I recently bought a 2014 BMW i3, which I love. What I don’t love is that it only came with a single key, which may seem like a minor problem until you realize: A replacement key costs as much as a car. Here’s how much more a new key for my i3 costs than a new one for my 1994 Jeep.
This is my first time looking for a replacement key for a modern vehicle with a key fob, and I have to say: I’m appalled. Ever since I could drive, I’ve only ever purchased cars with basic keys like this one in my 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Have a look:
This is about as simple a key as one can ask for. There’s no fob, no chip — just a metal key that needs to be cut just right to actuate the tumblers in the doors and ignition switch.
My 2014 BMW i3, though, comes with this key fob, which has within it an old-school key that’s there just to be used in case of an emergency:
I recently stopped by Ace Hardware to get a new key for my 1994 Jeep, and as you can see, it was dirt cheap:
Only 5.99! Even that is a bit more than I used to pay, but I’ll take it. Meanwhile, the quote I got from BMW for a new i3 key? Oh boy:
FIVE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX DOLLARS AND EIGHTY-THREE CENTS! Sorry for all the caps, but that’s over $570 more to replace my i3 key than to replace the key for my Jeep, which I bought for less than $500. And sure, I get that the i3 key is more complex, but their functions — and what they represent to their owners — are the same. The key lets you in the car and lets you start the car. It is a critical function, and therefore having to replace it should be affordable.
It’s not just me saying it. The Center for Auto Safety agrees, as you can see in this story from about 20 years ago:
Technology was supposed to set us free, but in the car industry it’s locking us out of our vehicles. And as many more car keys contain electronic chips and come equipped with computerized anti-theft ignition systems, this problem looks set to worsen, experts say.
The days of visiting a hardware store for an extra car key are quickly vanishing, and consumers and advocacy groups say the time needed to replace missing or lost electronic keys is inordinately long and expensive and drivers may have no recourse when dealerships are not open. Getting a new electronic key can cost hundreds of dollars, including the cost of towing a car.
Unlike an old-fashioned mechanical key, which unlocks a door or starts an ignition with its teeth, an electronic car key works by sending a code that must be read electronically before a vehicle’s engine will start. The technology for these keys is evolving rapidly and only a few locksmiths are investing in the technology needed to replace them, meaning most drivers who lose their keys are forced to visit a dealership for a replacement.
The Center for Auto Safety, a consumer advocacy group founded by the Consumers Union and Ralph Nader, recently petitioned the Federal Trade Commission to investigate auto companies for not releasing the codes needed to duplicate keys and for charging high fees for replacement key and for reprogramming car computers with new codes.
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So this isn’t anything new. It’s just that prices have gotten out of hand. Look at this person on Reddit who recently replaced their i3 fob:
I got a second fob for mine recently and the key and setup at the dealership was 750$.
$750 for a key fob; unreal.
For what it’s worth, there are a few success stories floating out there of folks having local locksmiths come out and program keys for $300, but it looks like many of those had to use a different key than the one the i3 came with from the factory, and it seems people’s success rates on that vary.
Anyway, this is just me yelling at a cloud. I’ll be buying an Apple AirTag so I can make do with this single fob. No way am I spending over $550.
Image: eBay seller; DepositPhotos.com
How about this for sheer frustration: I own two 2015 Golf Sportwagen TDI’s (bought in 2017 after the stop-sales order was lifted), and the two keyfobs for one of them work completely fine with no issues. Both fobs for other one, however, eat a battery at least weekly, usually even more quickly. We have tried everything, and no one has come through for us to solve this problem, starting with the dealership. We have bought OEM fobs, but no one can program them to work with this car, including businesses that promise that they can do it for any make/model. We have consulted the interwebs, and tried all of the suggested “fixes” (such as keeping the two affected fobs away from the car and each other, in case something is triggering the fobs to be constantly transmitting, or sourcing “fresher” batteries). The tiny red light on the fob works as it should, lighting up when a button is pressed while the battery is still good, and not lighting up after it has died. Obviously, since it involves the fobs for only the one car, one would assume it must be the car, not the fobs, but no one can come up with any way to approach the problem from that direction.
I have bought DOZENS and DOZENS of CR2025 batteries. And, yes, we tried stuffing CR 2032 batteries in there; they work, but still drain as quickly as the CR 2025’s. I don’t even want to think about how much I would pay to make this problem go away. I would certainly pay a king’s ransom, at a minimum!
I have the same problem with the OEM replacement fob I got for my wife’s 2018 Ioniq. I’m $300 into it and have to pull the battery anytime I’m not using it.
Since the fobs are more expensive, they’re more secure, right? If not, then shouldn’t we just copy the least stolen car? If that’s too expensive of a solution then go down the line. I’m sure there’s a middle ground.
So the question is which the least stolen? Then again bad actors will still find a way.
We bought a Mazda5 used, and it only came with one key fob.
After owning it about a year, my wife called me because she had a flat tire.
I loaded up my floor jack and tools and drove out to rescue her and the kids.
When I got there, I located the emergency spare tire and pulled it out of the well. Under the tire was a small plastic pouch stuck to the metal. I pulled it off and kinda squeezed it to get a feel for what was inside.
The car locked and the horn honked.
Opened the pouch, and lo and behold, a second key fob!
Moral of this story: check your spare tire well.
My best mate has a secondhand Maserati, and it came with two keys.
Recently the battery died in the fib he was using, so he got the spare fib out so he could go buy a battery.
The spare fob didn’t work. He took it to bits and found it was empty, no electronics at all. A previous owner has screwed him. So he googled how much a replacement would cost, and decided it was far too expensive, and so drove his Ferrari to the shop to buy a new battery for his Maserati key.
If someone who has both a Maserati and a Ferrari thinks key fobs are too expensive then who the hell is buying them?
That cheap bastard! lol
Maybe if everyone stopped repeatedly losing $600 keys we’d all have Ferrari money.
I work Parts at a Big Three dealership and this is always blowing people’s minds. Even just the laser cut for that backup key insert is $65 on top of the key itself that costs as much or more. Fob (sold separately) will be $200-400 plus another $200 for programming through Service. You did get it programmed, right? If not, you’re not done spending yet because you’ve only bought a part that doesn’t recognize your vehicle yet.
And in the meantime I got a pair of Tesla keycards (they are sold in pairs) for $40 from their site, and paired them in about two seconds. I also bought a (quite overpriced) fob for $175 and paired it in about the same time.
And all this is a backup, as the main key is on my phone.
It’s a choice.
BMW’s keyfobs are matched with the CAS module. When you give the VIN to the dealership, they encode the fob by the VIN.
You can get keyfobs cheaper by letting independents with the right tools scan the car and encode a new fob, but this breaks the dealer connection. Any fob purchased from the dealer in the future will no longer work.
I used to work for a place that did keys and fobs. BMW/Mercedes/Porsche/Audi/VW we couldn’t do, but we could do all the domestic/Korean/Japanese manufacturers and I can 100% say the pricing is all a scam – I was embarassed quoting prices to customers knowing what we were paying for the fobs and how little it cost me to do the programming – and we were significantly cheaper than a dealership.
These kinds of key fob markups make US prescription drug maker CEOs blush!
You know, I am very much against Chinese cars, but it’s stories like this that make me what BYD and Geely to completely take over the industry because the established carmakers have gotten too comfortable charging customers obnoxious prices.
Costco has these car key guys set up in the parking lot every now and then. Maybe there are better deals at the Costco actual setup, but on their website my 2013 Toyota proximity key is still $300 if I want it “ready to go” when it is sent to me. $220 where I guess the emergency key is uncut but I could still get the fob working myself?
Just punching in some other random cars, seems the mail order and self-programming option for my car isn’t available for all. For example, a 2024 Lexus ES300h requires their technician onsite, and the service costs $550. Imagine that is probably cheaper than the dealership though.
No options available for a BMW i3.
When you buy a modern, used car with fobs, always make sure it comes with 2 key fobs. I learned this expensive lesson about 16 years ago with my Q45. It was over $400, even back then.
The fob in my MIL’s 90s BMW failed due to a non-replaceable battery inside. I was able to carefully cut around the plastic shell to split it in half, then I cut out the spot welded-in battery and installed a new battery that can be replaced. I glued the halves back together with some E6000 glue and taped it up until the glue set. That was years ago now. Only cost $2 for the battery.
2014 Chevy Captiva & 2009 Mitsubishi Outlander – $300 for chipped keys on 10 and 15 year old cars. Totally ridiculous..
Yes! That key! When I bought my 2016 X1 used I was lied to by BMW of Denver that I could get a used key and reprogram it. At their shop! I showed up a week later and “nope!” We just have to take super good care of the only key we have.
Last December I bought a ’23 Challenger that came with one fob. I called the Dodge dealer was quoted a little over $700. I called a local automotive locksmith who came to my house, programmed a new fob that looked EXACTLY like the original, and cut the emergency key for $175. Sometimes I’m happy to spend money.
My Mk. VII Golf is quite similar; when I lost one of my keys in fall 2024, I was quoted around $500 CAD for the replacement key and programming from the dealer. I was about to pay for it, when by chance I noticed a posting on a neighbourhood Facebook group that someone had found a VW key that looked suspiciously like mine. I arranged a meetup, drove the car to the finder’s house, verified that it did indeed unlock/lock my car’s doors, and then gave the young man who found it $40. I told him to buy his favourite snacks, get some V-bucks, or do whatever he wanted with the money, because he had just saved me a whole lot more!
This makes me recall the time my Dad drove his IH Travelall using the key from the family Rambler. Same key! Suppliers were shared among manufacturers, especially the independents.
When I bought my ’95 Geo Tracker, it just had one key. Of course, it’s a basic metal key, so even though the hardware store didn’t have the right blank, it was cheap and easy to get a locksmith to cut me a spare one. The weird part was the blank used for the new key. The one side of the key says “Briggs & Stratton,” while the other side says “Tracker”. The Briggs & Stratton side is weird enough, being a completely different type of machinery than the car, but the Tracker side is what especially intrigues me. Is it total coincidence that the name of the car ended up on the key? I can’t imagine it being such a specific key blank that only that one car would use it, so maybe it’s just a generic name that happened to match? I really have no idea
Boat key. https://www.trackerboats.com/
Ah, that makes sense! So it was just coincidence that the name matched the car!
Briggs and Stratton were the primary OE key and lock supplier for US mfgs for decades and still supply a lot of OE keys and locks, though they changed the name to Strattec.
Interesting, thanks!
I wouldn’t usually expect to find anything actually GM-associated on the Tracker, but the keys do seem like something they might change from the Suzuki standard
Re keys as a dealer profit center: I lost the second key fob to my JL Wrangler during the pandemic chip shortage. I waited a few months after I had read that CJDR were now shipping vehicles with two fobs again, and inquired about a replacement. First stop was getting a fob from Amazon and cutting/programming it, but 0/3 locksmiths I contacted had the required latest model unit to do the programming.
Went to my nearby dealer: $475. Holy crap! Called the dealer one state away where I had bought the vehicle: if I waited 3 weeks for stock to come in it would be $325. Easy decision. And I don’t think they were doing at a loss as a favor, I think the local dealer was ripping people off.
I lost one of the fobs on my 12 year old Tesla model S, I purchased a keyfob from someone on Ebay for a bit less than $100. The car was able to pair to the new keyfob in about 5 minutes and I had 2 keyfobs again. I could not do that with my nearly the same age Chrysler Town and Country. I don’t understand why every auto maker does not allow the programming as easy as the Tesla.
Check your car insurance to see if they offer lost key replacement. You may already be paying for it and not realize, or the cost to add it is minimal. They have no idea how many keys you had when you bought the car, and often using these extra riders like this doesn’t count as a true claim so you insurance doesn’t go up at all.
Did that recently with a newer Ford that only had 1 key. My insurance reimbursed me entirely for the replacement key and programming.
Well they know how many keys he has now.
Ha, well, $577 is cheaper than when I had to replace one key on my old 2008 A4 like 10 years ago. That cost $750. New key plus something about having to reprogram the immobilizer codes on all the keys (meaning the other primary key plus valet key). That was painful, not the least of all because my wife up and lost the key. Now all of our keys have AirTags on them.
Related topic, our new to us Ioniq 6 came with 2 key fobs PLUS you can pair it with a newer iPhone using NFC, so the phone itself can be used to lock, unlock and start the car. No app and no key fob needed. , just hold the phone by the door handle and it unlocks, put it o the charge pad and the car starts and you can drive off. It’s just like an extra key. It actually works.
I see Kia offers not only the phone option but you can also buy a NFC chip card and use that. Based on its size, I guess, you’d just stick it in your wallet with your credit cards. The card was like $30.
Lexus used a sidewinder key design in the 90s. These cost $25 to replace at a locksmith.
Keys are 1000% a profit center for automakers and dealerships at this point. Most egrgious example? IMHO that would be Mercedes of the DaimlerChrysler era and a bit after. Exact same key as a billion Chryslers, just a little Mercedes star stuck on it instead of the Pentastar or Jeep logo, for well more than double what a Chrysler dealership would charge you for one. Over $700 for my ’14 E350 (I never actually got a second one). The more recent ones are probably even more. But even my ’94 Volvo was over $400 JUST for a remote fob – I already had a key.
What’s obnoxious is that chipped keys don’t have to be expensive. I got a couple new, chip keys for my mother’s Camry for $25ea. Programming them to the car was sticking them in the ignition and doing a sequence of twists and turns like the secret unlock code to an old video game. But they really do help keep your car from disappearing – just ask all those KIA owners whose cars didn’t have them, then word got out about it on the Interwebs.
The costs – such as they are – come from the internal security requirements and training and not really the hardware.
Most dealerships will want to validate ownership of the vehicle, validate you are who you claim to be, and then find the one dude who knows what the hell BMW or Audi was doing when they wrote the software to actually program the thing. The verification bits cost about $10-20 in transactional expenses and probably another $30 in human time, and the tech doing the programming probably has a fully burdened cost of around $150/hour and it’s going to take him about 10-30 minutes.
I agree it’s stupid, but it’s designed this way to avoid would-be thieves from simply being able to either obtain keys easily using false ID or from being able to program off-the-shelf components to unlock and turn on cars.
30 years ago, cheaper-than-dirty (police supply catalog) would sell you the whole ring of GM or Ford keys (only something like 100-odd keys in use; Toyota and Isuzu were even more limited) for $400 or $500, but a couple hundred of that went into verifying you were an actual locksmith or ordering on a real department’s letterhead. Sort of the same goal here – security through obfuscation and limited access where price is the gating factor.
It’s waaaay deeper than that with the Europeans. The security systems send tendrils through every electronic module in the cars. But given the absolute arms race of car theft that resulted from the fall of The Wall, it is understandable.
But ultimately, the “cost” is mostly profit margin for the actual key.
One of my keys got stolen once so I decided to re-key the whole car and the Mazda dealership only charged $1338 for a door, trunk, and glovebox tumbler replaced, 2 new main keys, 2 fobs, and 2 valet keys, and reprogramming the immobilizer on my RX8. Are you sure you want a German sports car? 🙂
Good God, that was brutal! $1338, wow, did they provide lube?
Just buy one that has two keys, and/or don’t lose your keys.