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In Oakland, where I live, thieves have been targeting old generation 2 Priuses most often. I finally got my 2005 updated for the modern world with a CarPlay stereo and backup camera, and now I have to worry about it getting hacked apart by one of these scumbags in the middle of the night, as happened to my neighbor. They just saw the cat off with a sawzall. The cost of fixing the car afterwards is maybe 10 times the amount of cash the thieves get for the metal, and often more than the car is worth. It’s killing safe low pollution cars that still have years of life in them. Before this all we had to worry about was the hybrid battery failing every 100,000 miles or so.
Go to a local mechanic, and have a protective plate bolted on. The thieves carry just enough tools to cut a catalyst off a typical car. If yours isn't typical, they won't bother with it.
Just turn your head when you back out lol
> The cost of fixing the car afterwards is maybe 10 times the amount of cash the thieves get for the metal, and often more than the car is worth.

Why should the thieves care about that?

> It’s killing safe low pollution cars

They are not much better than any other cars. All cars are polluters and killers.

It's pretty disingenuous to talk about prius as if they are equally bad to all other vehicles.
Whatever device you typed that on is just as much of a polluter as some cars.
Indeed. Someone I know has had theirs stolen twice.. last month. I've just had a catloc (anti-theft) fitted last week, let's see what good it'll do.

Glad we're moving to EVs and away from this nightmare.

i have a lifted truck but i'm cheap so i just wrapped a length of chain around the cat, secured with shitty padlocks i had laying around. doesn't actually have to be secure, just look like enough of a PITA to remove that the thief moves on.
I cut mine out of my trucks and put a straight pipe in. Sold them myself. Only able to do that in a state that doesn't regulate citizens to poverty.
> Only able to do that in a state that doesn't regulate citizens to poverty.

Which state is that, out of curiosity? I'm going to feel just a little better if I can support changing those regulations someday, knowing how callously some people treat negative externalities

Pretty dick move to pollute and make your exhaust annoyingly louder. You should really reconsider.

Context: I did this, and it was stupid as hell. I could smell and taste my exhaust at stop lights.

> I could smell and taste my exhaust at stop lights.

I'm sure his estate sale will probably discount his truck when it's sold.

Pollution concerns aside, your valves are timed and the manifold ports are shaped to work with the back pressure provided by a working cat.

If you didn't compensate for this during the modification you've likely cut the working life of you head(s) by half.

>ports are shaped to work with the back pressure provided by a working cat.

This is a 100% urban legend BS myth.

There's a partial exception for two-strokes where if you tune the system right you get a resonance wave that lets you pack a little more mixture in on the intake/exhaust stroke. Literally no 4-stroke ICE benefits from back-pressure in any way. It's just that sometimes the things done to reduce back-pressure (small exhaust pipes being the primary one) seem like they would increase it and vice-versa hence the urban legend.

Edit: Who the heck is downvoting this? This is how ICEs work. Google it if you don't believe me.

I've heard similar arguments about government regulated safe disposal requirements of used motor oil, old paint and unused pesticides. How dare the government not allow us to just dump that down the drain or pour it into the local creek.
Besides being an idiotic asshole move, what you did is illegal in every state because it violates the Clean Air Act.
it is good practice to keep emissions equipment in place. this way you can avoid paying to replace your cats if you have to move to a state that tests/inspects. it also reduces the amount of air and noise pollution that people in your community experience.
My rural community of 380 people don't experience a lot of air and noise pollution.

If I need to replace them, I know where I can buy them used. Plus, I don't have to replace them if someone else removes them unasked.

Problem: thieves steal mandatory cats

One solution: Less government meddling, make cats not mandatory

Second solution: More government meddling, i.e. actually do something about the thefts

It absolutely blows my mind that people out there think #1 is the better solution

I grew up in Los Angeles during the worst decade of pollution it ever experienced and suffered serious childhood asthma as a result. The decrease in smog after catalytic converters were invented and required in new cars was significant.

After the changes, my ability to breathe improved drastically, and I know I’m not alone. I, for one, strongly support reasonable environmental regulations as a result.

https://www.kcet.org/history-society/how-los-angeles-began-t... is a great history of those times.

>i.e. actually do something about the thefts

When that time comes I'll change my position on the matter.

It is, however, a federal crime.
So rather than waiting for someone to steal it.....you stole it yourself?
How exactly does cutting the catalytic converter out of your truck keep you out of poverty?
I don't agree with his sentiment, but some people find it unfair that California basically requires every car sold in the US to come with a $1000 part to control pollution. The argument is that California regulations shouldn't set the price of cars in Mississippi.
I am quite literally astonished to learn today that there is any first world country where catalytic converters are not required equipment.
Cats are required everywhere, but in CA they need to contain much more precious metals to meet the state standards than they would for just the national requirements. Most automakers choose to standardize on CA emissions standards nationally.

> The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is stricter on their regulations. CARB requires more precious metals and rigorous testing which is why they cost more than EPA catalytic converters.

https://autoquarterly.com/best-catalytic-converters/#Federal...

Aren't catalytic converters installed to meet federal emission standards? They might not be explicitly mandated, but in practice you can't meet the standards without one. In which case it's just a factually false statement.
California standards are harder to meet than federal.
That really proves how oftrn "unfair" is narcissistically defined as "bad for me with no regard to the larger system even in its effect on them".

The reverse of say California not being able to define limitations because they have too many people that would agree it becomes a logistical standard would be a bizzare illogic and pretty hypocritical.

Yeah and if it weren't for those pesky Californians and their regulations we would be free to use leaded gasoline like true blue-blooded Americans.
Indeed, because toxic gases generated in one place can by no mechanism pollute another. And if while standing under this tree in the rain I get wet, I will simply move to another tree and be blissfully dry.
I can’t believe people are stupid enough to think california regulations set the price of cars in other states, because they literally don’t.
The biggest markets set the price for the smallest
They do, because of market size effects and standardization.

Automakers, textbook writers, etc cater to the largest state they serve (or the lowest common of several large markets), then distribute the same version to multiple locations.

In the case of cars, which have to adhere to California regulations to be sold in California, that can drive up the price in other markets due to expensive parts required for compliance and auto-manufacturers standardizing.

It’s also more constructive to explain why people are wrong (eg, why you think car regulations one place can’t impact the price in others) than just call them stupid.

As though requiring the ownership of a five-figure polluting death trap simply to live and work isn’t its own form of wealth-based oppression.
Downvote me all you want but let’s not miss the forest for the trees: you wouldn’t need to have an expensive car part if you didn’t need a car that has to have expensive parts.
Sadly batteries are attractive to thieves, too, to be dismantled to cells and sold. They are just more inconvenient to extract, usually whole car is stolen.
Just drive a car with very low ground clearance. Problem solved?
No, not solved. They will just use a jack. And since they don't care about damaging the frame they can employ it very quickly.
Not in a world where jacks exist...
In Portugal it's common practice to remove them on purpose right after it needs to be changed.

Why? Because it's cheaper and there's no proper testing/regulation. It's sad.

Don't you have the "EU-control" every two years to make sure the car doesn't pollute too much?

That is the case in Norway at least and we're not even part of the EU fully.

The machines used to measure emissions don't have the capacity to identify particles that were supposed to be filtered by the particle filter.
Wait, so this also means the sale value of these cars has increased too?
Not really by enough to matter unless it's somewhere in the range of being worth more as scrap than as a car. But if that's the case then I'd think so.
Not electric cars.