Thanks, everyone. These are excellent suggestions. I think I’m going to go with the “flat key in the wallet” idea (i.e., a key that opens the door but doesn’t start the car). I didn’t know that was possible. The approaches requiring habit modification are indeed impressive, but would be difficult for me.
Incidentally, my car is a 2013 model, and it doesn’t have a keypad, a fob with buttons, a keyless ignition, or any of that stuff. You can still buy a new car with old-fashioned non-powered locks if you’re a determined cheapskate like me.
I make a personal rule to never lock my car door unless I have the car key(s) in my hand. Not in my pocket, not in my bag, not in the house, not “I think it’s in my pocket,” but in my hand and only in my hand. I must see it and feel it before the car door is closed in the lock mode.
Can you, though? You could do that back in the early days of chip keys because they just added the electronics onto the earlier non-chip keys, but with most newer cars I don’t think you’ll be able to find a blank that doesn’t have the chip component. I suppose you could buy a chip key blank and just whittle off the chip part, but that seems a little silly.
I have an old car, so what I know about keys in current cars comes from rentals when I travel. That being said, my most recent rental was a Ford that had a key that looked pretty much like this one. The blade is a cylinder with a square cross section. It is not flat.
Is there an equivalent flat key that you can buy to carry in your wallet that will just open the doors?
All this talk about “flat” keys - isn’t a valet key the same? I thought most cars, if they didn’t come with one, can have a minimalistic key made. Even “keyless” cars have an emergency key, as we found out here.
Not intending to hy jack, but;
I have always carried a spare key ever since locking myself out of my truck with 3 grandsons in it and it was running!
However I have a bigger concern now with newer truck and that is it only has a key lock on drivers door and the remote button isn’t something I can fathom carrying. It’s a purse item IMO, if I carried it in my pocket like I do a key it’s going to be dead , broke, or something.
Are there any cell phone apps that will unlock my truck???
Side question - having the emergency “flat key” without the transponder is a good idea, but how does one duplicate one of those “worm” keys?
The car before the one I have now pretty much couldn’t get the key locked in it - the driver side door didn’t lock automatically, and I was highly unlikely to leave the key in it and exit by the passenger door. My current one doesn’t automatically lock the driver side door either, but it’s a wagon, and I realized right away that you can put the key down in the cargo area and lock the tailgate on it. Yeah, I know, if I automatically put the key back in my pocket after unlocking the tailgate …
When I got my first vehicle my co-worker told me to keep a spare key in my purse. Because if you lock your keys in your car you will most likely have your purse on you. I also keep a spare key in the house and my husband has a spare.
I can’t lock my driver’s door anyway because the mechanism slips and it will stay locked. I just don’t bother locking them at all. I’ve only had a bit of coffee change stolen out of the ashtray.
I think you can get a key for $2 that will unlock the door. That’s all you need to allay your fears about locking your keys in the car.
I have a spare key that will unlock the door, on a wire loop, hidden behind the license plate, with the loop around the license plate bolt. I make sure the plate has a holder that can be turned with a screw driver, not a wrench. The only tool needed to retrieve it is a dime.
I drive old-fashioned cars that can be driven with a $2 key, so the spare key can be used to drive the car, too.
I suspect the reason that magnetic key holders don’t work any more is because cars no longer have any parts that are made of ferrous materials. They are now all plastic and aluminum.
Yeah, if it’s a regular key that can be cut from your garden variety hardware store key duplicator. But, as I said, what about the “worm”, “channel” or “sidewinder” key like this:
I looked around once, and couldn’t find anybody that simply duplicated them. Only places that would make a full “security key” with the transponder, for more money, and then you have a “fat” key again.
With keys that just have the fob integrated onto them, the valet key will likely just be the metal part (and will only open the door and start the car).
With smart keys, the valet key is actually the smart key with the metal “flat” key removed from it (so you lose access to the glove compartment and trunk). Also, that “flat” key, because it has to snap back in the smart key isn’t flat. So even if you wanted to take it apart and keep the key in your wallet or screwed under a license plate it wouldn’t work.
However, this is the part you could go and get cut to use to unlock the driver side door if you’d lock your key in the car.
ETA @Yabob, you might be able to take the plastic part off and be left with a small enough piece to keep in your wallet, as long as it’s still big enough that it A)won’t get go all the way into the lock cylinder and B) is wide enough that you can actually turn it.
If locking your keys in your car is that big of a problem, a $100 is cheap insurance. It’s cheaper than calling a locksmith, it’s cheaper than getting the key made RIGHT NOW, because you need one right then. It’s cheaper than hoping a cop happens to show up in the parking lot and he happens to have the equipment to pop the door open (which the cops around here will do for free).
It’s cheaper than breaking the window and having it replaced.
Another idea is to keep your spare not at your house but at a family member’s house or at work so you have someone that can retrieve it for you.
If you only lock the car while you are standing outside with the driver’s door shut you have solved the problem.
It doesn’t matter if you use a remote, the key, or a proximity button on the door if you lock the car with all the doors already closed it is impossible to lock the keys in the car.
