Catalytic converter theft from cars isn’t a new crime, but it has increased significantly in recent times.
Police forces around the UK are advising owners of any car fitted with a catalytic converter to take precautions. In Toyota’s case it is second and third-generation Prius models (2004-2009 and 2009-2016 respectively) and second-generation Auris Hybrids (2012-2018) which have been particular targets for thieves.
Below we’ve gathered the best advice for Toyota owners who may be concerned.
What is a catalytic converter?
The catalytic converter is part of the car’s emissions control system. It cleans up the exhaust gases before they are expelled from the car through the exhaust pipe. Its internal elements react with the gases, breaking them down into less harmful substances and water vapour. All new cars sold in Europe since 1993 have had to be fitted with a catalytic converter by law.
Why are they a target for thieves?
Clearly the police are best placed to offer advice on the motives behind this crime. But we understand that the value of the catalytic converter for recycling is the main attraction to thieves, because it contains precious metals such as rhodium, platinum and palladium.
What can owners do to stop their cars being targeted?
Some owners have chosen to tag their catalytic converters with an invisible yet traceable forensic marking solution, such as that provided by SmartWater. This means that a stolen catalytic converter can be traced to a specific crime, helping police in their attempts to fight the organised gangs responsible. It also raises the risk to all those handling the devices along the criminal chain, from theft to eventual disposal and recycling. Mechanical theft prevention products such as Catloc devices can also deter thieves.
However, it must be noted that catalytic converter theft is a criminal operation and the scope of owners is therefore limited. Police forces are taking action, so it is important for anyone who is a victim of this crime to report it as quickly as possible.
In the main, older cars are more likely to be targeted. This is because advances in efficiency and technology mean the latest generations of catalytic converters contain vastly lower amounts of precious metals, while still doing their job just as well or even better. This means their value for recycling is very low and they are not attractive to thieves.
Does a mechanical lock give my car 100% protection from thieves?
Sadly not. It can make theft more difficult but thieves are using high-powered cutting tools to remove catalytic converters and because of this it is not possible to make them ‘unstealable’. A mechanical locking device makes it harder to steal a catalytic converter because it slows down thieves and therefore acts as a deterrent.
If I’m worried about my Toyota model, what should I do?
If you are worried about potential catalytic converter theft from your Toyota, we recommend you use our locator tool to find your nearest Toyota centre and contact them to discuss the best way to protect your car.
This article was last updated on 2 November 2024, so some of the responses to reader comments below have been superseded by more recent information.
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for getting back in touch.
We have tried to ensure as many of our customers as possible are aware. We published police advice on this crime as soon as we could online, wrote to our dealer network to brief customers and wrote directly to owners of a number of our vehicles where we had details to do so.
Once again, we are sorry you have been impacted by this crime. We have also responded to your other comment.
Thanks.
I have owned a Toyota car for 9 years now, use Toyota roadside assistance and use my local Toyota dealer for servicing.
I have been that impressed with the car that I recommended the model to my brother in law. He purchased the same model car just two weeks ago and informed me yesterday he had suffered damage to his car and his cat converter had been stolen. When he was sold the car by the Toyota dealer on a PCP contract he was not told about the great risk now involved with having the car’s cat converter stolen.
This was the first I knew of this major issue. I have not been informed by my local dealer or by Toyota GB even though I have a registered ‘My Toyota’ account and have my car service regularly by my local dealer.
Reading through the Toyota blog it appears this has been an ongoing theft problem for quite some time with no practical worthwhile solution or compensation being put forward by Toyota. The catloc appears to offer very little deterrent.
Meanwhile my brother in law is out of pocket to the tune of £950 because of the cat theft with the insurance excess and catloc fitting etc; as well as the huge inconvenience.
The police, MP’s and government are not interested. The insurance companies simply refuse to insure the car or theft of the cat converter. Which leaves the supplier of the car as the only recourse to remedy this huge problem.
As my car is a sole means of transport and we have a vulnerable adult in our care it’s vital we have transport. It certainly sounds like we have been fortunate up until this point that our cat converter has not been stolen.
The cat converter theft has been an issue for a very long time with thousands of Toyota hybrid owners being affected.
I would have thought that a reputable manufacturer like Toyota would have commenced a recall on their hybrid cars offering a solution to protect their image and retain current and future customers.
Can you give myself and my brother in law any reassurance that a solution will materialise to prevent further thefts or do I just buy another manufacturers vehicle?
If there is no solution offered by Toyota with the ongoing risk of the huge inconvenience and having to pay increased excess on insurance policies it may prove more cost effective to simply buy another manufacturers car.
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for getting in touch. We’re sorry to hear your brother-in-law has been impacted by this crime and for the distress this may have caused. We appreciate the severity of this and we are constantly assessing the situation in order to best support our customers.
We have developed and are supplying theft deterrent devices at zero profit such as CatLocs, tilt alarms, bolt caps and component etching to protect consumers from further attacks.
However, in theory any car with a catalytic converter is at risk of this theft. Criminals are using high-grade power saws to remove the catalyst, meaning they are as easy to remove from any vehicle.
We have reduced the quantity of precious metals by up to 84% in catalytic converter design over time.
Please also be aware we have engaged with Home Office, Local MPs, Met Police (OVCU) and the Assistant Chief Constable of Cheshire Police (Jenny Sims) who is also the National Lead for all vehicle crime. All of this will raise the profile of this crime with all police forces and identify issues with current legislation.
Once again, we are deeply sorry for the distress this may have caused you and your brother-in-law.
Thanks.
I had my cat converter stolen from my Auris Hybrid. Toyota GB did nothing and claim dealers are supplying replacements at cost price. That is still over £1000 a pop with many weeks lead time to get parts and will just end up with it being stolen again.
Don’t bother with Toyota dealers and the original replacement part. Get a aftermarket cat converter from a local garage for a fraction of the cost which thieves won’t be interested in anyway.
Toyota have failed to solve the problem (a re-design with no valuable metals used) and have failed to help their loyal customers.
I will buy a Toyota again but will not use the dealer network for servicing or repairs.
I have had exactly the same problem. The Toyota dealers did not tell me about the issue with theft when I bought the car only last year. Now Toyota customer services, the dealers and the insurance companies just wash their hands of the problem and we are left to foot the bill.
I am getting a catloc fitted but have been told it is ineffectual. I am trying to work out if I can purchase a catclamp and use this alongside the catloc as dual protection. Not sure if anyone has tried this before?
I do think more could be done by Toyota to help customers going through this. The advice is poor, the catloc device is not good enough and Toyota garages don’t follow a lot of the advice or contradict the advice on the websites. It’s all a bit of a shambles. I’m tempted to sell the car and never go with Toyota again. Which is a shame as the car was great otherwise.
Lastly the police and councils are incredibly useless with all of this.
I appreciate the response but its not good enough and doesn’t solve the problem. a) the Catloc’s cost £250 to fit and are not a deterrent; the cat converters are still stolen with these fitted. CatClamps appear to be a better solution but look even more expensive b) from what model year did Toyota adopt close coupled catalysts and from what model year did they reduce the amount of precious metals in the design?
Although other manufacturers fit cat converters it is Toyota hybrids specifically that have been and continue to be targeted by thieves.
Raising the profile of the crime will do nothing to deter thieves and any legislation will be months if not years away.
Very, very disappointed in Toyota’s response to this long standing problem that they have known about for some time. Without a resolution from Toyota sadly, despite being happy with the car it looks like both myself and my brother in law purchasing a car from a manufacturer that has a lot less problem with this theft. As I’m sure a great many previous Toyota owners have already done.
The badges make the car easily identifiable to thieves. As a precautionary measure before I sell the car I will be removing all the hybrid badges. I will not be running to the expense of a catloc as these do not prevent the theft of the cat converter. Unfortunately my brother in law has already incurred this expense with no compensation offer from Toyota.
the catalytic converter was stolen from my Auris whilst parked in a supposedly secure NCP carpark near Heathrow Airport sometime during the period 8 February to 17 March 2020. both sills were damaged requiring repairs. As I live in Devon my Insurers organised a hire car to get me home and uplifted my car and sent it to local repairers in Plymouth. This was just before lockdown . When lockdown came the spares were still awaited. Then during lockdown the repairers went into liquidation requiring my car to be uplifted to another a approved repairer. With the ease in lockdown, spares and repairs took sometime and only received my car back 9 June 2020 damaged further whilst in control of repairers. Awaiting final repairs to be carried out.
Surely there is a logical solution to prevent these thefts as clearly the solution so far seems to be ineffectual!
I have just purchased a C-HR new from Toyota and at no time was I advised that Toyota were more prone than others to cat theft. It was just a passing policeman who mentioned it to me and advised to fit a catloc, though these are not foolproof. Why have not Toyota fitted these as standard? and why is this not mentioned? This is the first Toyota I have purchased and my last three cars being Mercedes, Mercedes were very up front on theft issues when buying cars and there openness was very much appreciated. Toyota however is less so and I begin to wonder should I have stayed with Mercedes. Not a thrilling start.
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for your comment. We have tried to ensure as many of our customers as possible are aware. Toyota published police advice on this crime as soon as it could online, wrote to our dealer network to brief customers and wrote directly to owners of a number of our vehicles where we had details to do so.
We currently only produce Catlocs for vehicles deemed most at risk of theft. We currently don’t offer a C-HR Catloc.
Please be aware we have also engaged with Home Office, Local MPs, Met Police (OVCU) and the Assistant Chief Constable of Cheshire Police (Jenny Sims) who is also the National Lead for all vehicle crime. All of this will raise the profile of this crime with all police forces and identify issues with current legislation.
Thanks.
Someone in my street got the CC stolen from their Prius last night (in Richmond, SW London). Now I’m worried about mine but just wondering how I would know if mine was stolen. I have read that the car sounds different but is that the case with the Prius because it’s so quiet…
What’s the typical cost of an aftermarket cat? Any downsides?
The CC was stolen from my Auris hybrid last week. I think you’ll know when it has happened – mine sounded like a Formula ! car as soon as I switched on the power!
Like other, another Catalytic converter stolen from my Prius+ on July 14th.
Being refitted through insurance, the advise from the garage seems to be park the car somewhere safe – “perhaps knock down a room and build a garage”.
If the jokes are running on this, then definitely this is a massive issue. Asked on advice about getting a catloc and was told they get sawn off as well and are not effective.
The advise from family and friends is to sell the car, and get something which hasn’t got this problem. I am nervous now leaving the car anywhere.
It is a shame on Toyota’s part that so little has been done to prevent this.
Also I had been to West London dealer to get service done on 29th June (and last year) and there was no advise about catalytic converter theft at all.
I don’t think I can afford the cat converter being stolen again – Excess and premium increase.
I will be looking away to replace the car and definitely away from Toyota this time.
Hi Amit,
Thanks for getting in touch.
We’re really sorry to hear that you’ve been affected by this crime and are unhappy with the service you have received.
We have tried to make sure that as many customers as possible have been informed through publishing police advice on the crime online as soon as it was received, writing to our dealer network to inform customers and writing directly to vehicle owners where details have been available to do so. We have also engaged with the Home Office, Local MPs, the Met Police and the Assistant Chief Constable of Cheshire Police (Jenny Sims), who is the National Lead for vehicle crime. This will raise the profile of the crime with all police forces and identify issues with current legislation.
As catalytic converters contain precious metals, any car containing one is at risk of theft. Over time, we have reduced the precious metal content of our catalytic converters by up to 84% and currently produce CatLocs for vehicles considered most at risk, but criminals are using high-grade power tools that are difficult for any manufacturer to protect against.
Once again, we are sorry that your vehicle has been targeted by thieves and for the distress that this crime has caused.
If you would like to raise your situation further, we would recommend contacting our Customer Relations team directly. You can do so here: https://www.toyota.co.uk/contact-us/email-us
Thanks.
Honestly I am so disappointed in Toyota. They have no idea how to deal with this issue. All they give are useless platitudes.
Just been to my local dealership to get a catloc fitted and they’ve just wasted my time, had no idea about a tilt sensor device or how to fit it and instead of telling me this on the phone they waited for me to arrive and waste my entire afternoon before a 20 hour shift at the hospital.
Toyota just send messages saying contact your local dealership – they’re clueless. They each quote different prices and offers and then go back on what they’ve said. It’s such a disgrace. Tempted to sell up and buy another car. Think that will be the plan. And then never buying Toyota again and will discourage all friends and family as well.
Toyota could do 4 things to help this situation:
1) Develop a tilt sensing module that can retrofit to the Toyota alarm. Most Priuses you couldn’t get to the cat without some degree of jacking, and the Gen2 at least doesn’t HAVE a tilt alarm.
2) Develop a cut detect loop alarm wire that runs through the cat in some way, possibly using the lambda sensor wiring.
3) Insert a “pocket” into the structure of the catalytic convertor that can hold a GPS tracking module, possibly powered by a rechargeable battery hooked up to the vehicle supply. It would only take a few % of new/replacement cats of this type to give the police enough intel to knock out the supply chain for these stolen parts.
4) Redesign the underside such that the Cat is more difficult to remove at the roadside rather than in a dealership on a lift, e.g. recessed into the bottom of the unibody, or sandwiched between the body and a front underspat bar.