We sold our Mk1 Jazz after the cat was stolen, just didn’t want to go through that experience again. It’s not just the cat that will need replacing, we needed two lamba sensors had to wait two months for these. You can fit second hand or pattern sensors but I understand they don’t always last as well as OE. Also under trays need replacing. On the Jazz forum I read about a Jazz that was lifted by thieves and presumably on seeing the cat lock ( or similar ) the cat was crushed by their jack. Nice people.

It’s only the Mk1 Jazz vulnerable to cat theft, the later versions are safe.

Hybrids have more amount of precious metails in their cats - hence, more often targetted by thieves.

Why would that be? Offhand I can't think of any reason for such a difference.

I suppose an engine in a hybrid has a less variable power demand on it, but if anything I'd expect that to result in lower demands on the catalyst.

Hybrids more expensive so expected to last longer?

Hybrids have more amount of precious metails in their cats - hence, more often targetted by thieves.

Surely a CAT needs enough metal in it to reduce the emissions to the level required. That level is the same for a hybrid or non-hybrid.

Its more likely certain cars are targeted simply because its known they are easy to rob.

The fact Toyota offers the parts suggests they know about this. If they are so vulnerable Toyota should offer to fix the issue FOC. Perhaps they are not such a perfect car company after all.

You would think that jacking a car up and cutting underneath would trigger it Sooner of later a car is going to fall on one of these thieves and if they survive they will probably sue the owner!

There's been one fatality I'm aware of, where the thief cut a fence to get into a compound. He was found, crushed, the next day after the jack failed.

The car alarms on these cars do not appear to be very sensitive You would think that jacking a car up and cutting underneath would trigger it

You would certainly think that. I would also think that when car alarms go off, many people will do nothing except comment. Even when it goes off outside one's own house .... ?

It's true hybrid cats have more valuable elements.

Why?

The CAT in a hybrid and a conventional petrol engine do exactly the same job i.e. remove/convert polluting gasses. The IC engine in a hybrid would only need a CAT with more "valuable elements" if it produced more pollutants than the engine in a conventional IC engined car but it doesn't, in truth it produces less since it should be running less of the time.

So tell us, what is the science behind a hybrid needing a better CAT.

A conventional IC car has the engine running most of the time. So the Cat stays hot and does its job .

A hybrid around town can run on battery power alone. So the Cat cools down a the engine is not in use. And takes time to warm up again when the engine restarts. So it does not work for a period of time.

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Given that a hybrid can run up to 30 miles in town on battery power.. which could be more than an hour - the cat could be stone cold - as indeed the engine could be. So it's like starting from cold - and emissions are highest on a cold engine

(Which basically means stop/start is a way of saving fuel but increasing emissions)

WLTP does not take that into account iirc.

I don't know exact internal details, but hybrid catalytic converters are usually less corroded which fetches better value in stolen goods market.

Toyota says they have reduced precious metal content in their new models' cats. That begs the question why it was higher content in previous models. May be it is like adding more sugar to cake, like more precious metal leading to better emission figures?