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New Car Key
It's been difficult lately, on and off, to get my key out of the ignition. It's as if I don't realize you have to have the car in neutral and then push in and turn. I do all that and still, it sometimes works on the first try but sometimes takes up to about seven tries.
Robin suggested I go to the dealer and get a new original key. I didn't know you could do that. As if there are huge, dusty filing cabinets in every single dealer.
Interesting. It sounds much cheaper than fixing an ignition!
So I went to the dealer today. The first guy there asked me what kind of car I had. "Honda Civic wagon."
"Ho--wha?" Apparently they don't make these anymore. (Wikipedia says that starting in 1992, "The wagon variant was now only available in the Japanese market where the previous generation wagon was carried over until 1995." In 1996, "several new variants were introduced, including two distinct wagon models: the "Orthia" based on the standard Civic which was sold in the Japanese market and the Domani based wagon which was offered in the European market.")
I told him what I wanted, and he led me to the key person who asked me what kind of car I had and what year. Then she said she would have to confirm that they still have the data on cars that are that old (1991). I told her that the problem with making cars that last is that people will then come in with old cars.
Three minutes and five dollars later, I have a fancy-schmancy* original-looking key. I compared it to my current key visually, just "to make sure you didn't accidentally look up 1881" and it seemed to match. The lady warned me that the tumblers might be used to my old, worn out key, and I might have to jiggle the new key a bit before it would work, but then after that it would work perfectly.
My tumblers were not at all surprised. Perhaps "relieved" is a better adjective. My new key worked perfectly in the door and ignition with no jiggling at all.
Next stop: make copies so I can keep this one in good shape. Although, if the copies cost more than $2, I probably should just go get some more "originals" instead.
* After typing that, I realized that my key is not fancy at all. There is no LED, no far-away unlocking and locking capabilities, no tweeting noises. But it does have a black plastic head on it.
Robin suggested I go to the dealer and get a new original key. I didn't know you could do that. As if there are huge, dusty filing cabinets in every single dealer.
Interesting. It sounds much cheaper than fixing an ignition!
So I went to the dealer today. The first guy there asked me what kind of car I had. "Honda Civic wagon."
"Ho--wha?" Apparently they don't make these anymore. (Wikipedia says that starting in 1992, "The wagon variant was now only available in the Japanese market where the previous generation wagon was carried over until 1995." In 1996, "several new variants were introduced, including two distinct wagon models: the "Orthia" based on the standard Civic which was sold in the Japanese market and the Domani based wagon which was offered in the European market.")
I told him what I wanted, and he led me to the key person who asked me what kind of car I had and what year. Then she said she would have to confirm that they still have the data on cars that are that old (1991). I told her that the problem with making cars that last is that people will then come in with old cars.
Three minutes and five dollars later, I have a fancy-schmancy* original-looking key. I compared it to my current key visually, just "to make sure you didn't accidentally look up 1881" and it seemed to match. The lady warned me that the tumblers might be used to my old, worn out key, and I might have to jiggle the new key a bit before it would work, but then after that it would work perfectly.
My tumblers were not at all surprised. Perhaps "relieved" is a better adjective. My new key worked perfectly in the door and ignition with no jiggling at all.
Next stop: make copies so I can keep this one in good shape. Although, if the copies cost more than $2, I probably should just go get some more "originals" instead.
* After typing that, I realized that my key is not fancy at all. There is no LED, no far-away unlocking and locking capabilities, no tweeting noises. But it does have a black plastic head on it.