It’s normal to be nervous when taking your car in for a recall. You might be worried about the dealer techs scuffing your upholstery or bungling the repairs. You probably don’t expect your car to end up on the news after it was wrecked in a high speed chase. For one Hyundai owner, though, that’s precisely what just happened.
Meet Ethan Blout. The proud owner of a Hyundai Ioniq 5, he came into trouble when the vehicle started behaving strangely and threw a warning code in March. Suspecting a common failure in the Integrated Charging Control Unit, he had the vehicle towed to the dealership for repairs.
Sadly, the poor Ioniq 5 ended up stranded for months while the dealership waited for parts. Then, just as Ethan was getting hopeful about picking up the car, someone else drove away with it instead. Chaos ensued. I spoke to Ethan this week to get the full story.
Hurry Up And Wait
For Ethan, trouble first struck on March 16. “I drove my 2023 Ioniq 5 to the donut shop to buy a treat for my family,” he says. “Leaving the parking lot i heard a loud pop from the back of the car and the battery warning illuminated immediately.” Thanks to his knowledge of the model, he was confident the issue lay with the Integrated Charging Control Unit, which manages charging the battery and vehicle-to-load power, among other things. [Ed Note: We’ve written about Ioniq 5 ICCU issues; they are unfortunately relatively common. -DT]
“I knew right away that my ICCU had blown since I’ve read enough stories from other owners having this problem, but I thought if I shut off all accessories I might limp the car home,” Ethan explains. “I got only a mile or so before power started dropping precipitously, and pulled off the main road just in time.” With the car dead in the water, there was nothing left to do. “I contacted Hyundai and they dispatched a tow truck, taking my car to the nearest dealer,” says Ethan.
News from the dealer was swift—the problem was indeed with the ICCU. However, there was a problem, with the dealer informing Ethan that the part was on national backorder. “Tentative date to receive one was the beginning of April,” says Ethan. He was lucky enough to receive a loaner car in the meantime while the Ioniq 5 languished. “Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months,” he laments.
The turn of May 1 brought a ray of hope. “My Hyundai app suddenly sent me notifications that my car was left on and idle,” Ethan explains. ” I used the tracking function and could see it was at the dealership in the area of the shop, so I took this as a good sign that they must have received the part.” It seemed the repair was finally progressing.
Sadly, a day later, those hopes were dashed. “I got a call at 1:53 pm from my service advisor that there was good news and bad news,” says Ethan. Unfortunately, the former was spoiled by the latter. “The good news was the part arrived and the car was repaired the previous day,” he says. “The bad news was that they could not find my car, it had been left inside in a repair bay, and they realized it was gone.”
Ethan’s car was no longer on the dealer lot; it was unclear how thieves were able to enter and start the vehicle. “I was asked to track it, and I informed them of it being in Boston and being driven,” he says. “They said it’s definitely stolen then, and that they will contact the police.” Upon providing location information to the dealer, however, they advised him to contact the police himself instead. “I wasn’t clear on why they wouldn’t report it, but I did what they asked,” Ethan says, noting he left work to file a report in person. “I told the police officer that I could see the car was parked in Boston, and that the doors had been locked but were now open, [and] they called the Boston Police,” he says.
“I then continued to track the car as I drove home, watching it start moving again,” Ethan told me. “Little did I know that I was watching the police chase!” Those who had taken Ethan’s car were on the run, but they weren’t going to make it very far. “From what I can see on the police report, the police tried to block the car in but the thieves sped off,” he says. “They then lost control, hit a fire hydrant, and crashed into a church.” Those in the car attempted to flee on foot, but all were arrested in short order.
The news report on Ethan’s stolen vehicle. Three individuals were arrested after the vehicle hit the Morning Star Baptist Church in Mattapan, Massachusetts.
Ethan’s car had been snatched from what should have been a safe location and became a local news story in the process. The incident was covered by 7 News Boston, Boston 25 News, and WCVB Channel 5, just to name a few.
It might have been a good result for justice, but sadly not for Ethan’s Ioniq 5. “I got a call from the police letting me know the car was totaled, and where it was being towed,” he says. “I then contacted my insurance… I got two very brief text messages from the GM of the dealership that basically just acknowledged the car was stolen but nothing else.”
Despite the car’s newfound infamy, Ethan has been left in the lurch. He has neither a vehicle nor any sort of restitution at this point. ” I contacted Hyundai USA and opened a case, letting them know what had happened, and asking that they help to mediate and participate in some sort of outcome that is fair,” he says. As of the time of writing, though, no response has been forthcoming. “I still have not heard back from anyone at Hyundai or the dealership,” he told me on Tuesday night.
Common sense might say that the dealership has a certain duty of care when it comes to customer automobiles. When we drop our cars off for repairs, we expect to get them back again, particularly when it’s the manufacturer’s fault we had to go there in the first place. At the same time, you can head over to Reddit to read mechanics discussing this unfortunately common occurrence. They’ll tell you it’s quite common for dealerships to put legalese on their forms stating they refuse liability for things like theft and acts of God. Such situations often turn into a mess of wrangling between multiple parties, none of which want to pay up for what happened.
[Ed Note: In case you’re wondering why we haven’t named the dealer, Ethan writes on his Reddit thread about this incident: “I’m thinking I want to give them a chance to step up and do the right thing with me before I name and shame them. Then I can post a feel-good story about Hyundai and the dealership helping out a loyal owner. I could even do a news story follow-up interview about it.” Hopefully they make everything right. -DT]
We understand the frustration and inconvenience caused by some cases of extended delays with the ICCU repairs on the IONIQ 5. The delay is due to ongoing supply chain disruptions that continue to impact the availability of certain parts. We are working closely with supply partners to secure the necessary parts quickly and complete the repairs as quickly as possible. We recommend that customers reach out to their local dealer for the most up-to-date information on the arrival of their parts.
I was involved with a similar issue in my former life as a bicycle mechanic in the early 1990s.
I got a call one afternoon from a customer wanting to pick up his bike that was in for its first free tuneup. I told him it was ready, and let him know that the service department closed an hour before the sales department, but that I’d be working late and to knock if he came after I closed. He said his brother was coming to pick it up, since he was out of town.
About 20 minutes after I locked the door, a guy knocked on the door and said he was the customer’s brother. Since there was no charge for the service, I handed the bike over to him and sent him on his way.
The next day the store manager got a call from the customer’s girlfriend. She said that her boyfriend was going to come in to pick up his bike, and claim that his brother doesn’t live in the area, so it couldn’t have been his brother who picked it up. Sure enough, later that day the customer showed up to pick up his bike.
He wanted us to call the police to report the theft. Management did call the police, but was informed that, since the bike belonged to the customer, the customer had to report the theft. We could only report the attempted theft of the replacement bike (they deemed it to be an attempted theft, due to the circumstances).
I ended up having to go through a polygraph examination, which I passed, as did the customer. His results were “inconclusive.” To my knowledge, he did not get a replacement bike from us.
All of that to say that, as I understand it, the customer would have to report the theft of his vehicle, not the dealership.
I find articles like this annoying and fascinating at the same time. The typical angle is to present a story of woe how the owner of the damaged/totalled car was screwed over by dealer/person/crack in road/kid that was on the road for no reason/etc.
FASCINATING:
I find it super fascinating how little people understand about insurance and how it actually works. The moment I see someone say “get a lawyer” I roll my eyes as this seems to be the knee jerk reaction. This claim does not involve any bodily injuries so doing that seems like a big waste of time.
You need to know a single word here: SUBROGATION.
You don’t need to sue the dealer. Just make a claim with your insurance company and get paid back. I can guarantee that the car insurance company will then file a claim with the car dealers insurance company to pay some portion of the payout. That is subrogation. One insurance company files a claim on another party to recoup some or all of their payout. The great thing is you don’t need to do any of this crap – it gets settled in the background. Why waste your own money/time/stress with this crap?
ANNOYING:
I find it super annoying how little people understand their car insurance. It is YOUR responsibility to understand what is being covered and what is not. You definitely should ask what happens if the car it totaled to understand what you are getting coverage for. With my new car, I know that for the first two years, a totaled car means I get to just go the dealer and buy the same make/model/trim for the current model year (not the model year of the car) and they will cover it. After two years, my payout if based on used car value.
If I am financing the car, it is my responsibility to understand that the insurance will only cover the value of the car and not the amount that is owing on the loan. There are addons (gap insurance) you can add to your insurance if you want the loan amount to to be covered instead. Finding out after the fact your are underwater in a claim with your loan is your fault. It is not the responsibility of party that caused the accident. After all, it was your choice to not insure appropriately.
The part that really annoys me with this type of article, is they seem to gloss over that the insurance company is paying out to buy a replacement Ioniq of the same year. (Assuming they had collision coverage and just not liability.)
If the amount offered is below what that market value for your car is there are mechanisms to deal with this as well. But the formulas they use to determine the value are pretty clear. (After all, they determine how much your insurance costs based on the value of your car.)
In my one car accident where the insurance wrote the car off, I was disappointed with the value given the car. I talked with them to understand the value and ask about things like my winter tire/rims (no value, so I sold them myself), new clutch (no value, just maintenance). They did say if I found a same year car of the same trim and bought it, they would cover the cost 100%.
If I were the person in this article, I would go to the dealer and ask them to do a nationwide search for the same year/trim Ioniq 5 and give me the all-in cost. I would then send that quote to my insurance company and ask them to cover that car. A reputable insurance company will accept that.
I think they need a good lawyer.
I could see a car being stolen from the lot of the dealer, but not from inside an actual service bay. This screams “inside job!” or other negligence. The fact that the dealer didn’t notify the owner and didn’t call the police shows they don’t give a rat’s ass about the customer.
The “supply chain issue” excuse is getting super tired.
Hold that thought, because it’s about to drink a double shot of espresso.
Friend of mine has a car that was stolen right out of a dealer’s lot. And a rather special one at that – a Saab 9-3 TurboX wagon with a stick! So much for car thieves not driving sticks. The thieves walked in, grabbed the keys off the key rack, and just drove off. Dealership had their faces on camera, and they did get caught eventually, but not until after the insurance paid out to the owner. He bought it at auction after the theft recovery. Zero damage to the car, thankfully. He knows the whole story because it was his local Saab dealership it was stolen from in MA.
Which begs the question of why is this guy not just making an insurance claim and calling it a day? The insurance company will go after the dealership if there is a claim to be made there (and there is very likely little chance of that). Read the paperwork when you turn your car in for service – there really is not much they are liable for, in theory. If you have very deep pockets you can sue them, but that will certainly cost more than this car is worth. In an ideal world they would “make it right” as a goodwill gesture – but good luck with that too.
To be blunt, waiting for the dealer to do the right thing is rather naïve.
Agreed. I think it’s worth making some noise about it, but I wouldn’t hold my breath or spend much money on legal fees over this. Claim it on insurance and get on with your life. Bad things happen to nice people.
Maybe buy a car that won’t be stuck at a dealership for *months* waiting for warranty repairs next time.
Either he is naiive and thinks that his car is somehow worth five figures more because it was stolen from a Hyundai dealer, or he’s setting the stage for a gofundme.
I’m not sure what leverage he thinks he has on the dealership or Hyundai. Their liability is for the value of the damaged property – the same amount he’d get from his insurance company.
Unless the dealership was actively involved in a plan to steal used hyundais from their own service department, and even then I don’t know if that changes their civil liability.
I specialize in bird law, so this is not my area of expertise.
My law degree is rustier than the Titanic, but I have to think that the dealership likely has some pretty iron-clad liability disclaimers in their service paperwork. Won’t protect them from true negligence, but we don’t have enough details to assume that. A car being stolen off the lot is a different thing than one of their employees taking it for a joyride certainly.
Ethan needs to contact the law firm of Moose, Rocco, Smith & Wesson. The dealership and the thief will settle real fast.
And how much are they paying you?
I assumed it was employees who stole it or enable the theft
My completely uninformed guess would be a recently fired employee and security codes that hadn’t been updated.
I almost pulled the plug on a lease deal for my Ioniq5 XRT due to the ICCU issues and reading countless Reddit threads. Ultimately, i felt like with a lease it’s Hyundai’s problem and not mine if the ICCU bricks the car and it is marooned at a dealer. I could lemon law it and walk away.
I think the canned BS response from Hyundai is stupid – they keep making cars with the faulty ICCUs and then blame supply chain issues on the delays for repairing them. If they redesign the part, they won’t have to fix it all the time. I don’t know if the 2025s are any better – I’m hoping they are because that’s what I have – but I have done some digging and throttled my charging amperage back on my 240 V home charger.
As for this guy’s situation, the dealer should basically give him a new Ioniq5 for whatever his insurance pays out to him, because it’s their fault that the car was stolen under their watch. He could easily go to any local TV station and slam these guys, and he’s not – I’m honestly shocked the guy has been so patient.
Happened where I worked one day. Sort of. We had a criminal jump the fence when fleeing from the police. He jumped into a station wagon that had keys in the ignition and took off. And found out that the wagon had a really high idle when starting and absolutely no brakes. It was a impressively short chase.
This is the content I am here for. Thank you for sharing.
FYI the Reddit link is broken, it just goes to notifications. Check your clipboards before plugging in links, and check them afterwards, folks.
This is going to be an unfortunate battle between Ethan,the dealership,Ethan’s insurance , dealership’s insurance and lawyers,with Ethan stuck in the middle of it all. Either way if I was Ethan, I’d get a good lawyer.
The law firm of Moose, Rocco, Smith & Wesson is ready to go!
Seems like an awfully bot-like response…
Either that or Dewey,Cheatam & Howe will be more than happy to take the case. Pro bono!lol
Either that or someones getting paid.
Lemme try something…
For years I’ve listened to Car Talk repeats and have only today gotten the joke in that name.
I spent a year thinking it was a reference to Duck Tales and then eventually realized
It’s a favorite amongst truck drivers,particularly referencing drivers who are getting hosed doing lease/purchase agreements with trucking companies that pay 1099.
Who buys a new EV and doesn’t buy gap insurance? That’s a suckers bet.
I genuinely feel bad for this guy, and not having gap insurance doesn’t make it his fault, but c’mon man.
Some insurers offer it as well, usually for much cheaper than in the “Gas Station in the Middle of Nowhere” finance office.
If this was a rare occurrence the dealership could afford to commit a lot of money to make things right. If it hardly ever happens the cost would be inconsequential. If they refuse to commit money to make things right maybe this is a common occurrence.
‘Make things right’ is available. The guy files an insurance claim, his insurance company pays him and the dealer’s insurance pays the guy’s insurance company.
The guy gets paid the value of his car, which makes him whole for the financial loss he suffered.
Except it sounds like he wasn’t carrying enough insurance to actually make himself whole, no gap coverage, which is pretty dumb for a financed EV
Agreed
The value of the car stays the same regardless of financing.
The process he needs to follow is still going to be the same. If he wants Hyundai to cover the shortfall, he needs to know the shortfall. File an insurance claim, find the difference and then see what you can work out.
Step one isn’t “Hey, Hyundai, I want a brand new car.”
Obviously, that’s the whole problem
But people keep saying EVs are going to be so reliable they put mechanics out of business?
As for it getting wrecked – to me, that’s a best-case scenario. The last thing I would want is an abused stolen car back.
“but people keep saying the horseless carriage is going to put farriers out of business?”
lol, it is still relatively new tech that is being ironed out separately by different companies, there are going to be some unfortunate issues.
No, they are still *cars*. *Cars* are ALWAYS going to have issues. Thinking that changing the motivation is going to change that is completely and utterly idiotic. They are simply going to have new, different, and exciting issues, as well as all the issues they will share with every other car ever made.
I wasn’t trying to imply that they wouldn’t need repairs, I completely agree that there will always need to be people fixing cars.
I read your reply as disparaging EVs as a whole, and I can tell now that obviously wasn’t your actual intention.
Just disparaging the myriad idiots who think they are going to be somehow so wildly more reliable that they will put mechanics out of business.
I think if an EV fits your use case, or you are willing to re-arrange your life to fit, then GREAT. They aren’t for me at this point for various reasons, but I don’t really have anything against them as a concept. I don’t care for the current execution much, but that goes for current ICE cars pretty universally too.
There’s fixing broken cars, which I agree probably won’t change much with EVs, but there’s also ongoing maintenance, and I think EVs can be a bit cheaper in this regard.
Theoretically at least, I’m sure if I owned one it would still find a way to leak oil.
Modern cars need VERY little maintenance to start with, to ripe old ages. Comparing my ’11 BMW to the ’83 BMW that my parents bought new is hilarious.
Electric cars have been around for over 100 years.
The adorable hand-drawn pikachu sticker breaks my heart for the family. It’s clear they really loved this car.
It’s a tale as old as time…
Hyundai and their dealers are sketchy… and why is every car/SUV I see in traffic with a brake light out (or multiple brake lights out) a Hyundai?!
IDK,I’ve seen more Nissan Altimas with that flaw(and then some) than anything else.
Altima owners take the bulbs out themselves to use as meth pipes.
That’s IF the bulbs weren’t destroyed in a collision with someone or something else!
It’s probably because I’m a cheap bastard at heart and a decent wrench, but every time I hear stories like this I’m convinced a new car just isn’t for me. Sure, the engine in my 10 year old car could blow up and it would be highly inconvenient, but at least I wouldn’t be paying out the nose for the privilege and so financially exposed that I have to see it through.
Worst case I go find another car and maybe am out a couple thousand, but at least I’m not stuck in dealership limbo for a month or more waiting on warranty work for a car that’s costing me $500-1000 a month.
Bingo, I am nearing 400k on my 03 TDI and cant see myself wanting anything non diesel.
My family’s newest car is from 2006, and it still runs great! Granted its a Toyota. All my family has is Toyotas and a Honda.