Car Key Replacement in Spokane, WA

Proving the car is yours

A replacement car key is cut to the car's locks and, on many newer cars, programmed to its immobilizer, so expect to show that the vehicle is yours or that you may use it. Have ready:

• Photo ID
• The registration or title in your name
• For a leased, financed or company car, or one registered to a relative, whatever authorization the owner can give
• The VIN, visible through the windshield at the base of the driver's side

If the documents are locked inside the car, say so; they can be checked once it is open. If they are lost, your state motor-vehicle agency can issue replacements.

Where the car sits in a Spokane winter

Key programming is usually done with the car itself, so its position matters. During the city's snow season, the odd side of a residential street is the one residents are asked to use, and a car with no working key cannot be moved to it or out of a plow's way.

At four inches of snow or more, the city starts a full-city plow that it expects to take about three days: arterials first, then residential hills, then flat areas. A car on an arterial would be in the first pass, while one on a flat residential street may sit in unplowed snow until late in the cycle. Either way, clear the snow from the driver's door and the front of the car before work starts.

On Five Mile Prairie, streets wind and end in cul-de-sacs rather than following the city grid. Give the nearest through street as well as the address, and say whether the car is in a garage, in a driveway or on the street.

What to have ready

1. Make, model and year
2. How many keys you had and whether any still work
3. Whether the car uses a plain key, a key with a remote, or a push-to-start fob
4. Whether a lost key could be in someone else's hands, so it can be erased from the car's memory where the car allows it

If the key is a remote or push-to-start fob, key fob programming covers that side. Service details are on the car key replacement page.