Old Coot – My car was
keyed! Ouch!
By Merlin Lessler
I love the electronic
devices of our modern day world – smart phones, tablets, computers, GPS and all
the goodies making life easier. EXCEPT! Automobile ignition keys, car fobs,
remote entry and other such devices. How did automobile company innovators get
so out of control?
They should have stopped
at the remote door openers, attached to a simple key. I loved that era. You
could go to the hardware store, get some duplicate keys made and put one in a
magnetic key box and stick it under a fender or behind a bumper, before they
were made from plastic. I used to hide one behind the license plate, held in
place by the screw holding the plate. All I’d need, if I lost my keys or locked
them in the car, would be a screw driver or a Swiss Army Knife. Easy enough to
get from a bystander.
So what’s the big deal,
you’re probably wondering at this point? The big deal is the $180 I just paid a
locksmith to get a new key fob; the old one fell apart, the second one to do so
in the last few months. The dealer wanted even more, upwards of $300. It took a
few days of opening the door with the key, hidden in a compartment of the fob,
causing the car alarm to go off, repeatedly sounding the horn, to get me to
cough up the $180 replacement cost. The car thought someone was breaking in, or
I was being mugged in the parking lot.
I never liked that panic,
horn blowing function. No one pays attention, except to chuckle and wonder who
the numbskull is that just hit their panic button by mistake and didn’t realize
it. That was me, for a while. Now, $180 poorer, I’m free of that embarrassment.
Comments? – Send to
mlessler7@gmail.com
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