This.
They’re all identical, they all don’t actually open anything (hence “toy” key), they’re just a tangible marketing item. If they sent a (numbered) pen with the dealer’s logo on it, that just wouldn’t have the same cache.
If / when the winner shows up and they’ve been informed they are the lucky owner of a new car, odds are they aren’t going to complain that they didn’t actually get to stick their mailed (toy) key in the ignition and make it go vroom.
Don’t PIIs usually only pay out on the second win onwards anyway? Too open to fraud otherwise.
I used to see these in the mail pretty frequently back in the 80s.
One thing I know for sure about GM vehicles is that in the 60s and 70s and maybe even later, there was only about 200 different key patterns for any given year. I once had a couple of old early 60s Cadillac limousines that I didn’t have the door keys to, so I went to the locksmith next door to my office and he gave me this giant ring of keys. 200 keys that would open any 1964 GM door. You just have to find the right one. You mark a key and then start trying each key until you hit the right one. (I hit the right one on #198 incidentally…if I’d gone the other way, I would’ve been in on the third key).
Anyway, all they would have to do is get a locksmith to cut GM keyblanks with a pattern not in those 200 keys and you’d have a key that would slide all the way into the lock but wouldn’t turn. It would look like a real key, but wouldn’t open anything. Then you mix one real door key into the pile and mail 'em out.
Here’s my experience with this: My key wasn’t marked in any way. It was a cheap metal flimsy thing that looked like it could come out of a cereal box but work just fine :p.
I went in line (early on the first day) there were about 5 people in front of me. They had a table set up and asked a few questions. Name, phone number, address, am I looking to buy a car soon. My interview took about 30 seconds. THen he just pointed over to the contest car and essentially said “its sitting right over there. Good Luck!” He didn’t look at or examine my key, and no one was watching me when I inserted it into the lock.
WHile I don’t have hard proof, I just don’t think there was one special key that was different and would have unlocked the car. I still do think there was still enough risk that the one special key would show up on the first day and end the contest. It would be a bit difficult to control the news to people in line and coming in the door that the car had already been won. ANd the fact that my key didn’t actually engage the lock in any way tells me that a “nearly” identical key would do the same…even if it had different cuts. I think its more likely the door lock had a mechanism in it that after X number of key insertions, the door would automatically unlock. Or at some determined time it would unlock (on the 3rd day).
I can assure you that this is not the case. There’s no need to do something like this, and the backlash from it would be pretty nasty. It’s a game of chance, and the dealers are prepared to deal with it.
Given the OP’s latest post (#24), perhaps the small print said that none of the keys would actually work, but everyone who turned up would be entered into a random draw for the car after the end of the event? No fraud, everyone has an equal chance of winning, just a white lie that someone’s key might actually open the car, when it fact no key would. The only way someone could complain would be if they read the small print, but they haven’t really been disadvantaged in any way so it’s unlikely they’d get very far.
It’s very easy to make up 5000 keys that won’t work and one that will. This isn’t rocket science and nothing in post #24 would lead you to believe otherwise. In some cases, the simplest explanation is the best. You open the lock, you win the car. They can then check the number on the key to make sure you didn’t grab a skeleton key or some such thing.
If someone wins the car on day 1, do you really think the general public is going to find out about it and cancel their plans to visit the dealership. It’s a lark, a whim, and that’s all they need. Get someone in the door; after that it’s all up to the salespeople.
Look, if they don’t announce the winner on the media until after the contest is over, people will still show up to try their luck. Even if the first person on the first day won the car, customers would still come into the dealership.
Once the car is won, the dealer has several courses of action. The simplest is just to leave the car there and have people continue to try. I doubt anyone would find anyone fraudulent in that.
But it’s also easy to just put up a sign saying, “Sorry, we already had a winner” and say, “Since you’re down here, could you take a minute to answer a few questions?”
I can’t speak to sweepstakes-type contests, but the prize indemnification policies I’ve examined are generally games of skill (bowling 300, hitting a hole-in-one, dunking a basket from mid-court, catching a tagged fish, etc.). They pay the first time. Very broadly, premiums are 5-20% of the payout.
The last time I was involved in one of these car dealership contests, they mailed out postcards with a prize number, and you needed to bring in your card to the dealership to see if you had the winning number (to win the car).
I showed up about 15 minutes before closing. As I entered, a tired looking guy took a big breath and said “Can I help you?” and I held up my postcard and said I was here about the contest. He looked somewhat relieved, and just pointed to a table where a lady was sitting. The lady checked my number against her paperwork, and said “Sorry, this card isn’t a winner. Would you like to talk to a sales associate today?” I said “No thanks”.
It was not a high-pressure type of promotion at all.
Well; There you Go!
Good morning, Mr. Sigene
My name is XXXX, and I am the Director of Marketing for XXX Motors. I received your inquiry yesterday afternoon regarding the key promotion we did back in XXXXXXX and you were questioning specifically how the key mechanism worked. Great question! With this particular vehicle, which was a XXXX , it had a standard lock and key system; meaning you had to actually insert a key in the door to unlock it (not just push a remote to unlock the door). This vehicle comes from the manufacturer with two sets of keys, of which I kept locked in my office. For this promotion I took one of the master keys, had a single duplicate key made in our parts department, and then shipped this key via overnight delivery to an insurance company who then randomly picked a person from our mailing list to receive the winning key. For this promotion we sent out a total of 10,000 keys (of which one of them was the winning key). All remaining 9,999 keys were made using key codes that were not even close to the key code used to make the actual winning key to ensure that only the key I made would open the door AND turn the ignition. There was no special lock used in this promotion – just what was installed when the vehicle was built before shipping it to our dealership.
Lastly, did anyone win. Unfortunately no. However, I can tell you that the winning key was mailed to a gentleman in XXXXX and had he come in during the promotion and tried it, he would have won. Just so you know too, I did not know who received the winning key until after the promotion was completed. As an insured promotion, our insurance company randomly selected the individual to receive the winning key and would not tell me who it was until the promotion ended – assuring that I (or anyone else) didn’t call or influence this individual and prompt him to come in.
I hope this answers all of your questions, Mr. Sigene, but if you do have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to email or call me.
Have wonderful day.
Best regards,
XXXXX
Director of Marketing
That’s weird. It sounds remarkably similar to what some people posted on the SDMB once. I don’t know how to search for that thread though. 
We got one too and we threw it away. There’s one example of someone not caring to try and trashing the key. Hopefully the gentleman who the right key was mailed to was not my father.
Dad had a Honda with such keys, they wouldn’t open the fuel cap or boot (there was a lock by the interior releases for them) but would allow the car to be driven. IIRC it was intended for valets, for the time it was reasonably swish, a/c, cruise control etc. And the looked pretty flimsy, coming without a plastic end.
The prize keys from the OP looked akin to that, although I’ve not seen one for some time now.
Valet keys and emergency keys are different beasts. The wallet keys weren’t meant to be used repeatedly. They were thin enough to fit in your wallet comfortably and just strong enough to not bend under use. Mine would open any lock on the car.
The valet keys were normal keys that would just open the door and work in the ignition.
So, are there measures taken to protect the dealership from dishonesty (lock bumping, etc)?
I have one right here. At first glance it looks very cheap, and it’s flat. When I look at it through a magnifying glass I see that the edges are all the same from the head of the key around the tumbles. I see the tell tale sign of die stamping that are consistent throughout the entire perimeter of the key. I don’t see tooling marks on the ridges that manipulate the tumblers of the lock.
The dies to make these Keys are expensive to make therefore there wouldn’t be variations of non working keys. It would be expensive toi mill non working tumbler positions for each key as well.
ANSWER: I know that my key is one of thousands that are identical and I’m not showing up at the dealership.
Had I received a quality key with a tumbler pattern that show no sign of mass production… Lucky me. Not the case.
I hate those keys. They try to go around a turn in the sorting machine, and jam up the entire route.
The ones that people send back to insurance companies when their car gets totaled out are even worse. Those will get stuck in a gate and be just about impossible to extract without practically disassembling the entire stacker module.
Also: ZOMBIE thread.
Would you really want to stick your key into a car from XXX Motors? You do not know where that chassis has been. 
It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.