Car Keys FAQ

This is a very vague question and requires a lot of information before we can give you a definitive answer. To make it simple, you can provide us with your vehicle registration and post code on the quote page to get a simple quote and provide 80% the information we need to quote you. The price of the key all depends on your vehicle's difficulty to communicate with the immobiliser and retrieve the pin code. Many factors affect the total price of the service including the price of the supplied key, risk and difficulty involved programming, time it takes to process, and whether you've lost your keys or have a spare.

Losing car keys is actually not as uncommon as you may think. People tend to drop and misplace them during visits outside of their home which makes it hard to have hope that your key is sitting somewhere safe, untouched, and cozy. In this type of situation, you would normally have a backup key to get your car running, but some people don't have this come to mind and end up being keyless. It's now time to call a locksmith to decode your lock so a new key can be made. There's always hope, but in some cases your only option is to call the dealers to get you out of this mess. Try giving us a call, we can help most cars get married to a new key within the hour - and yes, we also divorce your previous keys just in case they show up at any point, probably with a new man...

House keys only cost £15 at most to have cut, why are car keys so expensive? The average cost of a new car key in the UK is £261 as of 2021. Whilst most are in the low £200s, some keys such as those from Merecedes can average cost around £400! Of course, calling out auto locksmiths like AutoEC, the price can be nearly halved from that of the dealer, but even then, why are they so expensive? To put it simply, modern car keys are designed to deter theft. This means a lot of effort has been involved to prevent accessing your car and driving off with it. There are electronics in the car with passwords as well as electronics in the key with data that match that of the modules inside the vehicle. Special tools costing thousands of pounds are used to change or read this data and can be a lengthy process. All that, along with the fact the key needs cutting and the key fobs produced add to the cost of the service.

Of course! A good locksmith will always provide aftermarket keys that can sometimes outperform the original keys longevity and durability. This means that they're totally safe to use on your car. The only risks present with aftermarket keys are during the programming procedure - so don't call any old locksmith with a tool and fingers, use someone you know and trust to access your car and program the modules. The bill for replacing and coding those modules are way, way bigger.