waterchng

I'm sure I've read about it but it hasn't been something I've thought about until my wife mentioned her co-worker had his catalytic converter stolen from his Prius here in WA state recently. Now that we're UX 250h owners, I'm wondering if this is something I should be proactive about addressing. Nothing will stop a determined thief but is the catalytic converter on the UX 250h in an easily accessible location? That is, any chance it's located in a more protected area than previous generation Prius's? If not, I'll spend more time looking into protection devices/locks as a deterrent.

MX73

I have never seen a vehicle that has some sort of guard to prevent theft. Most vehicles have the catalytic converter exposed where anyone can steal them. You can look underneath any car and easily see the converter.

tofuprod

C.C.s are easily accessible on nearly every vehicle - and even if not, a determined thief will still do what they can to get to it.. regardless,

I recommend:

1. Tip-sensor alarm
2. Camera(s) (dash and on property facing vehicle(s)
3. 2A

jooksing82

Had mine stolen a few years ago on the 400h. They and sawed it off and gone under 2 mins. I caught it all on my camera. Cops not interest unless I was able to get their license plate. At 4am its hard to record it and even if I did its mostly stolen plates. I was lucky at the time there was not a shortage and i got a Bosal brand cat for $150 on amazon. And another $100 for the muffler shop to weld it in. I looked high and low but no plate covering available. I liked it was the cleanest look. They seem to have them for Prius and some trucks only. 2A would not matter since I would not be able to get dressed or even aim at that hour. Plus a shootout over a cat is not worth it to me.

ragebomb

Fellow PNW resident here. I also have a Honda Element, a huge target of car thefts over the years due to its ground clearance and valuable OEM cat materials. I bought a cat shield for my Honda many years ago and am glad I did. I was once parked in a parking lot near the Portland airport when 2 cars surrounded my car with the intent to steal my cat. They didn’t see that I was in the car and sped off as soon as I started my engine.

Anecdotally, people are saying that cat theft has decreased due to the efforts made by changes to laws around the purchase of used cats and the arrests of theft rings. Seems to be going in the right direction.

I can’t speak to how physically difficult it is to steal the cat on a UX, but I would say a thief might choose a different car if given the choice. The UX has sound deadening panels on the underside that take time to remove, and I’m guessing they block access to the cat.

personally I would not worry about a cat shield for the UX unless my car were normally parked outside in sketchy parts of town for long stretches of time.