A $400 car key: the arms race between carmakers and thieves
Why are car keys so expensive to replace?
Replacing a car key now starts around $125 and can exceed $1,000 for some BMWs, with a full Subaru set running $1,500 at the dealership. The price reflects decades of technological escalation: engine immobilizers cut thefts 80% between 1990 and 2020, but thieves keep up with cheap programming tools. Dealers also profit from tight control over security protocols, and some automakers are moving to subscription-based phone keys.
You need to take out a mortgage for VW and another for Audi and another for Porsche.
- Grombobulous
The article is giving automotive companies too much credit. Sophisticated anti-theft technologies don’t translate to high manufacturing cost, especially given that car keys are a very high volume item, typically two are produced per car.
Your iPhone has more sophisticated security measures inside of it along with an entire computer capable of playing relatively recent AAA games and it costs less than some of these keys.
The actual answer is that dealerships make their money on service and demand that the manufacturers throw them bones like this.
- KingMachiavelli
Like others have said it's a revenue stream for the automotive company and the dealerships. The actual software/security side of car keys is "cat & mouse" game because automotive companies either outsourced the design or picked the cheapest/logistically easiest to implement.
The dealerships like making $200+ per fob program and the automotive companies like selling $$$ hardware + software licenses to be able to do so.
It's also likely that a processor that can only do rolling codes but no RNG or AES operations is cheaper and has longer battery life. Car model lifecycles are very long so the choice of components even for ~2018 cars might be using parts form 2013 (my guess). And auto companies are probably only considering parts purpose built for their industry due to supply and price guarantees.
If it wasn't for insurance companies refusing to insure some models with insecure fobs, the issue would likely be much worse today.
- Polizeiposaune
One other option not mentioned in the article: Replacing the key shell and moving the guts from the old key.
Obviously not an option if you lost the key, but when my Toyota keyfobs got really worn (button membranes breaking and exposing the underlying microswitch), I discovered that you can avoid the fuss and/or expense of reprogramming the keys by buying replacement key fob shells and moving the circuit board from the old key. Wasn't any harder than changing the key fob battery..
- nntwozz
A new key for my 2004 Suzuki Grand Vitara costs $685 in Sweden.
Insurance company offers a new key for $100.
I said I lost it and paid $100.
I considered buying a Chinese key programmer on aliexpress for $200, or going to a black market key programmer that would do it for $100 but I was lazy.
Looking forward to having a car that only needs Apple Car Key in the future.
- josephcsible
Tesla is all the way on the easy and cheap end of the scale. It's $40 for two new key cards or $175 for a new key fob, and as long as you don't lose all of your existing keys at once, you can program new ones and deactivate lost ones yourself in about a minute with no extra tools or software. And using their phone app as a Bluetooth key is free forever.