to main content

Add new comment

Chief Mechanic (not verified)    November 21, 2012 - 8:13PM

The best thing about Toyota hybrids like the Prius, Camry Hybrid, etc. is that you can't hotwire the engine to get it started like you would a regular car-- the hybrid starts up by booting up the hybrid electrical system, without turning on the gasoline engine.

The trim levels equipped with Toyota's SKS are darn near impossible to steal without the key fob, unless the car thief has a flatbed truck to haul the Prius away.

There are actually plenty of valuable things In a Prius that a car thief can make money off of. The wheels are compatible with other Toyota cars like Corollas or Yaris. The 1NZ-FXE engine has plenty of identical parts as the 1NZ-FE engine in other Toyota cars like older Corollas, Yarises and Echos. Then there is the rare-earth-element-rich items like the neodymium magnets in the motors and lanthanum in the HV batteries that can fetch quite a sum for scrap dealers.

I'd say the difficulty in stealing the Toyota Hybrids is probably the chief reason why they don't get stolen much.

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <ul> <ol'> <code> <li> <i>
  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.