Hey guys,(and girls), I figured i'd share a quick story so that people have another examply of an actual price paid for a service so they have a better idea of what to shoot for themselves.
When i got my 4R it came with one master key. That's it. No spare keys, no keyless entry, just one key ,and that key had worn plastic, which I was afraid would break. So I swung into internet shopping mode and found a place that had both the transponder key blanks and (gently) used keyless fobs and ordered them up. I paid $30 for the remote, and about $28 for two blank keys (plus a little shipping)
Next was programming the keyless entry. This turned out to be a piece of cake, the fob came with a link to a site with detailed instructions and I was done opening and closing my doors, turning and unturning the ignition and standing on my head in no more than about 5 minutes.
Finally I needed the keys programmed. Frickin pain in the butt calling everyone under the sun trying to get a good deal on the programming! One tip I would give is don't bother calling anyone with "24/7" or "Emergency" in their names, they are all "mobile" and charge about $120 to show up and then another $80 per key! The dealer wanted $97 to do it and other estimates ranged over $120 per key. I finally tracked down a guy who did it for $5 per key to cut and a flat $50 fee for two keys to program. They did the job in about 20 minutes altogether and I gave them a $10 tip to reward their good price and for getting me to work on time!
Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is: shop around. I got two keys cut and programmed, plus a remote for $120ish. I felt like i got a good deal, but like I said, it is at least a baseline for this kind of work if somebody wants to shop around. And feel free to PM me if you want the names of the people I dealt with.
/cool story brah
When i got my 4R it came with one master key. That's it. No spare keys, no keyless entry, just one key ,and that key had worn plastic, which I was afraid would break. So I swung into internet shopping mode and found a place that had both the transponder key blanks and (gently) used keyless fobs and ordered them up. I paid $30 for the remote, and about $28 for two blank keys (plus a little shipping)
Next was programming the keyless entry. This turned out to be a piece of cake, the fob came with a link to a site with detailed instructions and I was done opening and closing my doors, turning and unturning the ignition and standing on my head in no more than about 5 minutes.
Finally I needed the keys programmed. Frickin pain in the butt calling everyone under the sun trying to get a good deal on the programming! One tip I would give is don't bother calling anyone with "24/7" or "Emergency" in their names, they are all "mobile" and charge about $120 to show up and then another $80 per key! The dealer wanted $97 to do it and other estimates ranged over $120 per key. I finally tracked down a guy who did it for $5 per key to cut and a flat $50 fee for two keys to program. They did the job in about 20 minutes altogether and I gave them a $10 tip to reward their good price and for getting me to work on time!
Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is: shop around. I got two keys cut and programmed, plus a remote for $120ish. I felt like i got a good deal, but like I said, it is at least a baseline for this kind of work if somebody wants to shop around. And feel free to PM me if you want the names of the people I dealt with.
/cool story brah
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