Driveways, apartment lots and Plaza Bonita
On the east side, calls come from Lincoln Acres, the streets off Paradise Valley Road and the Sweetwater side of town, where driveways often hold two or three cars and one of them is down to its last key. On the Westside and in Old Town the work is in apartment carports and street spots a few blocks from the 5.
Parking lots make up the rest: Plaza Bonita where the 805 meets the 54, the Walmart on Highland Avenue, the blocks around Paradise Valley Hospital on East Fourth Street, and the Southwestern College Higher Education Center downtown. Tell us the row or the nearest store entrance and we park beside the car.
The Mile of Cars, minus the tow
The franchise stores lining National City Boulevard are the dealer row for the whole South Bay. Their service lanes price a key the way every dealer does: the part at retail, programming as its own charge, and the car sitting on their lot while they work.
A Nissan Intelligent Key there typically costs about $520, against $249 from us. A Toyota smart key is around $500 at the dealer and $249 here, and a Hyundai smart key $470 against $239. Our figures cover the programming and the trip to your address, and the total is $60 higher only when there is no working key left to copy.
Navy schedules and South Bay commutes
Naval Base San Diego sits on the city line along Harbor Drive, and plenty of sailors and base contractors live a few minutes from the gate. Their calls follow the duty schedule: a car that sat through a deployment with a dead fob, a spare needed before the ship leaves, or a key lost on base while the car waits at home.
Everyone else commutes on the 5, the 805 and the 54 in Corollas, Civics, Altimas, Sentras, Elantras and F-150s, and those are the keys the van is loaded for. A Ford chip key is $129 and a Nissan remote key $175, cut and programmed in a single stop.