Once all cars have Smart Keys....

[d_Random]

Will there be a decline in lockout cars?
No more car key cutting?

Your thoughts...

[victorylocksmith]

you can still lock your phone in the car, also, with all the tech that is going into cars, there are HUGE issues as far as security goes now. cars are very susceptible to being hacked electronically. something has to give sooner or later and these issues will have to be addressed. there is also the issue of cars being cheaper and cheaper and the price of these laser cut transponder keys just keeps going up. sooner or later something has to give because i already see how a lot of cars are just being junked because the hardware that recognizes the transponder somehow gets damaged in say a crash and it is more worthwhile to junk a car easily worth 5k+ because the key hardware is too expensive to justify the costs.

[Sinifar]

I have seen this coming for ages, and so have most other smiths around here. There are a few of them concentrating on Auto work only and there is now a separate certification for Auto only. But for the most part, with all the new stuff, and as complex as it has become, the market has pretty much dried up.

I still go out and do some of the older stuff. Back in the day it was 30% of our work, since about 2000 it has dropped off the map. Today I have a big box filled with auto keys and the 1200 punch can make most of what I need, so if I get a car call for something which is non transponder, I may take it for giggles, and go out and do it for the quick buck.

The subject has been discussed here and on other boards for ages, the cost is prohibitive for the average smith to get into - stay in your niche market, like mine, commercial, and if you have the time, make a few auto keys if they come by you.

AND that was really the deciding factor. HOW many call are we turning down because we don't have the big investment in the new gear? It turns out to be less that 4 in a quarter, or about once a month we MAY get a call for making auto keys. Even opening cars has fallen off, although I will go out and open one again for the quick bucks, but they first have to call us! AND there are very few calls anymore for that either.

It was a big part of our operations at one time. It has become something to look at and review from time to time - but - knowing how long it will take to get the ROI, we just decided to forget it.

Again, as one old smith told me ages ago -- "STAY IN YOUR CORNER!" So I did, and I am making a good living working on commercial only.

Sinifar

[2octops]

Will there be a decline in lockout cars?
No more car key cutting?

Your thoughts...

To answer your first question, yes lockouts in general are on the decline however there are still many ways for them to occur.

To answer your second question. Kinda, sorta, maybe but not really. The standard, old go out and cut a new key is headed the way of the dodo bird. However, replacing lost or broken keys is actually up since these new systems have hit the market. They are delicate pieces of equipment and can be easily damaged by physical abuse, moisture and sometimes the electronics just die. Of course people will always lose them also.

We are currently making keys for 15-20 vehicles a day or more. It is very rare that we ever see anything that is not high security, transponder equipped or just a smart key. In theory, we still make keys to cars all day every day but it's a much different process than it was 10 years or more ago. The equipment required is extremely expensive, inventory on hand is extremely expensive and there is an insane amount of training involved to learn to use the new equipment to it's full potential.

[d_Random]

Playing devil's advocate:

The American Automobile Association reports that it gets calls from more than 4,000,000 locked-out motorists every year. That’s up from 500,000 or less just a few years ago. The culprit, according to AAA, are keyless ignition and increasingly sophisticated electronic anti-theft systems.

Read more

[victorylocksmith]

increased 'sophisticated' electronics just mean that it's easier to get your car hacked and things stolen. also, the link you just posted creates even more issues for the vehicle owner because if you lose your keys and you have a fancy keyless ride, now you really have to pay A LOT of money in order to get things working again. people are always going to lose their keys, the numbers when it comes to getting locked out of the car is lower because now sometimes they can use their phone to get in but if they lose their keys, they will pay easily threefold what they would have in the past.

in short, lockouts will always happen but now they have slightly declined and new more lucrative issues have come up but they come with a steep equipment buy in.

[dll932]

One man's opinion: From the early 80s to the early 90s I was a 'smith on the road. We got so many calls coming in we had to turn some of them away. A good number of those were car jobs-openings, fitting keys, repairs. I know a guy who bought in to the newer stuff and I have to say, I'm glad I don't work on cars anymore. Business is down in general compared to past years and the buy-in for modern car work is was too costly for the amount of business most 'smiths get.

Ultimately, keys with chips in them are a pain for all concerned, and all you need to steal a car is a tow truck.

YMMV.

[victorylocksmith]

everyone wants to hate on automotive locksmithing and how much it costs to do nowadays. ironically enough, these same guys are the people that refuse to invest in the new technology to really see what the profits are all about. well i can say from firsthand experience while working at shops, it definitely CAN PAY OFF BIG TIME. as with anything however, you have to spend money to make money and inherently this strategy poses significant risks. however, i can 100% say that if you do it right and get the proper inflow of clients, you can make a KILLING. a lot of dealers don't even stock older transponders so if you can afford to carry the blanks for popular 5+ year old cars such as HONDA, TOYOTA, FORD, CHEVY etc., you will make a killing. especially if you get big time into LEXUS because the keys they make for the cars are complete crap. half the time the shell snaps because it is plastic attached to a metal key blade. people are charging for a plastic SHELL that just holds the key together, $50. If you got big time into automotive and had reasonable business, like 3 calls a day, 5 days a week, you could potentially pay off the cost of machines and equipment in 1-3 months at max. ive seen some auto guys who can easily make $200-$1000 in one call. imagine if you could get two of those a day? i digress, a big part of it will be learning how to microsolder and work on AUDI BMW MERCEDES VW and bypassing the machine to get the keys to work. if you can learn to do that and market yourself, i would be surprised if you didn't make a killing considering the dealers and a few badass locksmiths are the only ones who can make keys like that and the dealer is easily charging over $500 per key.

also, for all the guys who say that they have a bunch of auto blanks lying around that just take up space and never have been bought, it may be possible there time will come. i used to work in a really snazzy part of town by the beach and there were these obscenely rich fold who would pay ANYTHING to have working boat and vintage car keys made. one guy would make easily $500+ per client by hand fabricating a key to work the lock.

[GWiens2001]

A quick method to keep your car with the ‘smart keys’ (keyless opening and start) from being opened or started when at a hotel.

Am at a hotel right now, starting a trip. My vehicle (a 2013 Ford) has keyless everything. Don’t want people getting into the car tonight, so here is a simple trick I am using (and it works).

You may have heard of building a Faraday Cage to protect the keys from signals. This is much cheaper and easier.

1. Get a soda can.



Use a cement curb or sidewalk to grind around the entire top of the soda can.



Lift off the top that is now cut free by the grinding on the curb.



(Wipe out the soda inside the can, too).



Take your keys:



and put them in the can.



Put the lid back on.



As my son can confirm, you can have the can right next to the lock, and the door still won’t open. Nor will the vehicle start.

Cheap and effective. Hope this helps some people out.

Gordon

NOTE: Aluminum foil works well, too. But did not have any with me on this trip. Soda cans are everywhere.

[2octops]

You're only blocking the signal from the prox fobs from reaching the car. You're doing a great job of protecting the keys.

You need to put the entire car in there to protect it.

[dll932]

You're only blocking the signal from the prox fobs from reaching the car. You're doing a great job of protecting the keys.

You need to put the entire car in there to protect it.

Maybe not:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/style ... ieves.html

"When I told him my story, he knew immediately what had happened. The teenagers, he said, likely got into the car using a relatively simple and inexpensive device called a “power amplifier.”

He explained it like this: In a normal scenario, when you walk up to a car with a keyless entry and try the door handle, the car wirelessly calls out for your key so you don’t have to press any buttons to get inside. If the key calls back, the door unlocks. But the keyless system is capable of searching for a key only within a couple of feet.

Mr. Danev said that when the teenage girl turned on her device, it amplified the distance that the car can search, which then allowed my car to talk to my key, which happened to be sitting about 50 feet away, on the kitchen counter. And just like that, open sesame
“It’s a bit like a loudspeaker, so when you say hello over it, people who are 100 meters away can hear the word, ‘hello,’ ” Mr. Danev said. “You can buy these devices anywhere for under $100.” He said some of the lower-range devices cost as little as $17 and can be bought online on sites like eBay, Amazon and Craigslist.

Mr. Danev said his company was in talks with several car manufacturers to install a chip that can tell how far the key is from the car, thereby defeating the power-amplifier trick.
While I can’t be 100 percent certain this is the device they used to get into my car, until car companies solve the problem, he said, the best way to protect my car is to “put your keys in the freezer, which acts as a Faraday Cage, and won’t allow a signal to get in or out.”"

[CMS_SAFECRAKR1]

I do enough lockouts from people with fobs and prox that let batteries die or get them soaked in the local amusement park water rides that i dont see a decline coming anytime soon.

Make sure to stock rubbing alcohol and can-air for cleaning those wet remotes, and stock common batteries for auto remotes if you dont because they will soon come in handy if you do alot of lockouts.

Also learn to solder. Always running into broken battery clips in GM remotes that 5 minutes can fix for a fee, pass or fail.

[dll932]

I do enough lockouts from people with fobs and prox that let batteries die or get them soaked in the local amusement park water rides that i dont see a decline coming anytime soon.

Make sure to stock rubbing alcohol and can-air for cleaning those wet remotes, and stock common batteries for auto remotes if you dont because they will soon come in handy if you do alot of lockouts.

Also learn to solder. Always running into broken battery clips in GM remotes that 5 minutes can fix for a fee, pass or fail.

Fast drying spray contact cleaner would probably be good as well. I also keep a typewriter eraser to clean contacts.

[JackFroot]

Sometimes cars with electronic keys can still have their keys locked inside. I've had a few clients who drive Priuses (proper pluralization? ), and left their keys in their purses or have had low batteries, and manually locked their doors.

We still get calls for lock outs in these situations and definitely for older cars. We pretty much use this method in this guide, http://fast-locksmith.net/locked-keys-in-car/, the coat hanger method #2. (Of course we actually have tools and not use a coat hanger, but you get the gist of it).

[kwoswalt99-]

I've had a few clients who drive Priuses (proper pluralization? ), and left their keys in their purses or have had low batteries, and manually locked their doors.

I believe it would be Prii (pree-eye)