State Farm, Progressive stop insuring some Kia and Hyundai models due to thefts

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Some Kia and Hyundai owners might have to find another insurance company.

State Farm and Progressive are not writing new policies on certain Kia and Hyundai vehicles in some markets. 

As we know in Milwaukee, the problem is some models of the vehicles are easy to steal. It's not clear yet which markets will be impacted.

In a statement released Tuesday, State Farm said:

"State Farm has temporarily stopped accepting new customer applications in some states for certain model years and trim levels of Hyundai and Kia vehicles because theft losses for these vehicles have increased dramatically. This is a serious problem impacting our customers and the entire auto insurance industry.

We take seriously our responsibility to manage risk and the impact of excess claim costs on all our customers. In this case, it became necessary to take action to protect our policyholders and our business.

We are monitoring this situation very closely and will adjust our approach as appropriate."

Progressive released a statement saying:

"Progressive is committed to providing affordable insurance solutions. During the past year we’ve seen theft rates for certain Hyundai and Kia vehicles more than triple and in some markets these vehicles are almost 20 times more likely to be stolen than other vehicles. Given that we price our policies based on the level of risk they represent, this explosive increase in thefts in many cases makes these vehicles extremely challenging for us to insure. In response, in some geographic areas we have increased our rates and limited our sale of new insurance policies on some of these models.

We continue to insure existing customers who own these types of vehicles, however, have taken steps to communicate this elevated risk to them and provide them with tips to try and prevent their vehicles from being stolen. We’ll continue to monitor how this issue plays out, and if we see a change in theft rates to more typical levels, we’ll adjust our pricing and acceptance criteria accordingly."