We purchased our car, a 2005 Hyundai Sonata, in July of 2005. It had been a rental vehicle and had around 8,600 miles on it, so it was used. However, it had all of the paperwork with it, and the window stickers on it at the dealership clearly listed the inclusion of spiffy floor mats and keyless entry. That didn’t stop the dealership from trying to sell us the car sans floor mats ($80) and with the fobs needed in order to use the keyless entry ($120 apiece + $40 installation). I jumped and jived and bitched, and believe you me, we walked out of that dealership with two spanking new key fobs. The mats had to be ordered, and then ordered a second time because they ordered cream instead of charcoal, but we got those, too.

In the summer of 2006 I somehow lost a set of keys at my mom’s house. We checked both inside and outside, but didn’t think to check the trash can until after the trash had been taken out and away by the garbage collection company. Why they would have ended up in the trash is beyond me, but considering we never found them anywhere else…

So from then until the summer of 2007 we only had one key fob, because we never got around to spending the $180 for a new fob and the installation of it.

In November of 2007, a mere four months after purchasing the second key fob, my stupid husband handed our son a set of keys to play with. They turned up missing, obviously, but we didn’t realize it until three days later. Again, after the trash had gone out and been picked up by the garbage collection company. Did I mention at that time our son had an obsession with throwing things in the trash can? After we ripped the house apart three times and didn’t find the keys, we figured they went out with the trash.

So, a second key fob lost. Not to mention house keys, PO box keys, and car keys. My car key costs $6 to replace. The Hyundai car key costs $12 to replace. Expensive things.

Last week I went on eBay and found Hyundai key fobs for $14.95 each!!! Even with shipping, the cost of two didn’t equal HALF the cost of ONE key fob, if it had been purchased directly from the dealership. The seller also sent along instructions on how to access the configuration box, which is located behind the center console in our car. I found some more detailed directions and disassembly instructions today, so when Dan gets home tonight he’ll decide if he wants to risk ripping our $20k car apart and then putting it back together, or if we should just suck it up and pay the $40 to have the dealership configure the new fobs with our car.

My cheapness, let me show you it!

Related posts:

1. Hyundai can just bite me!
2. Where did spring go to?
3. Dear Kia & Hyundai
4. Hah!
5. One year later