A missing key is the one lock problem that cannot be solved by opening something. A replacement has to be manufactured to a car that has never met it, and then accepted by that car. Both halves happen beside the vehicle, for most makes on the road here.
There is nothing to pick on this job, which is why it is priced differently from everything else a locksmith does. What the visit costs turns on what sort of key your vehicle carries and on whether a single working key still exists somewhere, not on how long anyone stands at the kerb. This page sets that out row by row. Doors opened with the key visible on the seat, worn barrels, and blades snapped off inside an ignition are a different problem and live on the automotive locksmith page.
Supply and programming, done at the vehicle. The scope is settled on the phone before a van is loaded.
Two answers set the figure. The key type picks the row. Whether a working key survives decides how much work the row takes.
| Key type | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Basic metal key (no chip) | $50 – $90 |
| Transponder key (chip only, no remote) | $120 – $200 |
| Remote head key (key + fob combined) | $175 – $280 |
| Smart key / proximity fob | $250 – $450 |
| All-keys-lost programming | $220 – $500+ |
| Key fob re-sync or battery | $30 – $60 |
The all-keys-lost row carries the widest range on purpose. It has to cover a fifteen-year-old runabout that surrenders its key code without argument and a current push-to-start platform whose relearn has to be worked through in sequence, and those are not the same afternoon. BMW, Mercedes and Land Rover sit toward the top of the bands above them, because the specialist programming hardware and the part itself both cost more. Year, make, model and trim turn a band into a number before anyone drives out.
Trim matters more than callers expect. One model can span several key systems depending on which trim it left the factory in, so the badge and the model between them still leave the blank undecided. If the registration is to hand, read us the VIN and the question is settled outright, because the key code comes from the vehicle's own record rather than from a key nobody can find.
One key the car still accepts is the cheapest starting point there is, because the replacement can usually be taught from it. Zero keys means the immobiliser goes back to nothing and is retaught from scratch, which adds time and moves you to the last row of the table. Answer this before the van loads rather than when it arrives.
The blade has to work every lock the car has, and the chip has to hold the engine running rather than merely crank it. A key that manages one and not the other is not finished and is not billed as though it were. Cash, debit, credit card or Interac e-transfer, taken at the car.
A good share of this work starts with a purchase rather than a loss. Cloverdale's commercial strip runs up 176th Street past the Cloverdale Fairgrounds into the auto-industry corridor around the Cloverdale Auto Mall. Cars change hands along there constantly, and a used car arrives with one key far more often than with two. Sometimes it arrives with none the seller can put a hand on.
That is a replacement job, but it is also a security one, because whoever owned the car before still holds whatever they kept. The answer is the same procedure used after a loss, applied deliberately: every key the immobiliser still recognises is erased and only the ones in your hand are enrolled again, so a copy that surfaces in someone else's drawer next year turns nothing. It is the automotive version of a rekey after a house purchase, and it belongs in the same visit as the second key that second-hand car should have come with.
The vehicle mix here runs heavily to Japanese and Korean badges with a solid domestic truck presence behind them, and the van is stocked to match. Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Ford, Chevrolet, GMC, Kia, Hyundai, Chrysler and Volkswagen all programme at the vehicle across the great majority of model years, and Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Volkswagen each have their own page on this site with the model-by-model detail. European platforms are answered case by case rather than with a blanket yes, and a short list of current high-security systems genuinely cannot be finished anywhere but a dealership. That check happens while you are still on the phone, with the year, make, model and trim in front of us.
A spare key is what keeps a lost key off the all-keys-lost row of the table above. A second key cut while the van is already beside your car costs a fraction of a separate call-out, and it is the difference between a vehicle that can be taught a new key from one it already trusts and a vehicle that has to be taken back to zero first. A car only reaches the expensive row by having been down to a single key on the morning that key went missing, which is the one part of this anybody can do something about in advance.
Have a second one cut, and have the car's memory cleared while the technician is there. Erasing the keys the immobiliser still recognises and enrolling only the ones you actually hold is the step people skip, and it is the step that matters if the previous owner kept a copy. Both happen in a single visit, which is cheaper than doing them separately.
Yes, and it is the row on the table with the widest range. With nothing for the car to copy from, the blade is cut from the code the vehicle's own record returns and the immobiliser is then retaught from zero through the diagnostic port. Older vehicles give that up quickly. Current push-to-start platforms take considerably longer, which is why the band runs as far as it does.
More than the model name does. A Civic or a Corolla is not one answer but several, because the key system was fitted by trim and changed more than once over the years those cars have been sold. Year, model and trim pick the blank, and the VIN off your registration confirms it. Getting those right on the phone is what stops a van turning up with the wrong part aboard.
Yes. The blank is OEM spec and the chip is written to your own car's immobiliser using the same programming protocols the manufacturer uses, so the engine starts and the lock, unlock and trunk buttons behave as they always did. Both halves are proved in front of you before any payment is taken.
Under an hour covers most of it, from the call to a key that starts the engine. The exception is an all-keys-lost relearn on a complicated system, which can take close to that on its own once the technician is at the vehicle. You get the time estimate with the quote rather than afterwards.
Every area on the service areas list, and the car gets attended wherever it is standing: a driveway, a strata parkade, a mall lot, an open commuter lot. The drive is priced into the job rather than added to it, anywhere in the zone. The far corners are honestly not the same drive as a City Centre address, so ask on the call and you get the window for yours.
Mobile cutting and programming across Surrey's neighbourhoods and the communities past the city line.
Residential, commercial and the rest of the automotive work. Same van, same number.
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Car keys are priced by vehicle. Pick what you need and we’ll collect your make, model & year to text you an exact quote.