Excerpts from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114187087816593304.html Car manufacturers are increasingly limiting locksmiths' access to the information needed to program vehicles and make new electronic keys. They say that making key information more available would diminish the effectiveness of their anti-theft systems. But with more dealer profit coming from service and parts departments than new-car sales, car makers also have an interest in directing consumers to their dealerships and to the roadside-assistance programs many of them have launched. Several states are moving to make it easier to get replacement car keys. A bill introduced in Maryland would require manufacturers to give auto owners 24/7 access to information sufficient to make a key reproduction. Similar legislation is pending in Virginia and was recently introduced in California. Some new products try to solve the problem. Companies have come up with systems that enable drivers to unlock their cars with a Bluetooth device. And the locksmith industry has developed some tools to crack auto makers' codes. While car makers oppose legislation, they have recently started working with the locksmith industry on another solution. A vehicle-security committee is working on a system in which registered locksmiths who pay a fee and meet other criteria like undergoing background checks could call or go online to obtain key information from car makers. But as more cars have the new systems, manufacturers are making less key information available to locksmiths. Chrysler makes the pin codes required for programming its Sentry Keys available only to its dealers and its roadside-assistance program. Replacement Lexus keys have to be purchased through dealers, though Toyota keys don't. BMW and VW allow only their dealers to order replacement keys. Last year, GM stopped providing key-making information to locksmiths other than those working through GM's roadside-assistance program. GM's OnStar service also provides assistance with lockouts. It opens a car with a remote door unlock if a key is inside and sends a locksmith from the company's roadside-assistance program if keys are lost. Car makers argue that the inconvenience of having to go to a dealership or wait a few hours or days for a key is nowhere near as inconvenient as having to deal with a stolen vehicle. -- Marriage is very much like a birthday candle, in that the flames of passion burn brightest when the wick of intimacy is first ignited by the disposable butane lighter of physical attraction, but sooner or later, the heat of familiarity causes the wax of boredom to drip all over the vanilla frosting of novelty and the shredded coconut of romance. ....Dave Barry
Tommyrot. Many cars are stolen now WITH the keys. houses are often being broken into to get keys, or sneak-theieves walk into offices, locker rooms, schools, hospitals etc. and take the keys. In fact, people, at least in europe, are incrasingly being threatened with violence to hand over keys, a sort of carjacking@home. once they have the keys, doesn't matter how much they restrict key info. BBC have even done a prorgam on it called 'Car wars' showing the UK's only undercover high speed pursuit team, and this is what they mainly deal with .
Last time (2002) I bought a spare key for my Honda it was a "dealer only" item and $40. Looks like a scam to me
Europe has plenty of guns. Alas, they're mainly in the hands of the criminals. Have to note, lived in Liverpool for 20+ years, which some consider to be a bad city crime wise. in that time, 1 burgalry, and my car stolen once (a custom Mg metro twin-turbo, ina metro city bodyshell - recovered 9 hours after I reported it).
I recall a few years ago the police in Phoenix got into a gunfight on the street with some Bad Guy. Two local citizens joined in. YeeHaw! Seriously, though, I lived in truly bad neighborhoods for several years when I was in my teens and early 20s; areas where the police would drive through but wouldn't stop at night. In the worst of those nobody ever bothered anybody's car on the street. Everybody knew a quick death was too much to hope for if they were caught. Mike
etc. An ideal sytem would have normal keys and fobs that can unlock the car remotely, just as now, but with a password or code something like when you password your computer programs. Before you could start the car you would input a simple code. The inspiration with this idea is that if you were held under duress or forced by a carjacker or rapist to give up the code, you could give them a duress code that would start the car, but transmit a help signal to the GPS system that would also track you and get help. It could also stall the engine after 5 minutes, or whatever. My Ford Freestar has a keypad on the driver's door that permits me to get in if I lock the keys in the car. Gary Eickmeier
My son's first car was a carbureted Subaru with an electric fuel pump. He put a switch in line with the pump and hid the switch where he could turn it off without being noticed as he got out of the car, the idea being he could leave the car to a carjacker and run, then come back and pick up the car a block away after the float bowl ran dry. Any carjacker would assume the car just crapped out... heck, any passerby would assume that car wouldn't make it far anyway! Mike
Clever. I just don't see the utility of all these chipped keys. If the bad guys get a hold of one, they can take your car anyway. It's harder to use a dummy key to start a car if you jimmy your way in, but they don't usually rely on keys to start a stolen car anyway. And it makes obtaining another key much more difficult and expensive. Maybe we'll have a 9-1-1 button on our cel phones for duress in the future. Gary Eickmeier
