If your fob is lost, you'll sob over cost

[Klaus]

If your fob is lost, you'll sob over cost
Posted 4/4/2006 10:31 PM
By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — Replacing a car key used to be as simple as visiting a locksmith or car dealer and plunking down a few dollars.
But when Tim Anderson lost the keyless key that allows him to start his Toyota Prius, it cost him about $800.

He considers himself lucky. The tab could have topped $1,000.

Anderson, 41, of Los Angeles, experienced the downside of one of the technological wonders of today's automotive world — newfangled keys and fobs packed with remote-control features.

"It's a trade-off," says Phil Reed, consumer advice editor for car-buying site Edmunds.com. "The high-tech keys do offer an advantage over the old." The new keys aren't just more expensive because of the convenience features.

"The key is no longer a key. It is a high-tech device that accomplishes more than a key ever did," he says. But if they are lost, he notes, owners face a big expense.

Car buyers accustomed to keys and fobs that just unlock doors, open trunks or activate the car alarm may not even be aware that the new keys are better at anti-theft protection. The keys communicate electronically with the car's engine computer in a unique code that can't be duplicated.

The new keys are also a leap forward in convenience. Keys on the Mercedes SL and CLK convertibles, for example, allow drivers to lower the car's top from afar.

The new key on the Volvo S80 sedan will tell a driver, from a distance, whether a car is locked or unlocked or whether the alarm is activated. There's even a sensor in the car that lets the driver know, via the key, if someone is inside.

General Motors is working on a similar two-way system, expected to become available later this year as a dealer-installed option, says Fred Huntzicker, manager of advanced architecture at GM.

Automakers are now gradually going keyless. Several Toyota and Lexus models, including the Prius, offer keys that allow drivers to start cars or open doors without taking the key from their pocket or purse.

And that's where some drivers are getting into trouble — or making sure they keep their backups handy.

"It became a big deal to get another key," says Omo Clement, 43, a marketing manager from San Diego who lost the spare for his Lexus LS400, which has a keyless system.

He says he was warned that if he lost both keys, he would have to buy a new engine computer for up to $1,500.

Anderson, a pharmaceutical researcher, found out the hard way.

He says he bought his Prius in December. Within a week he had lost one of the two keys that came with the car. He bought a replacement but didn't get it programmed.

Leaving on a business trip to San Francisco a month ago, he used valet parking at an off-airport site in Los Angeles. When he returned, he drove off without realizing the parking attendant had put his key fob on the windshield. It was close enough to the ignition to allow the car to start, but it was lost on the way to his next destination, a restaurant.

Lacking a second key, Anderson had the Prius towed to a dealer. The service specialists told him that without either key, they would need to install a new engine computer. But he was lucky. Technicians found a way to simply program his new spare key.

All told, he says, the experience, including buying yet another key and having it programmed, cost him about $800. He has since rigged his Prius so that it won't start unless the key is inserted into the ignition.

"All of the universe conspired to help me lose the keys," he says. "It was a comedy of errors."

The new keys are turning locksmiths into computer technicians.

Charles Eastwood, who operates Locksmith Charley in Phoenix, is developing something of a specialty in finding ways of creating duplicates for high-tech keys.

He says he can get engine computers to accept new keys for about $225.

On one recent day alone, he says, he received the engine computer module from a Lexus owner in Florida. Another Lexus owner drove his car over from Huntington Beach, Calif. In both cases, he says, he was able to provide them with new keys.

"I'm making a pile of money on them," he says.


Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2006-...carkeys-costly_x.htm

[Fastest H-Town Realtor]

Im with Phil. Once they keyless key (?) becomes common place, the "World is ending" attitude will dissapear.

Remember when ECUs, Anti-lock and advance tech emissions came online? The claims of the end of hot rodding, multi hundred dollar brake changes and impossible to achieve perfomance was the fear mongers daily digest.

[NoMoGMPG]

Originally posted by PhilD:
Sounds like a bunch of misleading info and scare mongering.

I do not believe that dealers do not have the ability to make a new key without having to change the "computer". Although I'm sure someone will prove me wrong, although I'd still suspect the dealer was having one over on them.

Fortunately, GM use cheap keys, I've had several made by the dealer, when they didn't look in the center console for my key, at no cost and without changing the computer.

What is amazing I think, is that aftermarket alarm systems have offered many of the features only currently becoming OEM, for many years.

Not entirely accurate, Phil.

GM does have a few vehicles already with $100 transponder keys, just not in the truck platforms yet. The systems they are referring to are the keyless sytems that do not require the key to be inserted and rotated to activate the ignition. If the key that is mated to that specific body module cannot be provided, then for security reasons the module must be replaced along with the new keys to be programmed to the new body module. The module "code" is then linked to the manufacturer database. This is so that a lein holder, i.e. GMAC, can repossess the vehicle if necessary.

[KenP]

HAHA! $1000 for a Prius key sure changes the "cost to operate" values!!!

[Fastest H-Town Realtor]

Yea, but if you own a Prius you could just leave the fob in the car...who is going to steal a Prius?

Originally posted by Fastest H-Town:
who is going to steal a Prius?

They'd get caught pretty quick.

[raineran]

I used to have a 2002 Jaguar x-type....lost the key, and was told it was $250.00 to replace the key (foldable) and key fob.....need less to say..it only happened once....I too was warned when i bought the car.

Porsche key was about $300 3 years ago. I'm afraid to ask the price today.

S.