And I do that with borrowed cars or cars I am moving for a mate etc.
Also worth taking a photo when parking in a big carpark so you can use the GPS location to find it again and include the adjacent cars which can help with the last few hundred feet.
With my mortgage company, many years ago, I had a key fob with the mortgage company's address and phone number and a code number. If anyone found my keys, they could get in touch via the company, so I could get them back. I never needed it, but thought it a good idea.
Yes, lots of those existed, and still do. I had one from Sentinel. ISTR getting paid 50 quid, because of a mis selling issue ?
It's just a keyring you can buy, with your car's registration plate printed on to it.
My Peugeot flashes the indicators if you try to lock the doors when they are already locked, which serves the same purpose of locating the car is a car park. I'm not sure why that functionality is not standard for all cards.
I sometimes start my car with my spare key and then lock the car (to prevent it being stolen) with the other key. That allows me to demist or defrost the windscreen without having to wait quarter of an hour in a cold car until the window is defrosted. Scraping ice off the outside it easy enough, but trying to demist the inside is a huge problem (unless I get impatient and wipe it with a cloth, which leaves smears) because my car is a diesel so with the engine idling it takes several centuries until the heater runs warm. I've sometimes driven 10 miles or more before the temperature gauge moves to normal, especially on a cold day. And, yes, the garage has checked that the thermostat isn't stuck open.
At the risk of inflaming certain posters, a handy feature on an EV is being able to remotely control the heater, so that it is warm with unfrozen screen by the time you want to drive off.
Chris
I got the money too. But still use Sentinel, and have the tags.
Same here. They keys are clipped to a ring on my trousers, and hang in my pocket. They rarely emerge except when letting myself back into the house (keyless entry). There are other essential (but rarely used) keys on there.
I have done it in the past. However, I can get into the house by using my phone (or someone else's), but that has 2FA.
Yes, I've found that feature useful - although, to be fair, some ICE cars can be plugged in for the same function and some use a diesel (although petrol is possible) burning heater, so that they function without connection.
When I was still using an ICE car as my daily driver, I often thought about adding a system, but decided it wasn't worth the hassle for the limited need most years - especially since home working for part of the week has become the norm.
Good idea, but my "some years back" was PM (pre mobile)[1].
[1] That is, mobile phones (of a sort) did exist, but the days when mobiles became a fact of life for most people were still years away.
The wireless key fob, with a simple button press, will often identify which car it belongs to anyway. You press the unlock button, and the hazards flash, plus maybe a beep from the car to confirm it.
I had much the same with my (normal) bank [Bank of Scotland].
Often there is a way of getting the car to recognise the key for unlocking purposes - just using a sequence on the car.
For instance - an example
This procedure is not for getting the car to recognise the key for starting or turning off the immobiliser etc. which is another sequence on the car and possibly needing a key that already works. I think on my car for starting/immobiliser purposes ALL keys to be used with car need to be programmed within 10 seconds of each other. You need one working key to start the programming sequence.
My son's Volvo XC90 does that, not always intentionally. Once or twice he has returned to it to find the engine running, having been turned on somehow at some unknown time - possibly when he left it.
Back in the 70s, on a winter business trip to Sweden, I was told that many cars had fuel-fired heaters on timers, and that if you walked through the works car park near finishing time you would hear the "whoosh" of them firing up around you.
Chris
On the other hand of course, normally they use a custom built transmitter and a list of codes they have and see which car gets unlocked. after all, they would need to have nicked the device with its tag in the first place for that to matter at all.
If its a multi car household it actually might be useful. Brian
In message <upe3cp$1krop$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, Brian Gaff snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com writes
Apart from marketing and the ability to find your car in a car park, do electronic key fobs significantly improve the driving experience?
On a cold day it is a bonus not to have to get key out of pockets and stick it in the lock, since the process often means taking ones gloves off.
Walking back to the car with a load of shopping, being able to open the tailgate as you approach is definitely a boon.
On my car at least, you can't lock the key inside the car.
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