Featured Bricked Toyota in the news

It was a grey import.
Still a hassle getting it to the dealer that sold it if it been a Canadian model, but that is far easier than shipping it back to Japan.

 

Well unfortunate for the owners, but that sounds like a pretty unique and specifically rare situation.
Not the losing your fob part, but the part where you lose the single copy, and it also happens to be 15 year old vehicle that was somehow imported and sold outside of it's original market. It wasn't suppose to be sold and operated in North America.

So I don't see it as a common happening nor a happening that has much to do with whether we have gone too far with security, technology or key fobs.

I would hope the owners either get their keys found and returned OR Toyota finds a way to help them. Even if the vehicle wasn't meant to be sold and operated in North America, and even though it is 15 years old...there SHOULD be someway to make it work and get it working. Some Wizard within Toyota has to have that spell.

But I think it's just a series of unfortunate events.
I don't tie it to "us" or technology having gone too far.

 

My guess is that Techstream can do it, just that all the documentation isn't available in North American TIS.

 

Didn't sound like the keys are tailored to particular countries. It is that the formal registration of the car and keys happens at the dealer that sold it, and to get a replacement key without any copies requires going back to that dealer. If this car had been sold in Canada, the family would likely have been just as stuck if they had lost their last key across country from their dealer.

 

i take comfort in the fact that there have been very few occurrences of major inconvenience reported, compared to the number of cars sold.
and also that we haven't lost a fob in 13 years we've had sks.

 

Did you find a nice wood surface to knock on after saying that?

 

just the ol' noggin.

 

I thought maybe in the recliner . How's the rotator cuff doing?

 

pain is finally gone, but p/t starts tomorrow. a friend told us the only difference between a terrorist and a therapist is, you can negotiate with a terrorist.

thanks for asking.

 

Who takes a picture of their car keys?

 

"... they had just bought the car a few weeks before and were only given the one key."

Yet another reminder to used car buyers: DEMAND TWO KEYS (fobs) as a condition of sale. Don't give the seller a chance to make extra profit by selling your second key/fob on ebay.

 

This isn't the only manufacturer that has tech requiring a specific start/run function. It's not that the car is a fail .... it's really a case of the driver being a fail .... similar to someone putting cruise control on ... taking eyes off the road, then plowing into the rear of another car. Here's a similar fail/driver from another brand;
Tesla driver stranded in the desert after smartphone app failure
So - it's not that the Toyota or any other car that is 'bricked' ... it's the driver's inability to think that's being bricked. I remember some manufacturers had ignition keys that were removable way back in the day. Take the key out - drive off - then pop the clutch out too quick - stall - then blame the manufacturer?

.

 

And why is it so hard to buy a fob ahead of time, wrap it in foil, hide it inside the car, then have a little metal key cut for the door, put it in a velcro hide-a-key under the car - so when you inevitably go stupid - you're still good to go. The worst that happens then, is you get your shirt dirty - while you are crawling under the car to retrieve your life saving fob. Yes .... speaking from experience here.

.

 

The image gives me a sense of the Toyota fob being photochopped into a separate picture.

Uhm, it needs to be programmed too. And I'm getting the feeling that the car's gray market status interferes with that part.

 

iirc - there is a voodoo chicken dance here on PC that walks you through programming the fob yourself. I'll see if I can find it.
EDIT;
here ... Presuming it works for other Toyotas - it may or not
Finally! How to program a SKS key fob with SKS functionality | PriusChat