Surf lots, the 101 and El Camino Real
Surf mornings bring their own calls. A fob that slipped out of a boardshort pocket at Swami's, a key buried somewhere in the sand at Moonlight Beach, a car locked with the key visible on the passenger seat in the Cardiff State Beach lot along the 101. Lockouts run $79 to $129, and a lost key gets made right where the car sits, sand and all.
Away from the beach, we meet drivers at the shopping centers where El Camino Real crosses Leucadia Boulevard, the Lumberyard on the 101 downtown, the Scripps Memorial Hospital campus on Santa Fe Drive, the Coaster station, and the MiraCosta San Elijo campus on Manchester Avenue in Cardiff.
The BMW store moved to Car Country
BMW owners here used to have a dealer on Encinitas Boulevard. That store closed and folded into the BMW dealer at Car Country, so now nearly every brand key, from Toyota and Honda to Subaru, Lexus and Mercedes, points up the 5 to the same few blocks. The Ford store in town is the main exception.
From Olivenhain or Cardiff, a car with no key reaches Car Country on a flatbed for $125 to $200. Then comes the key: about $250 for a Toyota chip key at a typical dealer, $500 for a Subaru smart key, $750 for a BMW smart key from the 2010 to 2018 years. Ours are $129, $259 and $399, programmed in your driveway. The full table sits on our pricing page.
Subarus, Tacomas and older Volkswagens
The keys we cut most in these driveways match the cars that carry boards and bikes: Tacoma and 4Runner keys, Outback and Forester keys, and Volkswagens from the Golf and Jetta years. A Subaru chip key starts at $139, a Tacoma remote key at $169, an older Volkswagen chip key at $169 and a Volkswagen flip remote key at $209.
Olivenhain's horse properties and long driveways add older pickups to the mix, and with them worn ignitions that only turn on the second try. Ignition repair costs $179 to $349 here and $350 to $700 through a dealer, and the replacement cylinder takes the key you already carry, so the truck still starts on a single key.