replacement car key

Cash-Cow_3

Does anyone know how to get a replacement car key without going through a main dealer. I was quoted over £100. It needs to be coded etc.

Cheers!

birkee

Yes.
Timpson's shoe repairers are among the many outside sources.
Depends on the make, but I was quoted £60 for a replacement second key. (Ford) Needless to say, I was chuffed to bits when I found the key I thought I had lost, in the pocket of a jacket I only wear occasionally.
Loads on ebay too.

Weird_Nev

That seems about the going rate.

As an aside, consider this:
20 years ago car theft was rife. Any scrote with a screwdriver could open and start your triumph or ford, and it would probably be found crashed and vandalised a few days later. Insurance premiums began to climb, and some cars became all but uninsurable because of the risk of theft. Car makers wised up and we saw the addition of coded keys and ignition systems that needed the correct key present to start the vehicle ,not simply a mechanical analogue of it. Car theft fell markedly as a result, to the point now where if your car has been stolen, it's almost certain they did it by burgling your keys or else lifting the whole vehicle - a favorite of 'scrap metal collectors'.

So whilst the key itself may be an inert chunk of metal with an inexpensive silicon chip, the overall effect of heightened car security has been to reduce the costs associated with insuring and running a car, and a greatly reduced risk of having the car stolen. The act of coding a key is time consuming for some vehicles and requires administration to make it difficult to obtain keys fraudulently. And of course, if you don't lose your keys then you don't have to buy a new one....


Oh, and if you let us know the make and model, perhaps someone will know how to get a bargain key for it.

prowla

We recently had to get an new key (for a Seat), and I found that Timpson weren't any cheaper than a main dealer.

birkee

Oh, by the way.
I've bought some of those transparent plastic key fobs, meant for photographs, and instead, I've inserted my name and telephone number. (Maybe you can offer a £10 reward if found.)
DO NOT put in your car registration number or address.

prowla

birkee wrote: »

Oh, by the way.
I've bought some of those transparent plastic key fobs, meant for photographs, and instead, I've inserted my name and telephone number. (Maybe you can offer a £10 reward if found.)
DO NOT put in your car registration number or address.

So, if they look up your name in the phonebook and match the number, then they've got your address...

birkee

prowla wrote: »

So, if they look up your name in the phonebook and match the number, then they've got your address...

And where would you start looking up the name "John"?
And what's the chances of the finder being a car thief?
You can be too picky!

George_Michael

birkee wrote: »

And what's the chances of the finder being a car thief?
You can be too picky!

They might not have been a car thief until they found the keys for a nice shiny motor!
If you don't want to give any personal details such as any name or phone number, a simple yahoo or hotmail e-mail address will do just as well.

mikey72

Then what, you won't give them the address to post the keys back to?

birkee

mikey72 wrote: »

Then what, you won't give them the address to post the keys back to?

No Mikey! You arrange to go and pick them up.

mikey72

That's where I don't want someone who can't even take care of their keys coming round to my house, so it's going to depend on how badly they want them, as opposed to how badly I don't.