WOW!
I think that even long after I'd sold that car, if I came across an extra key somewhere in the house, I'd take it over to the body shop guy. Any extra car keys, even traditional non-electronically imprinted, would be impt to the new owner!

We even did that before these electronic keys came out. It just makes good sense, I have no use for them.

Personally, I think that $300 is a rip off. The major cost is programming and testing the results. Programming requires a proprietary factory gadget to re-program the keys and the dealer says he charges an amount to recoup the price of the gadget plus make a return on employed assets. That's fair enough, but I question a $300 charge.

I wanted a second key for my Jeep Cherokee as a backup and spare for my wife. The material cost for the key was about $25 for the key and cutting. The dealer charged $75 to program the two keys for a total of $100. When you have a duplicate key, the car's securtiy system has to be programmed at the same time to accept 2 keys. The old programmng is wiped and redone.

This is one of those events where the dealer can make or loose money. He stands to make a bunch if he gets to program a lot of keys during a model run, or he has a loss if there is little call for this service.

The price of those keys is ridiculous. I just got a new car and I think the dealer was a little shocked when we finally agreed to the price of the car I then insisted that he provide a third programmed key as part of the package. After all the car I was trading in had 3 electronic keys too.

Wow, this is just another reason I appreciate my 21 yr old Dodge colt. When our other car died of terminal transmission, our car guy said he was selling the Colt for an older customer who wasn't going to drive anymore. It was in such good condition, had everything on it I wanted except cruise C. Our car guy had gone over it and guaranteed it was in very good running condition. It came with one key that works in the ignition, door and hatch back. Copies cost $1. each. It has crank windows, the power windows in the old car worked...sometimes. We get 33 to 35 MPG. Sometimes, in my opinion, new isn't always better.

New is better as far as I am concerned. New cars run and run and run, unlike the older cars. Off the floor is not important, just newer. My sisters loved their old cars, until someone died and left one of them a new car. She changed her tune in a hurry. The other travels 12 hours to come home so she needed a better car and she like the dependability of it. We have always driven Oldsmobile's and Buick's, but can't anymore so we bought one Acura and I drive a Nissan now. The dependability of our new cars has been wonderful.

When oldest DS gave me his PT Cruiseer it had two keys.
As soon as I could I had three more made (some locksmith in the Yellow pages workd out of his car) I think they were around $90 each.
DS lost one has one on his key chain I have one to use and the rest are in a safe place. I was horrified to find out I couldn't have several extras made at a local store

Sometimes, in my opinion, new isn't always better.
I have to agree. With proper maintenance 'older' vehicles will often run a very long time. My 93 Jeep with 230,000 miles is quite dependable and I don't hesitate taking it out of town or on vacation...it's comfy and quite good looking yet too.

Sue

I loved my 88 Ford Tempo had to get rid of it last year and really don't like driving the PT. I can't see the front right bumper where it ends the fronts of the new cars seem to curve down.

The reason I think newer cars are better is because of low maintenance. I am 73 and have been driving since I was 16 and have never found cars as maintenance free as the new ones. A mechanic could tell you what the change was but not me.

New can be good. You wouldn't get a five or six year bumper to bumper warranty if the manufacturer thought the cars would curl up and die in that timeframe -- unlike the old days of rust and repairs. It's taken US makes time to get their acts together, but some really have!

My '88 Mazda (replacement single key about two bucks) was bought over three years ago - from an auto insurance appraiser, who had some plastic stickers that looked like bullet holes on one back corner, and offered to take them off, but I said to leave them there, that they weren't hurting anything.

About 6 months later, I was in a smash that twisted one rear wheel a bit, and it took more than I'd paid to repair it, but my friend the body shop guy said that, at about 125,000 mi., it had some good mileage in it, so I fixed it - my contribution to energy waste and global pollution and warming, I guess, as repairs take a small amount of material and a lot of work.

It's a standard transmission, so when a signal light goes yellow in the city, if traffic is normal, I push the clutch and turn off the key. The bigger cars go past at speed ... then a couple of hundred feet from the intersection, on come the red lights at the back! Can't people with automatics drive far enough ahead ... and think what they're doing enough to take their foot off of the throttle when the signal lights turn yellow??

My friend the body shop guy, though a few years younger than I, has been over afew hills and around a few corners in his lifetime and I doubt whether he can be taken for a ride easily when it comes to business ... as his business looks prosperous(and he has a vacation location at Lake Havasu).

Some stuff in Canada is dearer than in the U.S.

ole joyful