Are Prius harder to steal then, say, a Civic?

Question

my civic was stolen from my neighborhood a month ago, so I'm a little hesitant about getting another car. A friend suggested that a Prius might be harder to hotwire and steal. Would that be the case? Would there be any different between a 2002 Prius and one of the current models, as far as ease of theft?

(keep in mind that I know that any car can be stolen if a thief is determined enough. This just made me curious.)

Answer 1

Not sure, but according to NRMA (one of Australia's leading motoring and motor insurance companies), a Honda Civic rates 63/120 whilst a Toyota Prius rates 72.5/120.

So it's better, but not much better.

Answer 2

A NHW11 2001-2003 model year Prius (sedan) has a traditional key to start the car.  The NHW20 2004-current model year Prius (hatchback) uses a keyfob inserted into the dash with push-button start.

Both models have a rolling-ID engine immobilizer as standard.  (so, be sure to check that your insurance company has given you the anti-theft discount for it, as they sometimes forget!)  This means that the key (NHW11) or keyfob (NHW20) has a chip in it that the car must be programmed to accept before it'll allow the car to start.  (The programming process for a new key requires an existing accepted chipped key to start the process.)  So, you cannot just "hotwire" the car to get it started, nor is it easy to just cut a new key.  (When you turn the key (NHW11) or press the button (NHW20) to start the Prius, all it does is provide 12v power to the computers.  The computers recognize the accepted engine immobilizer key, and then connect up the hybrid battery which actually starts the gasoline engine through one of the electric motors.)  You'll see a little red flashing LED next to the radio on the NHW11 to show that the engine immobilizer/alarm is armed, while on the NHW20 it'll be a flashing red car icon on the dash.

The NHW11 Prius came standard with an alarm system (horn beeps/lights blink if a door/trunk is opened while alarm system is armed), but on the NHW20 Prius it was an added option/accessory.  On both models, the Glass Breakage Sensor (GBS), an added microphone connected to the alarm system which has the horn beep/lights blink if the sound of broken glass is picked up inside the car, is an additional added accessory (not standard).

So, the only way to steal a Prius (since it cannot be hotwired) is either to steal the key and drive the Prius away, or to tow the Prius away on a towtruck.

On the large Prius owner's groups I belong to, I have only heard of 3 Prius being stolen.  One was just a newspaper story, so unknown cause of theft.  The other two were reported by their owners that they had their keys stolen.  (One was parked at an event, where they had to leave the keys in a bowl by the door in case the cars needed to be moved...  The other was someone whose house was burglarized, and among other stolen items the thief stole the key in the house and took the Prius that had been parked outside.)

On a NHW20 Prius, there is an optional feature called Smart Entry and Smart Start (SE&SS) or Smart Key System (SKS), where you do not need to actually touch the keyfob to unlock the doors or to start the car.  The Smart keyfob has an RFID chip inside, and a set of 4 localized antennas in the Prius (driver's door, passenger's door, rear hatch, front passenger compartment) to know if the keyfob is present by one of these areas, and will allow you to unlock/open a door or start the car if the keyfob is present in that location.  There has been a university proof-of-concept study that has shown that it is technically possible to capture the RFID transmissions and calculate the next RFID number and access a vehicle (I think they used a BMW for testing) and use this generated code to steal it without access to the physical key, but I have not heard of this complicated technical method being used in the real world on any vehicle yet.

The theft/vandalism problems that are reported by Prius owners more frequently than complete vehicle theft:

*theft of the HID headlamps on equipped NHW20 Prius (and resulting damage to the bodywork from HID headlamp extraction)

*broken window(s) for theft of contents inside car (CDs, change for tolls, purse, etc.)

*keyed paint

Answer 3

i know a guy who has a prius, and yes, it would be hard to steal one, because first of all, it doesn't turn on like regular cars, u have to turn it on with the push of a button, many ppl don't know this. and second, the key can only be a certain distance away from the car for the car to start, so if the thief doesn't have the keys, he pretty much can't take your car. idk what year his prius is, so i wouldn't be able to tell you if it's any different from a 2002 prius.  

Answer 4

No it is no harder to steal than a Civic.

Anyone can back a tow truck up to it and hook it up and tow it away

Answer 5

The Prius is indeed very difficult to hotwire.

That's because it does not have an ignition system like a normal car--  When you power up the car, you are powering up the hybrid system electronics, not cranking the gasoline engine.

And with the ones equipped with the SmartKey, the hybrid system will not let you move the car if it can't detect the key.  The only way to get around that would be to get into the computer that controls the hybrid drive and hack the software.

That's why the Prius has one of the lowest theft rates in the U.S.--  Those that are stolen are usually because the owner left the key in the car, or if the car thief used a flatbed to truck it away.

If there are other cars nearby with normal ignitions, crooks will preferentially hit those rather than the Prius.