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Official Press Releases & News You Can Use

Component Theft: More than 75,000 air bags are stolen every year, according to estimates by the Insurance Information Institute. NICB says that air bag theft costs insurers and vehicle owners more than $50 million a year. New air bags cost about $1,000 from a car dealer; on the black market the cost is between $50 and $200. To thwart thieves, steering wheel covers used with a steel bar steering wheel lock are available. New York combats air bag theft by requiring accident reports to note air bag deployment, and specifies procedures for auto repair shops to follow when replacing stolen or deployed air bags. Xenon headlights are another component now popular with thieves. Global positioning systems may be the next component targeted, industry observers say.

New Technology: The increase in auto thefts in the last three years after about a decade of decreases points out the importance of keeping ahead of increasingly savvy professional auto thieves. Marking vehicles’ major parts is mandated by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A new technology has been introduced that involves spraying microdots, which are impossible to remove, onto auto parts. About ten thousand tiny dots, containing a unique identification code, are sprayed on each part. Nissan Motors of North America — hard hit by thefts of xenon headlights on its Maximas —is the first U.S. maker to use the system. License plate reading technology has been used at U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico to track vehicles entering and leaving the country. The Canadian manufacturer of the devices has introduced a mobile version. Its system can read about 1,000 license plates an hour and can be placed in police vehicles. A pilot program, using readers donated by a nonprofit group, will begin in five major cities in 2004.

Consumers spend hundreds of millions of dollars on vehicle security devices. Electronic tracking devices, such as LoJack, use a hidden transmitter to allow police to track the vehicle. (LoJack, which operates in 22 states and the District of Columbia claims a better-than 90 percent recovery rate.) These tracking devices not only help police find individual stolen vehicles, but lead them to chop shops, thwart the export of stolen motor vehicles and lead to the recovery of expensive construction vehicles as well as passenger cars. Some insurers offer their policyholders a LoJack tracking system at a discounted price along with premium discounts.

Insurer Discounts: According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, in nine states (Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island) regulations require insurers to provide car owners with discounts on the base rates for comprehensive insurance for antitheft devices. In four other states insurers may offer these discounts or are encouraged to offer them. The amount of the discount varies but is typically 15 to 20 percent for passive devices, which are automatically activated when the vehicle is locked. Massachusetts residents are eligible for a minimum 25 percent discount if they have both an antitheft device and an auto recovery system (see New Technology above), and some combinations of devices can result in a 36 percent discount. Insurance companies in states that do not mandate discounts, such as Georgia, New Jersey, New York and Washington, encourage car owners to install antitheft devices by voluntarily providing discounts.

Nissan Vehicle Thefts: Head Light Theft Complaints