Short answer: Search your route and make a few calls, then check the car is locked with no key inside. Photograph the VIN and find your registration and ID. Skip the online fob. With no working key, a new one made at the car runs $60 over your spare-key price, and the lost one can no longer start the car.
A key that feels lost often turns up in a jacket pocket, a gym locker or the bottom of a grocery bag. Give the search a fair try before spending money, and use the same hour to protect the car.
This guide takes that hour in order: where to look, how to check the car, what a locksmith needs, why the online fob rarely saves money, what a new key runs by type and why the missing one should be wiped.
Give the search 20 minutes, in the right order
Start at the car and walk your route backward. Check every pocket of what you wore, the bag you carried and the child seat, then look under the places you sat. Keys slide out of shallow pockets onto restaurant floors, ballfield bleachers and beach sand.
Then make the free calls: the gym or office front desk, the last store's service desk, the restaurant host stand and the rideshare app's lost-item page. Describe the whole ring, gym tag and house key included, so a clerk can match it. After 20 minutes, move on.
Check the car: locked, and no key on the seat
Look through every window: the ignition, the cupholders, the door pockets, the gap between the seats and the floor behind the driver. A key you can see inside a locked car makes this a lockout, a smaller job than a lost key and priced as one on the car lockout page.
If the car is unlocked and empty of keys, lock it now. On many cars, pressing the lock switch on the driver's door panel and shutting the door does it with no key. Take the registration with you, along with anything that shows your home address, such as mail or a garage door opener.
Locking stops the casual thief, not someone holding your fob, who can walk a lot pressing unlock until a car flashes back. Wiping the lost key, covered below, ends that risk. If your house key was on the same ring, consider rekeying the house too.
What a locksmith needs from you on the call
Five details get you a firm price and the right key on the van: the model and year; the VIN; where the car sits, down to the garage level or row; whether it starts with a turned key or a push button; and whether any working key exists, even one at home.
The VIN is 17 characters, on a small plate you can read through the windshield at the driver's corner of the dash, on your registration card and on most insurance ID cards. A phone photo of any of them is enough.
Proof of ownership: two papers that agree
Nothing gets cut until two papers agree: the registration or the title, plus a photo ID such as a California driver's license showing the same name. A key made from a VIN starts the car, so this check protects you, and the dealer's parts counter checks the same two things.
A registration locked in the glovebox is a common snag and an easy one: tell us on the phone, and the door is opened first so the names can be compared before any key work. A car registered to a spouse, parent, business or leasing company is worth raising on the phone too.
Why ordering a key online rarely saves money
A fob from a marketplace listing looks like a shortcut but does not replace the visit. Someone still has to cut the blade and pair the chip and buttons to your car, so you pay for the part, then the labor, and the car sits until the package arrives.
The part is the bigger risk. Many listings are used fobs from wrecked cars, and most of those will not pair with a second vehicle. Others match the shell but carry the wrong chip or frequency, which only shows when programming fails in your driveway. The keys we bring are new, each one OEM or OEM-grade and holding the chip generation your car reads.
Warranty is the other gap. Ours runs a year on a key we supply, remote and programming included. On a fob you bought yourself, only the pairing work carries that year. If one is already on its way, read us the part number or FCC ID before anyone drives.
What a new key costs by key type
When no key works anymore, the spare price for your make rises by $60. That $60 buys the VIN-based code lookup and the work of enrolling a key in an immobilizer with nothing to copy. The figures below include the drive to wherever the car is parked, come over the phone first, and are paid once the car runs on its new key.
The dealer column covers the key only. Expect $100 to $180 more for programming labor, $125 to $200 for the flatbed, since a keyless car must ride to the service bay, and one to three days more whenever the part is on order. Your make's own row sits on the pricing page.
| Key type | Ours, no working key | Typical dealer, key only |
|---|---|---|
| Transponder chip key | $185 to $259 | $230 to $380 |
| Laser-cut key | $205 to $309 | $270 to $450 |
| Remote head key | $225 to $319 | $300 to $450 |
| Smart key, push to start | $289 to $459 | $400 to $750 |
| European key | $269 to $509 | $380 to $900 |
Wipe the lost key once the new one works
Until it is deleted, the lost key can still start your car for whoever holds it. After a lost-keys job we remove it from the immobilizer's memory with no added charge. Ask us to confirm the old remote has stopped unlocking the doors too; some cars keep the buttons in a separate memory from the chip.
If you lost one key but still hold another, say so on the call. On many cars, adding a key means registering every key again, and one that is not present falls off the list. Afterward, get a spare made; the next lost key then becomes a spare-key job and skips the $60.