So in trying to live a more Mustachian life, my fiance and I decided that we needed to consolidate down from two vehicles to just one, and utilize the public transportation options around our town. There wasn't anything particularly bad about either vehicle, both paid off, reliable, and pretty fuel efficient. We actually ended up selling my car because the interior was in much better shape, and we figured we could get more money for it. Just finished that off this weekend actually.
The point of all that in this thread is that we needed to get a spare key for my fiance's Camry. Currently, she only has one copy of the original master key and a key fob. So naturally I decided we should get at least 1 spare, especially if this is going to be our only car going forward. We decided to go down to the Toyota dealership and see what the protocol for this was, and if all was good then get a copy made.
Quick digression, and I know this isn't all dealerships, but when did these places become campuses? I mean, I had to follow signs for the appropriate type of service I was coming there for and you pretty much had to drive from one to another. I've seen accredited academic institutions that have a smaller geographic footprint than this place.
So we wait around for the "parts guy" we'd been directed to finish his phone call (30% work / 70% screwing around) and then explain our situation. First part that was a bit odd, the kind of exaggerated air being pushed through pursed lips sound when I explained the make/model we were working with (2002 Camry), like that made his job harder by being an older car or something. It's a 15 year old Camry, not some crazy import, ya know? The key copy part was straightforward, check the VIN with some California registry and if all checks out then get a copy made right there. But the key fob... whoooo boy. Got to schedule a time with the service department, make sure to bring all existing key fobs, wait around for 30-1hr, and if all goes well then you're finished. And if there are any issues, well then it'll take more time. Oh yeah, hour of service time ($80) plus cost of additional key fob ($50) was gonna be $130 for just one more key fob it it went well. So, without being rude I very much let him know we were not interested in getting a key fob from the dealership.
I understand that sometimes dealerships do things in less time-effective ways in order to utilize available services they can charge for, but cost aside, the ineffectiveness in that workflow for adding a key fob for an existing car is painful. It's not my area of expertise so I'm hoping there's some security or technical reason they're at least doing it this way.