Dealership charging $260 for a new Key Fob. Driver then goes to O'Reilly

https://www.motor1.com/news/773852/oreilly-auto-parts-program-chevrolet-key-fob/

by speckx • 10 months ago

8 7 10 months ago

tdeck• 10 months ago

For those who don't read the articles:

He explains that after paying about $160 for the fob, the dealership told him it would cost an additional $260 just to program it.

So not only is the fob ridiculously overpriced, the $260 was on top of the charge for the physical fob.

constantcrying2• 10 months ago

What awful journalism is this. Literally reporting on a TikTok Video. (The title also contradicts the content)

Btw. the programmer is expensive, specialized equipment. You are paying the machine shop for access to that equipment. 260 dollars is obviously ridiculous, but there really is not realistic alternative, which is why the price is so high.

cowboylowrez• 10 months ago

Btw. the programmer is expensive, specialized equipment

yeah thats probably the source of it, I'm betting it takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to burn bits into chips nowadays. back in my day we used to use three 9 volt batteries and hope the eeprom didn't notice there was an extra volt or so lol

constantcrying2• 10 months ago

What is the point of the post? I am assuming you are aware that the cost of the programmer isn't in it's parts. And that you are paying for equipment that very few people will ever buy.

jimswhims• 10 months ago

Depends - i looked into it (with chatgpt's help) recently after getting quoted 270 euro for a spare fob for a second hand car I bought that only had one key.

It seems like a kind of niche field with a lot of pitfalls and poor availability of information but it seems like it's possible to do if you buy some budget key programmer, as long as you can figure out which encryption type the immobiliser uses. There should be an FCC id on the key fob somewhere, then it should be possible to figure out which type of encryption it uses, there's usually some codename like ID46 or something like that.

From that article it seems like it was easier to do for that car than it is for most new-ish cars.

These are 2 of the programmers i'm looking at getting, also expensive but worth IMO, if you can get the right one, make a couple of spares for yourself, family, friends etc, then sell it on or maybe even run a (less extortionate, hopefully) side hustle yourself.

https://www.xhorsevvdi.com/wholesale/vvdi-key-tester.html https://store.autel.com/products/autel-maxiim-km100

JohnFen• 10 months ago

There's a local battery store where I live that also programs these fobs. They charge $25 to do it. My mechanic will do it for about $50.

Dealership charging $260 for a new Key Fob. Driver then goes to O'Reilly

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