Spare physical key -- any point?

You can buy a physical key on ebay and comeback to locksmith

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

You can buy a new fob housing with a key you'll need to have cut. With this i think you can drive the car.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Available cheap on Ebay.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

With a spare physical key, at least you can open the door and get inside. I know you can't drive it, but that's better than waiting outside of the car for help to arrive when raining or very cold.

 

No, no point

 

If you carry a separate keychain, why not just remove the physical key from the fob and put it on the keychain with your other keys?

 

And pocket lint will be getting into the fob easier.

 

and belly button lint

 

I travel frequently and am always scared that I'm going to lose the key fob, thus leaving my stranded in the middle of nowhere.

So I hide a physical key outside on the car. I then have the FOB in a small Faraday bag hidden inside the car. With this setup, I can never be stranded.

And while I'm stupid enough to lose things like keys, I'm smart enough to find great hiding spots so that no thief is ever going to find either the spare physical key hidden outside the car nor the fob inside the car.

 

I recommend having a spare mechanical key to get into the car. And a spare fob (or even just the circuit board from inside the fob) somewhere inside the car. Take the battery out of the spare fob to prevent corrosion and interference with normal usage. A batteryless fob/circuit board can beheld up to the POWER button to unlock the ignition.

 

How many fobs can be paired with a prius? Just curious.

 

5 on Gen2, 7 (?) on later.

 

A separate key will allow you to leave the car running and locked with the ac running as you run into a store.

 

It varies by state and even city. In Texas it is illegal on a public street to leave the car running (eg in ready mode for a Prius) but you can run it on private property. It is primarily an anti-theft concern aimed at people who warm up their cars in the morning with the key in the ignition. The Prius won’t let you lock the doors from outside the car when in “ready” except manually with a key. I see people who leave dogs in a running car or truck and others like delivery persons who don’t want to cycle their cars all day.

 

People here jumped on my case when I said the same thing. I typically shop in the early mornings so I know the check out lines are shorter to return back within 5 to 10 minutes, most of time there's no lines. Oh the outrage poured in when I mentioned that. My trips are short in distance, no AC and I engaged parking brakes all the time.