Ask around the city where to get a new car key and the usual answer is Kearny Mesa, the franchise stores on Convoy Street, Kearny Mesa Road and Balboa Avenue. Their service lanes know keys. What they charge for one is the problem.
With a working key and a free weekday morning, the auto row is a short errand off the 163 or the 805. Lose the last key and it becomes a project: from Poway the car travels down the 15 and across the 52, from La Mesa west on the 8 and then north, and without a key it rides a flatbed.
What a key visit there involves
A key visit runs through the service department, not the showroom. You call, an advisor finds an open appointment, and the car must be on site for it. When no key will start it, a tow brings it in for $125 to $200. At the service drive the advisor writes a repair order and passes the request to the parts counter, which checks whether your key is on the shelf.
If it is, a technician cuts and programs it while you wait. If it is not, the part gets ordered and the car sits on the lot for one to three days. With every key lost, expect the counter to ask for the registration and a photo ID before it releases a key code. Pickup is another trip across town during service hours.
How the bill stacks up
The quote tends to arrive in pieces. The parts counter prices the key: typically $230 to $380 for a transponder chip key, $270 to $450 for a laser-cut key and $400 to $750 for a push-button smart key. The service side adds programming as separate labor, usually $100 to $180, so a chip key comes to $330 to $560 and a smart key to $500 to $930 before tax.
Then the extras. No working key puts a $125 to $200 tow on top, and an ordered key means one to three days of borrowed rides. A Subaru smart key shows the stack: roughly $500 at the parts counter, $600 to $680 once programming is added, and $725 to $880 with the flatbed paid, all before tax.
What we do instead
We reverse the trip. Read us the VIN, or just the year and model, and you get a single price before we set out, with arrival typically 45 to 90 minutes later. We cut the blade to its code in the van, then pair the chip and remote right where the car sits: a Clairemont driveway, an office lot in Poway, the curb outside a La Mesa apartment.
Our range runs $125 to $199 on chip keys, $145 to $249 on laser-cut keys and $229 to $399 on smart keys, programming and drive inside. That Subaru smart key is $259, and a Lexus smart key comes to $289 against roughly $580 for the key alone at a dealer. A lost-every-key job is $60 more, and we clear the missing one out of the car's memory without charging for it.