prius owners (again)

[historian]

Has anyone here lost their key and managed to replace by other means besides the dealers? thanks

[postulater]

1. Oooooooh. that sucks.

good luck.

[BeHereNow]

2. Mine came with a chip, just for emergencies such as this.

If you end up having to go through the dealer, make sure you get
a back up chip.
Obviously they make them, or I wouldn't have one.
It may be a new thing, I don't know, but I would think
the technology exists now.
Damn, I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to lose my key
and not have a back up.

Let me know what happens-
BHN

[historian]

4. groan

they didnt give me a back up chip and they want the paltry sum of 300 for a new one! I thought that if i buy an uncoded one from ebay the dealer would have to code it for me about 30 bucks i think. Ever heard of doing that?

[BeHereNow]

7. $300 dollars!!!!???? That is criminal!

Sorry, I don't know about the un-coded ones on ebay.
I guess you could always ask the dealer BEFORE you buy one from ebay.
Sounds like you're screwed though- I would guess the dealer will
do everything they can to get out of coding one for you.
That would be my guess anyway.

Damn, I think I'll stick one of those return address things to my keys.
Just in case.

Sorry to hear of your trouble.
No one needs added stress these days.

BHN:hug:

[historian]

9. thanks for the kind words

i bought two cars from the same dealer and when they quoted 300 i asked them whether they would like me to return again when i want another car. Oh yes they said we welcome you as a prized customer. Well 300 for a key you can kiss this customer goodbye. No no wait let me have your phone number and ill talk to the manager and get back to you. This was yesterday. Well wait and see.

[Renew Deal]

3. Do you still have a key or have you lost them all?

I think you need to get the part from Toyota. Technically they are the only ones that can program it, but you can find instructions at priuschat.com.

[historian]

5. i have one key left

[Renew Deal]

6. Then get a new key from toyota. It's not very expensive.

If I remember correctly, programming the key was more expensive than the key. But I could be wrong. The whole thing is like $300

[BeHereNow]

8. Be sure to put some sort of return address on your remaining key!

Just in case you lose it too!

I'm sure going to make a point of it now that I've heard what you're going through!

BHN

[NYC_SKP]

10. Again, go sign up on Priuschat.com discussion board.

http://priuschat.com/forums/

I've solved many problems with the help of that discussion board.

:P

[boppers]

11. I'm in a similar boat.

The problem with these systems is that the computers inside the keys (yes, computers) are expensive chunks of technology. The encoding is a trivial numeric sequence, but the encryption hardware, broadcast and reception hardware, crammed into the key, is not that cheap.

If I was thinking like a professional car thief, who wanted to make Prius keys, I'd likely want to get key blanks, along with the software to code the keys, and dupe off (or brute force, might take years) the keys... so dealers are likely your only option.

Can you shop dealers against each other, and get them to try and price-war for your business?