I’d like you all to say Hello to Lance.

Well actually this is Lance #2 and he has been with me since the middle of 2011 – Thursday 30 June 2011 in fact.  That was the day I first introduced you to this particular Lance, (which you can read about here.)  That was the day I brought him home and he has been a favourite of mine ever since.

Thankfully in all that time he has only had one fault.  That’s if you call only having one key a fault and really and truly it wasn’t his fault  at all because I had left all the haggling to a son and it turned out he drove such a hard bargain it would appear there wasn’t any leeway for the sellers to provide another one – there only having been one when it was bought in/exchanged from the previous owners.

Anyway I was sure that wouldn’t be a problem, being a modern swish bang close the door with the key model aka remote keyless entry I couldn’t get up to my old tricks of locking the key in the car and I could always get another cut sometime.

This is the original key which did what it was supposed to do – open the door, start the engine, lock the door.  The big black blobby bit has little buttons that also open the door and lock the door and the boot as well!  Being the original key it’s a bit grubby – it also shows signs of where it was held together with sticky tape and super glue!

This is a bright shiny new key that opens and closes the doors and starts Lance’s engine.  It is also is a very expensive shiny new key.  Ask me how I know 🙂

Unfortunately just last year the old key started to fall apart, well actually, I dropped it and it cracked up the top near where the key is secured into the black blobby bit (with a teeny tiny screw) which meant that as a result of the turning movement when I turned the key one way and then the other the casing near the top loosened and got to the point where I’d turn it off, pull to remove the key and the black thing would come off in my hand leaving the key in the ignition. I’d have to fumble around to shove the key back in the slot replace the key into the sensor then squeeze it together to be able to remove it from the ignition, Super glue along with sticky tape worked for a while and you know if something is working you sort of forget to fix it lol

We arrive home from our trip towards the end of October last year and first time out in Lance the b…… thing fell apart again.  So that was it – back to the dealers I go to finally get that replacement – and what a pallaver that was!

Yes madame we have a key, oh great I really only need it to start the car, I’ve got that little black thing here I can use as well to open and lock the door.  Oh no madam, there are no keys just for that, you have to buy the kit and kaboodle, it won’t work other wise.  Oh dear, ok, how long to cut it – oh madam you have to pop up the road to the locksmith and he’ll do it for you.  And then come back make an appointment and we’ll ‘tune’ it to your car.   We can fit you in later if you like.

So two hours later and nearly $350 lighter I drive home with one brand new locking device for Lance and another that The Golfer thinks he might be able to fix ‘properly’ using araldite (seems the superglue didn’t work on the material the black blobby thing is made from)

Key #1 now fixed sits very forlornly on the rack in the laundry watching as I grab the shiny new expensive one to take on a jaunt but knowing full well I will be glad to see him sometime because he is well aware of my habit of ‘losing my keys’.  (There is nothing worse than wandering round the house looking in every nook and cranny muttering to myself – ‘where on earth did I put them when I came in??’)  He also knows I won’t be leaving Lance in the driveway now as I once used to so I could nip up the street in The Golfer’s grey chariot because I hadn’t  located them quickly enough!

My middle name is Mary – it goes well with Catherine
I do wonder sometimes if procrastination should take it’s place 🙂

Addition

Here’s a little bit of information on the cost side of things.
My uncut key plus remote cost me (from the dealer) nearly $250 – then on top if that there was the locksmith’s cost for cutting the actual key and then the labour cost at the dealers to ‘tune/programme it to Lance’s specifications

Here’s a couple of articles on why we have to pay so much
http://www.lga.org.au/news/why-are-modern-car-keys-so-expensive  aus
http://conversation.which.co.uk/transport-travel/car-keys-expensive-replace uk
http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/the-high-cost-of-losing-your-keys.html usa