The Pin Code Panic - Ad Nauseam...
From a AAA Press release regarding Senate Bill 1542:"We have tried to resolve this issue voluntarily with the car manufacturers, but they have dragged their feet for the past two years as we have pushed for them to adopt a convenient system that would allow motorists to quickly obtain replacement car keys," Bisno said. "The Auto Club believes that when a motorist buys a vehicle, he or she also buys everything needed to operate it, including all the information necessary to make a replacement key."
The main problem with this continued, foaming at the mouth, panic inducing rhetoric, is that Consumers who buy a new car are already given, in 99% of the cases, ALL the information they need to do exactly that; make a replacement key. Check your owners manual. If there are no funny codes in there, call your dealer and ask why the hell not?
Yep, the pin codes, the key codes, the always off MPG ratings, etc. The problem is, consumers either a) lose this info, not knowing that it's important, or not having been thoroughly educated by their salesperson how important it is, or b) they simply don't KNOW they have it, or c) in that 1% of the time, they never got it.
Me personally? I don't think that it's incumbent on the auto industry to staff a 24 hour hotline to give out information people were already given, and have subsequently lost, or don't know they already have. Don't get me wrong, auto manufacturers are a pain in MY patootie too, and I'm no particular friend of theirs, but I don't want the cost of MY new cars going up because people lose their information, or because the Auto Club wants to try for a bargain on the price they pay for new keys. (*See why this isn't going to work out for them below.)
Many other drivers needing keys can still use a locksmith to get one, but must endure a long wait and/or high expense while the locksmith tears apart a steering column or car door to obtain information needed to replace the key...
Again, the need to "tears apart a steering column" is extremely rare (usually only older GM models, with rare exceptions, and most of them don't use chip keys anyway, so what's that point again?), and indicates far more of an incompetency issue with the locksmith you're using, than it does a "need" to tear anything down to get anything!
And again, "tears apart a steering column" is a HUGE misnomer. Models that require this need ONLY the very upper part of the steering wheel removed. A competent locksmith can do this in minutes, and have it back on in minutes.
A final note or two...
*The cost will to create high security code cut & programmed keys will not change much if at all if legislation is passed providing pins & codes on demand, as the programming equipment the locksmith is required to have to program the keys, codes available or not, is the main price setting determination, not the amount of labor required. You can bet the cost of cars will go up however, if auto makers are required to staff 24 hour hotlines to keep giving out the same information time and again. :) FYI: Codes machines for locksmiths run anywhere from $7000 to $12000, with bi-annually, or annual updates mandatory, each costing in the thousands, while the machines to cut high security keys run upwards of $20,000 plus. BOTH are required, sometimes more than one code machine, depending on what types of high security keys you're wanting to create.
"...quickly obtain replacement car keys..." as noted in the first quote above is as "misinformation" as it can get. The main time commitment required to create transponder keys, easily 90% of the time commitment, is in the programming, NOT in obtaining the codes. It'll still take nearly as long as it does without the key & pin codes.
*sigh*
Don't get me wrong, having the pin & key codes for those VERY FEW models that require them would be handy. I'll take 'em if you got 'em. It'll save me 5 minutes. But it's not a make or break issue to create keys, and I'm awfully tired of seeing this type of panic inducing rhetoric...
Rant over...
