How Many Keys?

[suzyT3]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum and have a query about master keys.

A couple of weeks ago we collected a 3 year old Corolla T3 1.4 5 door hatch in Igneous Grey purchased through a local Nissan/Toyota main dealer. The car was being offered through the Nissan franchise, not the Toyota franchise.

We were given two keys - one black transponder master key and a grey sub key but the section in the Toyota manual about keys shows two master keys and one sub key.

It appeared to us that two keys was standard and that we were a master key short. To cut a long story short, we negotiated that an additional master key would be supplied to us without charge by the Nissan franchise and that this would be supplied and coded in the Toyota service department. We collected it today and so we now have a spare.

We were told by the service department that if we wanted a third key it would cost around £120. But we were also told that Toyotas (at least Corrollas) were in fact supplied from new with only one master key and a sub key.

Is this correct? Given the cost of these transponder keys and the hassle and expense which follows if a sole master key is lost - is is not pretty stingy of Toyota to supply new cars with only one master, or were we misinformed?

Suzy

[Ckman85]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum and have a query about master keys.

A couple of weeks ago we collected a 3 year old Corolla T3 1.4 5 door hatch in Igneous Grey purchased through a local Nissan/Toyota main dealer.  The car was being offered through the Nissan franchise, not the Toyota franchise.

We were given two keys - one black transponder master key and a grey sub key but the section in the Toyota manual about keys shows two master keys and one sub key. 

It appeared to us that two keys was standard and that we were a master key short. To cut a long story short, we negotiated that an additional master key would be supplied to us without charge by the Nissan franchise and that this would be supplied and coded in the Toyota service department.  We collected it today and so we now have a spare.

We were told by the service department that if we wanted a third key it would cost around £120.  But we were also told that Toyotas (at least Corrollas) were in fact supplied from new with only one master key and a sub key.

Is this correct?  Given the cost of these transponder keys and the hassle and expense which follows if a sole master key is lost - is is not pretty stingy of Toyota to supply new cars with only one master, or were we misinformed?

Suzy

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Nope that is a lie, wen i got my corolla i got 2 master keys and a sub key

[orangezorki]

I can confirm that as well - Colour collection 1.6, new this summer, supplied with 2 blipper keys and a sub key.

David.

[mark_n]

My T3 came with 2 master keys and 1 sub key as well.

[T600]

Welcome to TOC Suzy.

I would support the view that there should be two master keys and one sub. We've had 3 different Toyotas and a Lexus; each of them came with 2 masters and a sub. In fact that was also the case for the non Toyota cars we've had. They are having you on.

Good luck getting this resolved.

Tony

[suzyT3]

Thank you, Tony, for your welcome and thanks to the rest of you who have replied.

It seems we were correct in our assumption that our car should have had two black master keys and a grey sub key. Given how expensive they are, I'm glad we insisted that a second master key should be provided by the dealer at no cost to ourselves.

We took the car and all existing keys in yesterday to the Toyota service department and it took half an hour to do the coding. When the job had been completed the service department chap handed us three keys without the grey metal code tag. I pointed out that the tag was missing and was told that all three keys had been recoded. (Whether they do this automatically when one of the orginal set is missing isn't clear - but maybe it is quicker to recode all three rather code a new key to the existing ones, but this wasn't explained.)

We were quoted £120.00 if we wanted a third master key in the future. We enquired about Battery life and were told that Toyota service dept would supply and fit a new Battery for £6.00 but that our existing master key would have had a new Battery fitted when the service had been carried out on our car prior to it being offered for sale.

As I mentioned in my original post, the car was being offered for sale through the Nissan franchise of this local main dealer, not the Toyota franchise. We would have been even more concerned if the Toyota franchise had sold this used car without a full compliment of keys and without explaining the implications of having only a single master key.

So the upshot of all this is, we now have a full set of keys but the question remains why did the Toyota service department (which is located within the Toyota showroom) tell us that new Toyotas are supplied with only the one master if this is not the case?

We've just disposed of a 17 year old Escort which we have been running for 10 years with hardly a problem. It's going to be a steep learning curve...

Thanks for your prompt responses.

By the way - I love the car.

Suzy

[g3m xr]

i got 2 master and one sub key too :D

[Steve84]

Has said before 2 master keys (black) and one sub key (grey)