Stolen Keys - A question/Rant
 

Ok, so my wife and I went surfing in two cars, she put the RX-8 Keys in my truck, I hid my truck keys and off we went. Basically someone was watching, snagged my keys, opened the Mazda and looted the contents, jumped in my truck and took off.

To cut a long story short, I had Onstar and got the located within the hour, final loss, two cell phones, wallets, sunglasses, traffic guage and both sets of keys. :mad:

On the good side, the dumb a$$ left both Valentine One radar detectors on the windshields. Whew!

Ok that was back in Nov 04, fast forward to today and the RX-8 is in the dealership and my wife asked for a replacement key. They just charged her $50 for the new key set and $150+ to program it!!!!!! :eek:

Now I got shafted for the replacement key from Chevy, but they recoded it for free.

So what I want to know is did she just get royally screwed over? Certainly sounds like it. I know at the Chevy dealer they wouldn't tell me how to do it, but I watched the tech and it took him all of 3 mins.

Grrrrrrr

Depends on what they programmed I guess, If they just reprogrammed the new key to make it identical to the original key, that seems like a bit much. If they had to do a more extensive programming to give your new key a different signature than your original key, maybe it wasn't too much. I'm not sure they can even do the latter programming. But one thing to consider is that if the new key is programmed identically to the old key, I hope the car thieves don't know where you live. :( On the other hand, maybe you can set up a trap to catch them. :)

BTW, there are detailed instructions on this forum on how to program a key, although with these instructions, the new key would be identical to the old key.

They changed the code, though big deal... they still have a key and can enter the car manually.

My point is, Chevy did exactly the same thing.... for free, and it took less than 5 mins. So even if Mazda charged for the service, the amount is way too high in my book, sure charge me a half hour labor if you must, but $100+ is crazy.

Oh well you live and learn.

Hey, if you feel that strongly about it, complain to the dealer, and/ or send a letter to MNAO and the BBB pointing out the exorbitant charges.

Fair point but due to a screw up in communications the dealer who was supposed to call me to confirm, called my wife. She thought for the price they were going to rekey the car too. Sadly she didn't think to check with me, but simply gave the go ahead.

So to sum it up, the work was approved, meaning we really don't have any valid complaint. I was just hoping someone on the board had a similar experiance and wanted to compare notes.

Never mind.

Thanks for the interest.

$150?? Since you're in Torrance too, I was wondering what dealer you went to. Also were all the remaining keys provided to the dealer for reprograming? Because supposedly, in order for the keys to work, you need to have all your keys there to reprogram, otherwise, the keys not present will not start the car, that's from my understanding of the procedure anyways. However, I did mine myself for free and the key was cut for $1.50 at a locksmith.

Also, was the key the 05 or the regular 04 keys?

My dealer quoted $250 to replace and re-program keys for my '05. I inquired about this when I purchased the car and I saw the RX- 8 key.

I went to Long Beach. :) its an 04

I didn't take the valet key, I wonder if that won't work anymore. Will have to try it out.

Try Browning, they might have better service. I was going to buy my 8 from them but the internet manager there was rude and condecending, there was no way in hell I would deal with them from then on.

Labor time for reprogramming keys is minimal, probably 5 minutes for one key. The dealer probably deleted all other keys (including the stolen one) as well, another....2 minutes.
Telephone another dealer and get a quote for the same work. If it is significantly less (which it will be, I'm sure), tell your first dealer you want a refund or you'll report them to MNAO and the Police. That is, unless they have a really, really good reason for charging $150 for seven minutes work.

Your valet should not work if they have in fact deleted all other keys. That is the dealers fault because they did not tell you to bring it in, so I would tell them to program it for free.

I hate crap service!