On the off chance that you are like other people who have a vehicle in their possession, you most likely never noticed that the same key you use on a daily basis to unlock your vehicle has an electronic chip within it that corresponds with your vehicle’s on-board computer system every time you start the vehicle. In the locksmith business these keys are referred to as transponder keys, pretty much all vehicles that were made after the mid 90’s came and still comes with a transponder chipped key.
Ever since these innovative keys showed up in the automotive market, no more are the days where people were able to go to the local hardware store and have their vehicle’s key duplicated. In today’s world, in a situation where the keys to your vehicle were lost or broke the best way to get another one made is either contact the dealership and pay top dollar which would include having your vehicle towed to the dealership lot in addition to have the key made and programmed. Or, call a local locksmith in Reno to take care of your situation.
Most automotive locksmith companies nowadays are offering mobile services which imply they will travel to where you are, originate and program the key on the spot. Not only they will most likely charge less than the dealership, the upside would be the fact that you won’t have to tow your vehicle anywhere to have the service performed.
In spite of the fact that Reno locksmiths will save you time and money with regards to making a replacement for your transponder key, the key itself is an expensive item regardless. The cost for a transponder key can change depending on the make and model, however, for the most part it would range from $40 to $120 for the locksmith before even doing any work, which is one of the reasons it cost such a great amount of money to get a replacement key.
Additionally, most types of transponder keys require high tech laser key cutting equipment which normally cost a lot of money which is part of the reason not many locksmith companies offer automotive key origination services. Locksmith companies that do use them, make sure they are kept in the service vehicles at all times as they are commonly used and they enable the locksmith to cut pretty much any type of key available in the market. So now you see that you need to pay for the key itself and for the machine that is going to cut your key yet there is still one more thing that affects the high cost of making the key which is the program code.
The electronic transponder chip inside the key supposes to correspond with the vehicle’s on-board computer system in order to get approval to start the vehicle. The codes are different for each manufacturer and additionally cost money to buy and it would need to be purchased by the locksmith for the particular vehicle in order to have the key programmed correctly to the vehicle. The best way to avoid such expense is asking spare keys up front when buying a vehicle. It is much cheaper to create a new key using the existing key than originating a key without it.