Hi addisb

A hilarious story but it doesn't shock me. I did a bit of casual work at a Ford dealership in the late 60s and it was well know on the forecourt that sometimes the wrong key worked on the wrong car, especially with Escorts.

Not as bad though as the Lambretta Scooter keys - it was well known amongst us Mods that a strong screwdriver would work the ignition of most Lambrettas. One of our little tricks was to start mates scooters and "hide" them down a nearby backstreet.......... the joy of youth

MikeT

Quote: addisb wrote in post #13

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True Story..
Back in the 70's my father had a Mk1 Ford Escort. We were holidaying in Wexford and he parked it in Wexford town, did some shopping, returned to 'his' car and drove it back to the house we had rented.. about a 10 mile journey. I walked past the car and noticed that he had somehow changed the colour of the interior .. The poor man near fainted when I pointed it out. So quickly back into the town, parked the car "as near as possible" to where it had been parked and off to fetch his own car nearby. No doubt the real owner was a bit confused on their return to their car. Ford must have had a very limited amount of keys available.
No 'Keyless Entry back then.

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"coming to our pub in his ford cortina".. "he had been to another pub " .. ah! those were the different days all right.. ..No doubt a sparkling water man.

There was a time in the early 70s when I did some work with "disaffected" young people. I managed to find an organisation who would loan us a moped as part of something called STEP (I think it was something like Schools Traffic Education Programme)

The idea was to try to educate vulnerable young men, who were being killed in large numbers on the roads at the time, about being a safe road user through being taught practical skills with the moped. As part of the "deal" the responsible adult had to attend a two day course and get a STEP Certificate.

All was going well until there was a discussion about the introduction or increasing use of the breathaliser (?) when everything kicked off......a young man who until then had barely said a word, went ballistic about how the state were trying to destroy the fabric of English social life of people who lived and worked in the countryside.

He said that he lived with his parents deep in the countryside, the nearest pub, his local, was several miles drive away. There were no taxis or buses available for him and that he knew the road and considered himself safe driving his old Land Rover home after 5 pints and an evening of socialising with distant neighbours. The place erupted and he stormed out calling us " bloody townies"

Things have indeed changed.........................but this has always stuck with me..

MikeT

PS the kids loved the moped until somebody nicked it......perhaps not everything has changed

In order to get an app do I need to spend money and buy a smartphone?

After all these warnings, I have just bought a keyless Mini (2016, so not the clever rechargeable key). I didn't really want a keyless one, but other than that it has a perfect spec for us...

Where's the best place to buy a faraday bag?

What I should have said is - does anyone on here, who already has a keyless car, recommend any particular faraday bag/pouch? :-)) It's all new territory to me, so i am trying to get up to speed quickly. Would a tin work as a faraday cage? or does it need to be woven?

update: it doesn't need to be woven or mesh - a solid tin will do, but it must have metal to metal seals and no gaps... I have ordered two Defender bags, but also have a metal key safe in the house that should work OK with a couple of alterations to make sure there are no gaps (tape over the seams with aluminium tape). Will try them out when I get the car next week.

I keep my car keys upstairs out of range of the thieves relay device. Also more secure against the old fashioned stealing of the key as well.
Steve

I like the idea of keeping the keys upstairs out of the way, however my wife has a touch of ADHD and I'm sure she wouldn't stick to that as a plan... I have trained her to use a drawer in the kitchen for "normal" car keys (about 4 metres from any outside wall/window) and we have a disguised metal key safe for the spare keys. It's just testing whether the keys are secure from "radiating" their signal that will be the issue. Will she keep the key in the Defender bag in her handbag? Time will tell...

Kath & I both have a touch of increasing forgetfulness..............................we have two F bags, an extra one for the spare keys. All well and good until we go away in Th'Eriba and links to Randa's concerns.

We take the spare car keys and spare caravan keys. Kath used to be really good at looking after these as I am increasingly careless, However......................

We recently went to a very windy Wirral Country Park and as the weather wasn't great we went for a long walk along the Dee Estuary. I had taken the single door key for the van to lock up. After a good long walk we got back on the site & I tried to open the boot of the Karoq but zilch - nothing happened. I said OK I must have left the car keys in the shelf in the door, along with the main bunch of caravan keys.

When I asked for the spare car keys she always kept in her handbag they weren't there. Where are they then I asked? After a moments thought she said its ok I've left them in the dash of the car along with the other spare caravan keys.

It slowly dawned on us the enormity of what we had done - I opened the Eriba door and there were the car keys lying next to the F Bag and the main caravan keys.

This would have been one of those insurance nightmares Randa could dream about. Not only no Karoq but also no Troll

A rethink defo needed on our keyless situation. And also I keep the wheel and hitch lock keys on the caravan bunch

MikeT