Should I Buy A Spare Key?

I voted yes. If you were to lose or damage your FOB you would be in a pretty bad situation. You would have to either have your parents bring you your spare FOB or be towed to your dealer.

I would think that $286 would be pretty cheap insurance. I am cheap about things like this too , but I think this would be worth the money.

In my case, my wife always carries the spare FOB. If something were to happen to mine, other than being out of town, I can always call her and have her bring me the other FOB.

 

If it were me, I'd buy a non-smart key as a spare and swap that one out for the one at your parents.

Having a locally available spare key can make the difference between getting your car moved in a couple hours and having to go get your car at the impound when it gets towed.

It's been nearly 2 decades since I lost my keys but the thing that made all the difference in the world was being able to call my buddy and get him to run my spare over to me. And all that cost me was a beer.

 

Here's the deal.

You have a G3, or your parents have a G3, and you get to drive it. Either way, having only one key can be problematic to say the least if your FOB gets lost or stolen. It's not as farfetched a problem as you might think. Backpacks get stolen. Purses do too. I've seen a co-worker drop his keys over a storm drain.
Bummer!
OK..... so if your FOB stops working for some reason, you can still use the metal keylet to get into your car, and the FOB has an RFID that will allow for the car to be started sans FOB battery.
However (comma!) if your FOB gets lost or stolen, then your G3 is now a 3200 pound lawn or street ornament until you get your mitts on a programmed FOB.

You have some choices to make:

1. You can buy a used FOB off of eBay and have it programmed to work with your car. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't. You just need to live in a place that has a locksmith with the appropriate equipment. There are probably 50 threads in this forum that give details. There are probably another 50 or so that say you can't.
It'll cost you some....probably around 30 bucks or so for the fob and maybe another $50 to $75 for the programming depending on the locksmith.
What I've advised people to do is hide a programmed spare FOB in the car without the battery installed, and tie-wrap the metal keylet to a hidden exterior fitting on the car.

2. You can have your parents pop for a AAA membership to have your car towed home if your FOB gets stolen, it won't solve the problem of getting the car unlocked or started, but it will get your car home instead of in an impound lot.

3. you can show this thread to your parents, and see if they will allow the spare Fob to be stored about 179.9 miles closer to your (or their) car.

4. You can ignore the problem. After all.....people never have key fobs lost or stolen, now do they?


---Good Luck!

 

I'd find it difficult to believe that the Critic is a teenager whose parents own the car.

 

i have not used the spare key in 8 years of priusship. does that mean i don't need life insurance?

 

Maybe, maybe not.
It doesn't really matter. I was specuguessing about the "...but one of the keys is at my parents' house and let's just say that key has to stay there." part of his/her post.

If you never loose your keys, or you never have them stolen........then it's no problem, right???

I'm just sayin that I do things a little differently.
"People don't plan to fail, but sometimes they fail to plan..."