TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Hyundai most stolen car on SXM

Interesting.
Herald LINK

Also the most stolen car in the Dayton OH area.

I have a Hyundai Elantra, which has a push button start. Supposedly, the Hyundai models WITHOUT the push button start are the ones that are being stolen in large numbers. Hyundai here in the US will install a 'fix' for the problem for those vehicles. I think there is a Hyundai dealership there in SXM, so people hopefully can take advantage of that there also.

Yes Carol that why we only buy the ones with the push button start.

Lesley--glad you are covered with regard to this anyway.

Yes its a problem with those Hyundai that use keys. Mary's Boon has their own car rentals now for guest and that's the little cars they use but the also provide one of those lock bars for the steering wheel. But you have to remember to put it on.

The best cars to own on SXM are the vehicles that are uncommon so the parts are not in demand to sell.
What the police need to do is raid the chop shops that are stripping stolen cars for parts to sell. Buyers on SXM know very well where these chop shops are! Informing tourists about car thefts is not good for tourism.

Yes Dear two years ago January we lost brand new with the key .

We had a Hyundai Terracan. Not sold in US. Great car.

It can be started with a screw driver

The last two times I've been down I've rented a Hyundai Sante Fe since I had family visiting and needed a larger car.

In those last two visits I was on the island for a total of almost 9 weeks, without incident. The ubiquitous i10 is at the low-end of the Hyundai line, while the Sante Fe is at the top (with the push button start and a security alarm). So as mentioned by others, the i10 has less security features, which makes it easier to steal. But to put the statistics in perspective, there is only about one Hyundai vehicle stolen per week.

That still seems high for a small island, but there are literally thousands of non-cruise tourists on the island every week, and I suspect the vast majority obtain a rental car. Obviously, not all of them are Hyundais, and you should still take precautions as always, but the odds are that you will be fine.

We usually rent a Hundai I10 from AAA, but last November, we were given another car because so many if the I10s were being stolen. What we were told is that the computer in the I10 is very accessible; easy to remove and replace with another, which allows the thief to start the car with the keys to another car.

As I understand, even in the states, Hundai parts are hard to get!!! Making selling stolen parts very enticing for thieves!!