When I first sat down in the 2026 VW Jetta sent to me to test drive and review (the review’s here, if interested) I couldn’t figure out – at first – how to start it. I looked for but could not find the usual button to push to start the engine. I have become used to looking for a button to push because every new vehicle I have been sent to test drive/review for the past several years has had a button to push to start the engine.
This one didn’t.
It has a key. Remember keys? Those things you inserted into the ignition switch and turned to start the engine? You have probably forgotten, too. Ignition keys are something like ashtrays and floor-mounted dimmer switches. Keys were last common about a decade ago. It was around that time that fobs began to replace keys. A fob is an electronic transmitter you carry in your pocket or purse. You don’t have to take it out of your pocket or purse to start the car’s engine. It transmits a signal to the ignition that enables the little button you push that sends the signal to the computer, which starts the engine.
The first cars that came with push-button ignition were race cars – because no one wants to fumble with a key when you’re trying to race. But those cars didn’t have fobs. Just the button (or switch) to start the engine. Race cars don’t get left parked curbside – so there’s little worry someone who’s not the driver will jump in and take it for a drive.
Street cars began to get the button – and the fob. It was marketed as “high tech” as well as a convenience and it also felt a little racy, at least at first – before every crossover appliance came standard with it (kind of like the fake dual exhaust that pretty much every crossover appliance also comes standard with now).
And it is a convenience – until you forget to take the fob out of your pocket before tossing your pants in the wash. Or you just lose the fob. Then you’ll be needing a new fob – and it’s no longer an easy (and inexpensive) matter of going down to Lowes or Home Depot and getting a new cut. You cannot cut a fob. Well, you could. But it wouldn’t work very well (or at all) after you cut it. Instead, you’ll have to buy a new fob and in many cases, have it paired with the vehicle. This involves more hassle – and money – than getting a key cut at Lowes or Home Depot.
It can be a lot of money. Some replacement fobs cost $100 or more. That’s why it’s a good idea, when you’re buying a new car, to get the dealer to include more than just the usual two fobs. Get three – better yet, four – while it’s on the dealer’s dime. Because it’s inevitable that at some point, you are going to need a new fob, even if you don’t run the one you have through the wash or lose it. Fobs being electric things and they inevitably stop working. One of the great virtues of a metal key is that it could outlast you. A key can be bent or broken off. But if not handled roughly, a metal key can last 50 years or even longer. I have the original set of keys for my 1976 Pontiac. They work as well in 2026 as they did in 1976. How many fobs made in 2026 will still start the car in 2036, even? Some, perhaps. But by 2046? It’s as likely as your current smartphone still working in 2046.
Some will say – and they aren’t wrong – that fobs/push-buttons are a convenience that’s worth the cost. They aren’t wrong because it’s a subjective value judgment. It comes down to whether you think it’s worth it. The bone that can be fairly picked is with the way fobs have been pushed rather than sold – as problem that is now general in the new car selling business, much the same as “advanced driver assistance technology.” Instead of being an option people were free to pay extra for if they wished to, fobs (and “advanced driver assistance technology”) have been made de facto standard features in almost every new vehicle. It is part of the reason why the cost of new vehicles has increased so haltingly over the past ten or so years. Even the humblest Hyundai comes standard with things that were once features found only in luxury cars. Which is fine, if you want to drive – and pay for – a vehicle equipped with all these features.
I like a metal key because I don’t like paying more (a great deal more) for a (to me) minor convenience that comes with expensive hassles. But I’m a kook – and your mileage may vary!
. . .
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Jeep Grand Cherokee here, 2018. The fob is a piss poor design uses thin weak prongs that don’t connect well after one battery replacement. One set on the board touch the top of the battery and the other is on the shell half holding the battery. Fifth time yesterday taking it apart, clean everything and use tweezers to carefully reshape the prongs.
Works fine now give a month it will be sketchy again. Use the emergency key to open the door the horn starts up and won’t shut up until you get the car started by pushing the start button with the round end of the fob.
PS: my 25 year old lawn tractor has a more reliable start system! Sits outside under a cover all winter. Early spring, drop the 12v battery in, turn the key in the old school start/run switch off we go. 25 years.
I’m happy to say that we are a 0 fobs family. Newest car is 07 and that key costs 300 to replace. I like my old cars with no Passkey nonsense (some of my cars do have this, but I disable it) and a plain old key.
Tinfoil hat on, but the concept of the constantly transmitting signals and health concerns, but who knows- I’m sure the industrial toxins leaching into the water from all the data centers will get us first.
The key fob is completely unnecessary, makes the car less reliable because if the fob fails you have to resort to an emergency procedure to open the front door or start the engine.
Plus I have always made cheap key copies and hid them in various places inside the car or underneath the car as backups. The new key FOB is a total fail and you should attempt to get a car which doesn’t have one.
If you have one, you should try to remove it and replace it with the old style. How many car keys have you lost in your lifetime? FOB = Fucking Outrageous Bullshit
What was the point of taking a key, adding a battery to it, a battery is guaranteed to run out, thus making the key problematic over time? The key now becomes unreliable. I have a key fob for my civic which unlocks the door, but the battery is low, so now I have to push the button many times aiming it at different point of the car until it works and I hear the doors unlatch.
So to fix the key I bought a battery pack from harbor freight, then watched Youtube videos how to disassemble the key, then found out none of the batteries in the HF set worked.
THUNDERBOLT MAGNUM Button Cell Battery Assortment, 24-Piece
https://www.harborfreight.com/button-cell-battery-assortment-24-piece-63398.html
None of those batteries were correct – this means Honda choose a Lithium button battery which was unusual and non-standard.
So I returned the battery pack to HF (more wasted time) and still have a malfunctioning key fob, which o-dark-thirty I sometimes have to actually insert the key into the door lock to open the driver door.
“A Honda dealer typically charges between $15 and $65 for parts and labor to replace a standard lithium button battery in a key fob. However, many dealerships will swap the battery for free if you purchased the car there or as a quick courtesy.
If you want to handle it yourself, you can usually buy the battery (often a CR2032 or similar lithium coin cell) at a local hardware store or online for about $4 to $15.”
I am looking to buy an econo car, to vastly improve my current fuel efficiency. The make and model I am looking at (Mitsu Mirage) comes in different trim levels.
On certain years, the ES has a standard key. But the SE has the key fob. Not being familiar with any of the trim meanings was confusing for me as I scanned Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist.
Who the fuck names the trim levels of their car ES and SE? WTF over! Now get this the 2015 entry model was a DE. But in 2017 they changed the trims, DE was dropped, ES (the higher previous trim), now became the entry trim. The new high trim ends in an E when the previous low trim ended in an E.
I guess they didn’t want to inverse the DE to ED, lol. Furthermore, those two letters representing the trim have no specific meaning. When GM created the Geo Metro XFI they never gave it a specific meaning.
Geez, literally 15 seconds on Google and you’d know CR2032 is most likely. Even if not what’s so offensive about watching a Youtube video to open the thing and look?
CR2032 common size, grocery stores, Walmart, Batteries Plus, gas stations. Guessing you were looking for something to be pissed off about today and this fit the bill.
“None of those batteries were correct – this means Honda choose a Lithium button battery which was unusual and non-standard.”
Dude you’re a dope. Most FOB’s use a coin cell lithium battery.
But you’re so smart, you buy the batteries first without bothering to do a google search or check the owners manual to see what is needed. Buy the wrong batteries, then proceed to blame Honda.
I agree, Yukon. There was absolutely nothing wrong with a physical key-and two of them! Talk about fixing something that was never broken….
Plus those fobs are bulky, had one for a rental car that was bigger and heavier than all my other keys combined.
Count me as another kook, Eric. 👍
inside the fob, there’s a radio frequency (RFID) chip,
antenna, and miniature circuit board.
they are easily damaged
replacing the coin battery should be a one minute job
but it can be a nightmare
I opened one fob upside down
(it was impossible to tell what was right side up)
and all the parts fell out on the table
I opened the second fob to figure out
how to put the parts back in the first fob
There were several ways to put the parts back inside
but only one way would allow the fob covers
to snap together properly
The typical retail price to replace and program a smart key fob for a push-button start vehicle ranges from $200 to $600 total. These devices are known in the automotive industry as smart keys or proximity fobs. Because they utilize rolling-code encryption for anti-theft security, they cost significantly more than standard clickers
‘Street cars began to get the button – and the fob.’ — eric
The sole advantage of fobs — I’ve found while driving others’ cars that have them — is that a ring with many keys on it doesn’t rattle against the dash next to the ignition switch or the steering column, as it does on my Fronty.
That minor annoyance I can fix with a strategically placed piece of foam. Don’t need no high-tech solution to an absolutely trivial issue.
I can’t pick up a fob without getting an overpowering urge to hurl it to the ground and stomp it flat.
Rube Goldberg must be laughing his ass off at today’s society of contrived complexity.
Adding failure points is not a way to increase reliability. Does no one remember the Law of Diminishing return?
As I was informed in the mid-70s when small businesses started getting computers (Burroughs L8500 ~$35k a pop), the reason people are buying them is because they’re not allowed to have an electric train in the office.
Now that crap is everywhere.
“Rube Goldberg must be laughing his ass off at today’s society of contrived complexity.”
Amen to that. Elon Musk, when it comes to rockets anyhow, has the right mindset in that “The best part is no part. The best process is no process. It weighs nothing. Costs nothing. Can’t go wrong.”
‘contrived complexity’
Brilliant. Because planned obsolescence just isn’t profitable enough.
At some point in the ’90s my car’s keyed ignition wore out and had to be replaced. The mechanic remarked that the weight of 37 keys on my keychain might have had something to do with it. So keyless is a good idea in some ways, but the implementation of that was never going to favor the peasants.
I am lucky that our version of Chevys have keys but also have the remote door locks that if the battery dies and you have to open the door with a key, the car becomes no so happy. Alarm goes off, can’t start the car. What is the point of being able to open a car and start it with a key if it wont work once the battery dies?
I experienced this with my daughter’s hyundai. Had to open with a spare key, which set off the alarm and disabled the starter.
Even with a key, some have chips in the key that have to be programmed as well.