I grew up in “Lynn, Lynn, city of sin” – so one of the first things my parents impressed upon me was the necessity of closing the windows and locking the doors on our family car whenever we got out. That worked well until the day my father stopped at a store with my sister and me, and we duly locked the doors … to find that Dad had left the key in the ignition :-(

He grumbled as we walked home (only a half mile, but he’d also need to walk back with my mother’s car key) and thus taught me to always carry a spare car key in my wallet to avoid this problem – because no matter how careful you are, a second’s distraction can lock you out, perhaps much further than half a mile from home.

But as cars have become more high-tech over the years, so have their keys. Chances are that your car key now has a thick plastic head containing a programmed electronic chip that interacts with your ignition switch lock to allow the car to start, like this:

Subaru key with chip-embedded head

However, Continue reading →