The 2023 Toyota Prius is a wildly different car than the one it replaces. The Priuses of the past were frumpy-looking things, but this one looks sleek and sporty. Older Priuses had enough power to get you where you were going, but if it involved hills or highway-speed passes, they’d complain about it. This new one has a respectable 194 horsepower in its mildest incarnation.
Almost everything about the all-new Prius has changed. But it still has one of the most valuable catalytic converters in the business. So Toyota has added an option we’ve never seen from an automaker – a dealer-installed catalytic converter shield.
Background – Catalytic Converter Theft Has Soared
The catalytic converter is a valuable, easily removed part of every hybrid and gas-powered car’s exhaust system. It’s between the size of a loaf of bread (for a typical 4-cylinder engine) and two big loaves (for a V8). Most cars have one, but high-performance cars with huge engines and complicated exhaust systems sometimes have two. They’re often worth four figures on the black market.
Inside, it has a honeycomb structure made of rare metals like palladium and rhodium, which have soared in value in recent years. They’re used in building sensitive electronics, so demand for them increases the more we digitize and upgrade our lives. In a cat, they act like a sponge for harmful exhaust gases. So a new converter is more valuable than an old one because the metals are purer, having not absorbed much yet.
Thieves steal catalytic converters by sliding under cars and sawing them out with battery-powered reciprocating saws. The whole affair can take under two minutes, provided they can fit under the car easily (exotic car owners are strangely safe because no one’s that skinny).
Related: How to Protect Your Car from Catalytic Converter Thieves
Catalytic converter thieves have proven particularly fond of the Prius. The units on hybrids are often in better shape than those in similarly sized gas-powered cars because hybrids don’t use their gasoline engines all the time. Since the Prius is the most recognizable hybrid, law enforcement theorizes, catalytic converter thieves in a hurry love to go after them.
A nationwide investigation led to a major round of arrests last month. Federal agents dismantled an operation that bought the converters and extracted the metals for sale. That may have lessened the threat nationwide, but it’s too early to tell.
If you don’t want to take a chance on finding out, Toyota will sell you a protection device.
$140 Plus Installation Costs
Catalytic converter shields are exactly what the name says. They’re tough steel covers mounted around a converter that are hard to cut through or remove. A determined and well-equipped thief could probably do it. But it’s easier and less risky for them to move on to a car that doesn’t have one.
So, while we know of no studies that test their effectiveness, the logic is sound. Cutting out a catalytic converter is a loud process, and anything that makes it take longer increases the risk the thief is caught. So they’ll probably skip a shield-equipped car for an easier target.
The 2023 Prius doesn’t come from the factory with a built-in converter shield. Instead, Toyota is offering them for sale as accessories. They’re built by MillerCAT and custom-designed to fit the all-new Prius. The shield is $140 plus the cost of installation.
Is it necessary? It’s hard to know for sure before we’ve had time to see if the recent arrests have broken the back of the nationwide network of converter thieves. But given that the Prius is their favorite target and a new converter is expensive, we’d probably check the box for it.
