Damsel In Real Distresss

[newby303]

I have been unable to drive my 60 plate automatic Aygo for 10 days as I lost the remaining, manual key. Talk about stressed, I am facing an £1100 bill to change the whole locking and immobilisation mechanism so my local garage has informed me. I have telephoned a gentleman they recommended who they thought might be able to re-program a new key,. However this man says that despite having the new key which opens the doors but will not start the engine my car is too recent to be able to reprogram ti. So I either have to find the original key or somehow get the var to the local garage and pay the exhorbitant lock replacement costs. HELP!!!!! PLEASE!!!

[FROSTYBALLS]

Have you checked your insurance policy to see whether it covers you for lost keys ??

[newby303]

I did wonder that, I don't usually take out the extras but will check anyway. Thankyou very much for your reply.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Presumably the £1100 cost may include a new ECU, rather than being just replacement locks and keys.

[eygo]

can't your main dealer have a key made to your chassis number without the expense of new locks and an ecu.

i am sure they can.

[Cyker]

Nope; You need at least one master key to code another one to the ECU, otherwise the whole ECU and all locks need to be replaced, hence the exorbitant cost.

There are some locksmiths who claim they can crack the ECU and code a new key into it without a master, and we had a couple tout for business here, but that was a while ago. I don't know if they're still around or whether they have been able to crack the newer ECUs.

[eygo]

just found this company on the net

http://www.autokeysltd.com/

[FROSTYBALLS]

Still think the OP needs to check their insurance policy first - cover for lost keys has been standard with our insurer for a number of years, rather than being an extra.

[Cyker]

It varies pretty wildly. With my previous (eSure) it was originally a £21 extra (Then became a £5 extra along with some other niceities), but with my current insurer (Toyota) it's included as standard.

Is the key definitely un-findable? It's pretty sucky if you've managed to lose both keys!!!

[Mike169]

Hi

I think both Eygo's company he has found is a good option as it's appears to be in your district. I have a company near me in Essex that does the same sort of thing and the price i don't know exactly but i believe it's under £200 as they know how to overcome the ECU problem but that's for just one key i think.

FROSTYBALLS suggestion is also excellent, just look at your policy and read up if you have key cover, if you have it will save you a small fortune and you'll end up with probably 3 keys out of it and will probably cost you less money

Mike.

[eygo]

if you made a claim against your insurance company for the locks & keys

would it effect your next years premium or is it more like making a claim

for glass where it doesnt effect your renewal price ???

if it does go against you then you will end up paying for it over 5years

as you are always asked if you have made any claims in the last 5 years

at fault or not.

its just something to think about.

[Martin1973]

Any claim will show on there system so any claims you will end up paying someway. Still cheaper than £1100 though. How did you lose both keys?

[eygo]

here is a breakers yards not far from me they only break modern cars and they have some aygo's in stock now they will post to you.

http://www.car-transplants.co.uk/

[Mike169]

if you made a claim against your insurance company for the locks & keys

would it effect your next years premium or is it more like making a claim

for glass where it doesnt effect your renewal price ???

if it does go against you then you will end up paying for it over 5years

as you are always asked if you have made any claims in the last 5 years

at fault or not.

its just something to think about.

Hi Mark.

I am not so sure about the having to pay for it all in the future. I am with Toyota's own insurance and my wife parked the car up in a dodgy area and it got damaged and of course no one to point the blame who did it as my wife was not there. I have full NCB, protected no claims and all the usual benefits....anyway, Toyota reapired the car but now i have '1 strike' against me which i believe lasts for 3 years. What this means is if 'we' make a 2nd claim with no person to blame with the 3 year period we (I) loose 50% of my NCB but if there are no claims with the other party being unknown then the 'Strike' is erased. If we were to make a claim and the insurance were able to claim the repair costs against the other party then the 'Strike' policy does not count and assuming the crash was the other parties fault then there is no financial penality to me. I have just renewed my annual insurance with them and in fact it was cheaper by a few quid so they definately are not trying to recoup their financial loss....but of course this may not be the same for all companies/policies.

The trouble is even asking an insurance company about a possible claim stays on your record so i feel on this occaision the outside company mentioned earlier on this thread that can programme a key without changing the ECU may be the best option.

Regards Mike.

[eygo]

the life of strikes are at a companies discretion the length of time ranges from 3 - 5 years when i had my 1st claim in 2005 (passed my test in 1985) i was classed as a higher risk that really annoyed me as it was the 1st claim in 20 years of being mobile i then had to disclose it for the following 5 years ,its just something to be aware of as insurance companies will always extract as much money as they possibly can from you.

[Cyker]

Well if it happens, just change insurance companies!

Surely they can't cancel your NCB for claims with previous insurers!

[Mike169]

Oh contraire mon Cyker.

I think that is exactly what they can do as you have to prove your NCB/claims from your previous insurance company in writing from them so if your orignal company say knocks your NCB by a certain percentage then the new company will only give the same.

[Cyker]

I think you have gotten the wrong stick - We're talking about NCB protection 'strikes', not accumulated NCB.

For instance, if it says you had 2 accidents and have 7 years NCB on your old insurer, your new insurer will still have to give you 7 years NCB.

What I was saying was if you then go and have an accident and your new insurer has a three strike rule, they can't then say "Oh you had two accidents already on your previous, your NCB protection is invalid, kiss all your NCB good bye".

The 'three strikes' or whatever starts with that new policy and continues if you renew; If you changed insurers next year, those NCB 'strikes' will not follow you to a different insurer as they are insurer specific.

Some insurers will keep the 'strikes' on record if you renew; With these insurers you're better off not wasting money on the NCB protection on renewal, or in fact moving to a different insurer.

[Mike169]

Gotcha buddy, yea i think we were thinking along different lines, thats the thing with emails/texts, easy to interpret not they way they were meant.

Regards Mike.

[FROSTYBALLS]

if you made a claim against your insurance company for the locks & keys

would it effect your next years premium or is it more like making a claim

for glass where it doesnt effect your renewal price ???

if it does go against you then you will end up paying for it over 5years

as you are always asked if you have made any claims in the last 5 years

at fault or not.

its just something to think about.

I think you have gotten the wrong stick - We're talking about NCB protection 'strikes', not accumulated NCB.

For instance, if it says you had 2 accidents and have 7 years NCB on your old insurer, your new insurer will still have to give you 7 years NCB.

What I was saying was if you then go and have an accident and your new insurer has a three strike rule, they can't then say "Oh you had two accidents already on your previous, your NCB protection is invalid, kiss all your NCB good bye".

The 'three strikes' or whatever starts with that new policy and continues if you renew; If you changed insurers next year, those NCB 'strikes' will not follow you to a different insurer as they are insurer specific.

Some insurers will keep the 'strikes' on record if you renew; With these insurers you're better off not wasting money on the NCB protection on renewal, or in fact moving to a different insurer.

Claiming for lost keys would count as a claim.

Whether it would result in an increased premium will depend on the insurer - it isn't as simple as saying that one's premium will increase if a claim is made.

For example back in 2008, my partner's car was hit by a drug dealer's pool car (an uninsured car kept for distributing drugs, etc) which was being chased by the police. £2000 worth of damage. Had the car repaired by local main dealer body shop, rather than the insurer's approved repaired. Premium at subsequent renewals didn't increase beyond the usual annual percentage increase. Guaranteed NCD wasn't affected.The insurer may have claimed the cost back from the MIB uninsured loss scheme.

Insurers will know your history of claims through the Motor Insurer's Database - which they will check when considering anyone for a new policy - and all insurers will keep a record of a claim for 5 years or so.

The percentage a protected NCD will reduce in the event of a claim will vary from insurer to insurer, and will depend on how much NCD one has. The maximum NCD allowable will also vary from insurer to insurer. Our insurer allows a maximum NCD of 9 years.

Remember all that a protected or guaranteed NCD does is to protect the level of discount one receives - it doesn't affect whether or not the renewal premium is increased should a claim be made.

As regards glass claims, if you have a screen replaced and pay your glass excess, you're effectively paying an 'averaged out' cost to replace your windscreen. Whether you have a side window, rear screen or front screen replaced, the insurer will have agreed an average cost with their approved windscreen repairer for replacing vehicle glass. So you will be making a large contribution towards the cost of the replacement glass. This is why, for most insurers, glass claims don't count as a claim which affects your NCD or premium.

[Cyker]

Claiming for lost keys would count as a claim.

That's worth knowing; I always assumed it was a separate thing, didn't even occur to me that it would count as a claim!

[FROSTYBALLS]

Claiming for lost keys would count as a claim.

That's worth knowing; I always assumed it was a separate thing, didn't even occur to me that it would count as a claim!

When you look at the costs involved (£1100 quote for Damsel in Real Distress), its in a different league to things like glass claims ......

[ki49]

Whoever pays for it you still got to get it sorted.

Next time if 1 key goes missing get another one cut sharpish.

Sent from my iPhone using Toyota OC

[Cyker]

Claiming for lost keys would count as a claim.

That's worth knowing; I always assumed it was a separate thing, didn't even occur to me that it would count as a claim!

When you look at the costs involved (£1100 quote for Damsel in Real Distress), its in a different league to things like glass claims ......

True, but that is a worst case claim; I would imagine normal key replacement costs would be from maybe £50-250 range, which is a similar range for most glass replacements too (I imagine those Ford heated screens would be pretty expensive to replace!), hence why I hadn't even considered it to be counted as a claim!

I didn't see any mention that it does (Must be in the *fine* fine print ), so it's worth to knowing that it is so we doesn't get caught out!

[FROSTYBALLS]

The majority of glass replacements though would be with third party manufactured glass rather than OE - which brings the cost down. For example Autoglass uses makes like Guardian.