Replacement
car keys
Every key gone and the car sat on a driveway. A dealer needs it recovered to them and quotes a week. We come to the car, cut a key from the lock, program it to the immobiliser and wipe the lost ones — usually inside ninety minutes.
Your registration tells us the key and the price before we set off.
a key being cut at the vehicle · client photography
You are paying for the tow
A main dealer’s key is not wildly more expensive than ours. What costs the money is getting a car with no key to a dealer in the first place.
With every key lost, the car cannot be driven there. So it goes on a flatbed, sits in a queue for a workshop slot, and waits while a key is ordered from the manufacturer against your VIN. That is where the four hundred pounds and the week come from.
We skip all of it. The key is cut from the lock itself — we decode the wafers and cut a blade to match — and the transponder is programmed through the diagnostic port with the same equipment a dealer uses. Nothing is towed, nothing is ordered, and you drive away the same afternoon.
The honest exception is a handful of very new premium models whose security is genuinely dealer-only. Your registration tells us if yours is one of them, and we say so on the phone rather than after we have driven out.
Six things in the price
Everything below is in the figure you get on the phone. When a quote elsewhere looks cheaper, these are usually the lines missing from it.
We come to the car
Driveway, roadside, car park or work. No recovery charge, because nothing needs recovering.
Cut from the lock
We decode the lock and cut a blade to match. No waiting for a key to be ordered from the manufacturer.
Programmed on site
Transponder and remote coded through the diagnostic port, with dealer-grade equipment.
Lost keys wiped
Every missing key deleted from the immobiliser, so one that turns up later cannot start the car.
You test it first
You start the car, lock it and unlock it yourself before any money changes hands.
Twelve months
On the key, the blade and the coding. If it stops working inside a year, we come back.
Three kinds of key
What your car uses decides the price far more than the make does. Your registration tells us which you have before anyone sets off.
Blade with chip
A metal blade with a transponder in the head. Most cars up to about 2010.
- Blade cut from the lock
- Transponder programmed
- Typically an hour
Remote key
Flip or fixed blade with lock and unlock buttons. The large majority of cars since 2010.
- Blade, chip and remote all set up
- Lost remotes deleted too
- Typically ninety minutes
Keyless fob
Proximity entry and push-button start. Premium and most newer cars.
- Proximity and start both set up
- Emergency blade cut to match
- Some models need the unit
Still have one working key? Then this is a spare rather than a replacement, and it is considerably cheaper — see the spare keys page before you book.
What happens when we arrive
First
Ownership checked
V5C and photo ID before anything is touched. Anyone who skips this is a problem, not a bargain.
The lock
Decoded and cut
The lock is read without damage and a blade cut to match it on the machine in the van.
The car
Programmed and wiped
The new key coded to the immobiliser through the diagnostic port, and every lost key deleted.
Before you pay
You start it
Start, lock, unlock and drive it round the block if you like. Payment after, not before.
Before you ring
Usually asked by somebody who has just turned out every pocket and every drawer twice. If yours is not here, ring and ask.
Call 0115 960 4128How can you cut a key without the original?
By reading the lock. Each wafer inside it sits at a height that corresponds to a cut on the key, and a decoder tells us those heights without damaging anything. From that we cut a blade that matches exactly.
Will the new key work in the doors and the boot too?
Yes. Most cars use the same key profile throughout, so a blade cut from one lock works in all of them. Where a model uses a separate boot lock, we check that as well.
What if my old keys turn up?
They will not start the car. They were deleted from the immobiliser as part of the job, which is the point — if they were stolen rather than lost, whoever has them now holds a useless piece of plastic.
If you find them and want them working again, we can add them back.
Is it cheaper to get two while you are here?
Much cheaper. The expensive part is the visit and the initial programming. A second key made at the same time costs a fraction of the first, and far less than coming back later for a spare.
Can you do it if the car is a lease or finance car?
Yes, provided you are the keeper on the V5C or can show authority from the finance company. Most people are surprised how straightforward that is.
Keys cut anywhere here
The van covers the whole patch at the same price. Where you are decides how quickly we arrive, not what the key costs.
Dispatch
Open now · until 21:00 tonight
Sunday 09:00–18:00
Every key gone? Ring before the tow truck
Read us the registration and we will tell you the key type, the price and whether it can be done where the car is standing.