What? That seems pretty outlandish to me. Oh, and then they informed me that the $36 bucks was just for the physical key itself, and that it would cost an additional $40 to program the key. Not bad, I thought, considering that I pay $40 for the Camero keys. After confirming my identity through a tedious process, they told me the damage: $36 bucks for the key.

So I told the dealership my sad story and told them I needed them to cut me a new key. And since she is a volleyball coach she wasn’t planning on coming home before my game that night. Since she is a school teacher, I cannot just barge into the School and ask her for her keys. Long story short, I left some softball equipment in the Escape and my wife took the Escape to work and locked it. Anyway, I had no idea about all the technology packed into this Ford Escape Key. If you have a huge black handle on your key, and it’s a newer car, then chances are pretty good that there is a computer chip embedded in it. If you are not sure if you have a computer chip in your key, take a good look at your key. Apparently they have more powerful chips now so they put the chip in the key handle instead of the stem. I also have a 1997 Camero which has the Chevrolet version of the SecuriLock system, but you can actually see the computer chip embedded in the part of the key that goes into the transmission. In 2003 my wife and I became proud owners of a Ford Escape, which apparently has what Ford calls the second generation SecuriLock Passive Anti- Theft System (also known as the PATS II). And if you are thinking to yourself, “My car keys don’t have a computer chip in them” then you may want to check into it because if they are a newer model vehicle, then they probably do. If you have a newer car with a computer chip’ed key, then you will probably find this interesting.

Actually it’s more about me whining because I lost my keys and they are really expensive to replace, but whatever. It’s about Ford fleecing me on a set of keys. You may have thought this blog entry was about databases, but no.

Ford master key set