I've owned my Fabia vRS since March of this year and unfortunately only got the one key with it. I've been looking into getting a second key as I know it'll be useful if I lose the only I have...

A friend of mine who used to own a 55 plate Polo sport required a replacement key for his car and said that JCB VW at Ashford cut keys while-you-wait. Having just rung them they've quoted me at £102 inc VAT for this but they say they don't cut them as they have to be sent away...

As this is the only key I have surely there must be a service where the existing key doesn't have to be sent away to be duplicated?

Anyone with any experiences?

Go to Skoda dealers, give them your chassis number and reg.

They will be able to order you one in. 5-7 days.

Then you will need it coded.

Go to Skoda dealers, give them your chassis number and reg.

They will be able to order you one in. 5-7 days.

Then you will need it coded.

Is £102 a typical price?

Just get a VW Keyfob off ebay (circa £40) and get it to timpsons and have it cut for aprox £6, the only thing you need to get then is a transponder (couple of quid) and then find someone to code it using vagcom.

The frequencys are all the same on VAG keys (433-434mhz are actually 433.5 or something daft. one group round it up, the others group rounds it down) and pairing it is simple if you follow the guide in the handbook.

I did this with my last car and it was simple and cheap.

Do you have the plastic tag with the codes on it? If not then you must go to a dealer to get the key coded on a VAS machine. I'm not quite sure how VAG get away with this, but basically, they give you the key codes when you first buy the car. If you lose the key codes, they won't give you them again. Even in the dealers now, they can't see the codes and the system reads the number from your dashpod and programmes the key accordingly. As far as I'm aware, the only non-dealership VAS machine in the UK is at Inde-Tech in Milton Keynes, so if you're near them, they might be able to knock £10-£15 off the bill for labour, but the keys are expensive. £100 sounds about right for the plip and pre-cut blade, plus £25-£50 to programme it. Your key doesn't have to be sent off, they cut it from the code that VAG supply, but VAG will supply a key for your car in 5-7 days.

It's very secure, but not exactly in sympathy with the EU directive about being able to get your car serviced independently.

Anyway - first loss, least loss - just get a new key from a dealer. Yes, you'll feel like you've been sexually assaulted in the wallet, but it will definitely work, and trust me on this, buying the bits separately off ebay will almost certainly be just as expensive in the long run, because the first couple of parts you buy won't be 'just' right and then you'll probably end up having to take it to a dealer anyway to get it coded, at which point you're totally in their power as to whether they'll programme a part they didn't supply, and if you supply the wrong parts then they charge you the labour anyway. I've been there!

What I would certainly do is phone a few dealers and bargain like crazy to get the best price.

As far as I'm aware, the only non-dealership VAS machine in the UK is at Inde-Tech in Milton Keynes, so if you're near them, they might be able to knock £10-£15 off the bill for labour, but the keys are expensive. £100 sounds about right for the plip and pre-cut blade, plus £25-£50 to programme it..

No there's a few VAS machines about. A local auto-locksmith (Panik Locks in Wolverhampton) did a key for our Lupo with a VAS for £90 all-in.

Isn't VAG-Tacho supposed to be able to read the code from the dash?

£100 is cheap, ours at work (Renault) are around £180 supplied and coded

Isn't VAG-Tacho supposed to be able to read the code from the dash?

Depends on who you believe. Unit 18 basically have everything except a VAS machine and they couldn't/wouldn't risk doing it for me when I had my dashpods swapped over (I've lost the plastic tag).

for £100 you could get a lovely bentley flip key!! then get that cut and coded

Thanks for everyone's input! Have now had a couple more quotes from two Skoda dealers - like wja96 states, I don't want to get a 'cheaper' part off ebay only for the dealer to 'shaft me' because they didn't supply the part and it was faulty etc.

Seems £102 inc VAT is the cheapest so far... ahhh the perils of owning a modern car

I'm sure there are plenty of people around who could code a key for you - I can but you're a fair way from me.