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Owners of older Priuses in Cambridge hit by swarm of catalytic-converter thefts
By adamg on Tue, 01/19/2021 - 10:57am
Cambridge Police report nine residents who own Priuses made between 2004 and 2009 had their catalytic converters stolen between Saturday night and Sunday morning.
The Gen-2 models, which have also been hit in Jamaica Plain and East Boston, were on either side of River Street, within a few blocks of each other, on Pearl, Hamilton, Brookline, Kinnard, Upton, Franklin and Corporal McTernan streets, and Kelly Road - on which two of the Priuses were hit.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
Total loss?
I think that would pretty much total the car for a Prius of that age.
2004 Prius
They may last a lot longer than you think. I still see Gen-1 Prius' on the road.
I had an '04 Gen-2 Prius from Nov. 2003 until I traded it in for the 2017 Prius Prime at the end of Dec. 2016. I think I had 131K miles on it and it had plenty of life left.
Depending on the cost to replace the catalytic converter, it may well be worth keeping it.
I would still be driving my '07 ...
If somebody hadn't T-boned it in 2017.
$3000 to $5000 to replace
I think that is why it is suggested the car could be totaled.
And you have a car that has a high risk of being disabled because it is a target of catalytic converter theft (see easily removed below). Note there are methods to make theft less likely, but they don't seem to be widely used.
A short explanation as to why they are stolen
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/08/09/prius-owner-s-catalytic-converter...
Depends on the year, mileage,
Depends on the year, mileage, and condition. I’m an appraiser for an insurance company in the area and have had a bunch. Some have totaled, some haven’t, because these cats in particular are big money and only available from Toyota. Whoever is doing it knows what they are doing because they have been unbolting them from the manifold with a clean cut right behind the cat, so I almost think it’s for resale rather than scrap.
Junk yards are the middle man
For metal thieves.
Is the value on the metals
Is the value on the metals high right now in converters or something? Keep hearing more and more of these.
Copper is only $3lb for #1 at the moment.
Yeah, they're expensive.
Catalytic converters are platinum, palladium, and rhodium. Additionally, used Prius converters have a high resale value to keep the older generation cars up and running. Finally, the design of the Prius leads to the devices being easily removed. Add it all up, instant crime buffet.
It's a crime sprius!
It's a crime sprius!
Can confirm one in Somerville
2004 with only 98k. Every side is rusted/dented. Will donate the remains.
The Gen 2 Prius
The Gen 2 Prius had the largest carbon footprint of any passenger vehicle offered in each of its years of initial dealer delivery (i.e. New Car). That was mostly due to the destructiveness of mining the rare earth and other metals which go into the battery construction and the movement of them from mines in China and other parts of central Asia to refineries, and then to the battery production facilities, and eventually into manufacture of the car. Which then had to be shipped to Cambridge. It took a lot of coal and oil to do all of that. Waaaaaay more than an average car could burn.
I guess it's good to see some of these are still on the road. Until today. The longevity helps the carbon footprint issue. Unless they were hardly driven. Which is probably the case since they are still on the road. Yes, those are sentence fragments. Get over it.
The real question is did they steal the Elizabeth Warren sticker off the bumper with the catalytic converter?
Prius? In Cambridge?
Who would have thought there would be a lot of them in Cambridge.