I replaced a Honda Civic key for my wife a few years ago and it was around $130 - $140 for the chipped key. The blank was less complex than the Smart and didn't have the locks and hatch controls in the key that the Smart has. But then, we were also able to have a key made at the local hardware store that would work the locks but (lacking the programmed chip) wouldn't start the car. They were good "lock out" keys to rescue you if you locked your keys in the car. So, allowing for some inflation and the added functions on the Smart key, I guess I'd expect a replacement somewhere north of the $130 mark. . .but not the Arctic Circle region of $340.
I suspect the programming part isn't that complex. I'd imagine they are serialized so that you tell the car to recognize key xxx02 and xxx03 and not to recognize xxx01. If you lost a key, no doubt they had the other key to allow them to determine if you had lost 01 or 02 so they would know which to disable.
If they were as smart in designing this process as with most of the rest of the car, this should be a relatively brief process, so are they just using the hourly charge to boost profit? Keep in mind, my dealer's service department told me Mercedes Benz uses the same computer in all its cars and programs for functions, options, and markets as needed. So, if you're in Spain and use amber tail lights for stop and red for turn signals, they just tell the computer when it comes off the line that it's bound for Spain. All of that to say, this isn't new territory for them, I'm sure they've encountered many of these problems before and have worked out efficient processes to deal with them.
I suspect the programming part isn't that complex. I'd imagine they are serialized so that you tell the car to recognize key xxx02 and xxx03 and not to recognize xxx01. If you lost a key, no doubt they had the other key to allow them to determine if you had lost 01 or 02 so they would know which to disable.
It seems more likely that they're just going to re-code both the old and new key to a new code. In either case, apparently they need the car, which means a service visit, which means a service rate, which means I get screwed, LOL.
Considering that the lock up system is a given, this is more about how horrendously expensive the keys and fobs are. But, regardless of the price point, they (the keys and fobs) are the only game in town, and we are stuck with the cost (or the risk, depending on how you are going to deal with the problem).
And, it's not only Daimler Benz products that have this problem. Getting our two additional keys for the Scion xB was equally as expensive, if not so difficult. So, it's not just Daimler Benz.
We are still waiting for our new key blanks (and the new lock cylinders and the new glove box door, all at the dealer's expense) to get here, and we are pretty obsessively careful about how the only two extant keys get handled. Mine is on a locking belt clip that is locked to the belt, while hers rides inside of her purse on a snap ring. And, we both verify where the other's keys are before operating the car, as well as putting them up in "standardized" places when we get home.
During our short trip over to the Austin area today, all of the checking and double checking seemed pretty silly, and it was. And, it will remain that way until something goes wrong, at which point our precautions will appear to be positively prescient. After all, you never perceive the need for a comprehensive computer backup strategy until after the data loss that provokes that perception has taken place. Why should keys be any different?
As my lovely wife once lost a key ring with not one but two opener/immobilizer keys on it during a sixty foot walk from the parking lot to her classroom, over clear plain ground no less, with the loss noticed not sixty seconds after reaching the room to boot, I'm going to opt for being obsessive and silly, just in case. Once the new locks and door are here and all four keys and fobs are properly in order, then we'll slack off.
Last edited by Terry Stibal; 09-25-2009 at 09:59 PM.
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