# Lost your car keys? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 1, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995 "2011-03-01T00:13:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995/42 "2012-11-08T19:15:37Z")
I carry a spare car key in my wallet. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995/43 "2012-11-08T19:46:57Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > Here’s the thing, though. Few of them REQUIRE anything but the mechanical part to operate the car. You can lock, unlock, and start the car without the fob, at least on the vehicles I’m familiar with. Typically your key contains (at minimum) a resistor with a specific resistance - if the ignition system doesn’t detect that exact resistance when your key is inserted, your car won’t start. It may be fancier than that, but a plain ol’ mechanical key has gone the way of the dodo - they all have some degree of security built in so you can’t just hotwire the ignition and drive away. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995/44 "2012-11-08T20:24:14Z")
For Christmas this year, the Matata parents and in-laws are all getting combination lock key safes ([this](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002YP1UI/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=hi), or something similar.) I’m now looking to decide whether I could mount one somewhere on a vehicle - seems a little more secure than those magnetic ones! ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995/45 "2012-11-08T20:52:42Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Of course this would all (including getting the VIN) be made more difficult if you were locked out of the car. 😮 You can see the VIN looking throught the windshield on the drivers side of the car. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995/46 "2012-11-08T21:30:31Z")
I have AAA but that’s my backup plan (it might be late at night, I may be way out in the boonies…). I keep a spare inside the car. If I have to break a window, so be it. I don’t like extra stuff in my wallet, so there’s no key in there. Ideally, I’ll also find a place _ **outside** _ the car to stash a key, but I haven’t done that yet. Whenever we take family road trips I use the spare key to drive with and I keep the main key in my pocket. Stops for a bathroom, meal, photos, rest, what-have-you, and wife/teenagers might lock the keys in, but I always have my main keys with me. I was locked out once, 15 years ago, because one of the kids thought he was doing the right thing and he locked the door at a quick stop. ETA: I have an older car, a 2001 Honda CR-V, so it’s a separate key and fob, and a simple, thin key can unlock/lock the doors. With the thin key it’s cheap and easy to stash spares. I hate those one-piece, big, expensive keys! ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995/47 "2012-11-09T06:25:49Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > It may be fancier than that, but a plain ol’ mechanical key has gone the way of the dodo - they all have some degree of security built in so you can’t just hotwire the ignition and drive away. I’ve never heard a good explanation for hot hot-wirers get around the column lock. Still need a mechanical key for that. Well, not these days. But in older days. ---
**Author:** ![\_Olive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/4af34b/32.png) [@\_Olive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Olive)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995/48 "2012-11-09T08:13:02Z")
I once lost a key in the ocean and found it. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995/49 "2012-11-09T13:24:38Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > I was at a museum a few years ago and saw a family w/ strollers and toddlers in tow trying to cram onto an elevator. They were distracted and hurried and the dad didn’t notice that he’d dropped his keys. Not only did he drop them, but he dropped them right where the elevator meets the floor, and they fell into the crack. > > Luckily I saw them fall and let him know so that he could get assistance from security, but if I hadn’t noticed - those keys would have been gone forever. I’ve always wondered: what can they do if you drop something into that gap? Is there a service door? Do they send the lift up, stop it and open the first floor doors? How important does something have to be before they do it? > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think all cars today require “smart” keys, or the type with a big electronic head, or an electronic key fob. I don’t think there are any cars sold today that use a simple mechanical key. Engine immobilizer. [Immobiliser - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immobiliser) It’s compulsory in Germany, UK, Finland, Australia and Canada. Doesn’t seem compulsory in the US yet. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995/50 "2012-11-09T16:44:44Z")
Brute force. “The Club” actually provided a convenient tool to get the needed leverage, obviating the need for bulky and incriminating tools. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995/51 "2012-11-09T16:45:53Z")
Sorry meant to be reply to question about column lock. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995/52 "2012-11-09T17:02:05Z")
> [@Moonlitherial](#): > > You can see the VIN looking throught the windshield on the drivers side of the car. Laughing, here. You know the same thing was posted multiple times, over a year ago. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995/53 "2012-11-09T17:49:51Z")
> [@Heyoka13](#): > > I would suggest anyone with the magnetic holder should check to make sure it is still there from time to time. I have my magnetic key box tied in as well. I stop on seldom travelled back roads, and in the winter it sometimes goes down to -40, so being locked out is something I would rather avoid. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995/54 "2012-11-09T18:07:48Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > You can lock, unlock, and start the car without the fob, at least on the vehicles I’m familiar with. With my Canadian Jeep, I can open the door and start the vehicle with the key without using the fob, but it triggers the alarm when the door is opened and after a few seconds it shuts off the motor. Being a creature of habit, I set off the alarm quite a bit when I first bought the car. The ironic thing is that for half the year the vehicle either has no roof or has a window that zips on and off, making the door alarm pointless. The dealer in my region charges a few hundred bucks for a new and programmed key/fob. New keys/fobs are only a few bucks off the internet, any locksmith can cut them (note that this is not possible for all vehicles), and you can do your own programming if you still have a working key/fob to use as the master when programming the spare. I would much rather not have to deal with a fob, for they are bulky, fragile and not waterproof, which is an embuggerance for white water paddling and other activities for which I have to carry a key in wet and rough conditions. Pelican cases are the shiznitz, but I don’t like having a case tied to me when previous to these fobs a simple pocket and piece of string would do. ---
**Author:** ![Eugene\_of\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@Eugene\_of\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eugene_of_Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995/55 "2012-11-09T18:53:03Z")
Used to use those little magnetic key boxes you tuck into a spot underneath the car. Worked well. May have needed them once or twice but literally years later they were always right where I left them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-your-car-keys/572995.md?page=2)