Not one to fear revealing his age, TTAC's Frank Williams says the key to his '65 Dodge Coronet unlocked and started at least four cars: his parents' '64 Plymouth Belvedere and '67 Plymouth Fury; a co-worker's '66 Dodge Polara, and a '68 Valiant belonging to a customer at the grocery store that employed the future blogger. Ancient history, from the time before encryption, yes? Uh, no. KUTV 's consumer sleuth has uncovered the secret truth behind a spate of damage-free break-ins inflicted upon GM vehicles: "master" keys. "Bobbo's friend and co-worker, Clay Collett, owns a 1997 Chevy Blazer. And guess what? The key for Bobbo’s truck opens Clay’s SUV and vice versa Clay’s key opens Bobbo’s door… When we first called General Motors about all this, the spokesperson said there are only so many combinations possible…but he had not heard of any issue with GM keys in the past. Is that so? At Bob’s Lock & Key in west valley, they say they’ve known all about the GM door key situation for GM cars for more than 10 years… when technicians learn that the vehicle is a GM between ‘94 and ‘04, they start with the key from their own Chevrolet service vans. Bob’s say their own GM keys opens the locks of other GM vehicles more than half the time." KUTV's Gephart says Chevy's tackled the problem– leaving owners of vehicles made between 1994 – 2004 SOL. The only possible remedy: change the door locks.
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In the early 1990s, when I worked for a car rental company, someone would occassionally drive off in the wrong grey Chevy Astro van–because the keys often worked in different vans!
They’re not the only ones with ‘universal’ locks. The keys to my old Ford Escort had no trouble opening up and starting other Ford Escorts.
Of course I had the opposite problem with my Mitsubishi. The keys I got from the dealer never opened anything.
The door key for my 1983 Lincoln Continental worked on my 1965 Ford Galaxie. Almost a 20 year span right there!
Question is: do the new electronic keys (like Ford PATS) keep ignition keys from being interchangeable?
I live less than a mile from the Liberty Park mentioned in the article. And I own two GMs.
Crap.
A friend of mine opened a car in the Wal-Mart parking lot with his fob. I figured that, at the very least, would be fairly secure.
i once left a bar and actually got in another puke green dodge dart thinking it was mine and almost drove away before i realized it wasn’t…
Thanks for sharing postjosh, that was frickin’ hilarious.
It wasn’t just GM. My first car was a 1988 Toyota Celica, and one day I somehow blew a hole in the muffler. Took it to the shop, gave the mechanic my key… he walked up to a Camry of the same vintage, unlocked the door and got in, and started up the engine. “Hey, your muffler sounds fine!”
No wonder the Camry was on the most stolen list.
Damn I’m parking my Cadillac in the wrong neighborhoods. Does this work with the ignition I want the whole car to vanish not just the contents.
Why would you want to steal a GM vehicle when GM is giving away new ones for free?
my escort key also fits my pickup and another escort someone I know owns. Just for kicks I tried it at a shopping mall and opened three cars with it. Worn keys work better, they allow you to wiggle it a bit and it opens right up. Works in the ignition too.
Ironically when I replaced the broken ignition switch I got a blank key I could use to create my own combination with. More effective than staying with the factory one.
I have owned several windstar vans. Now these were high mileage and well worn. I could use the keys on the last two interchageably. They were quite different in profile but they worked. Maybe the keys were so well worn that it didn’t matter any more.
Are the smart keys any more reliable? Anyone had experience with them?
Reminds me of the time in the mid 80’s when a few of us went to a mall in my friend’s mother’s Dodge Caravan (this was back in High School).
We were leaving the mall and got into what we thought was the right van. Said friend unlocked the doors with the key, sat down and started the van. We didn’t realize it wasn’t the right van until he turned around to back out and noticed the “Baby On Board” sign hanging in the back window.
We bailed out of that one quickly and found the right one a few spots down.
I can verify as fact that the keys to a (rental) ’02 Malibu work fine for unlocking/starting a (rental) ’02 Sunfire. Of course, the fact taht I was getting Malibu’s and Sunfire’s as loaners when my new ’03 Bonneville was in the shop (repeatedly) is but a small part of why I no longer have any GM car keys.
My dad’s Buick keys opened or started several neighbors’ GM cars and trucks. I can’t remember an instance where they could unlock and start a car.