Lost All Your Car Keys With No Spare? What Happens Next in Vancouver and What It Costs

Lost my car keys, no spare: you don't need a tow to the dealer. A mobile locksmith comes to the car in Vancouver, checks ownership, cuts a key from the vehicle's key code or the lock itself, and programs the chip on the spot. The price depends on the key type and is confirmed on the call before dispatch.

Written by the technicians at The Vancouver Locksmith. Updated September 2026.

The first hour: report, retrace, and whether to tow the car

Take ten minutes before you spend any money. Walk back through the last two places you had the keys, call the restaurant or gym, and check the car itself; some lost keys turn out to be on the seat, which makes it a car lockout rather than a key loss and a much smaller job.

If the keys went missing with a bag or wallet, treat them as stolen. Report it to the Vancouver Police: the VPD reporting page gives the non-emergency line, 604-717-3321, and lets you file online for lost or stolen property under $25,000. The file number matters later for ICBC, which we cover in the questions below.

Hold off on the tow. A mobile locksmith makes and programs the key wherever the car is sitting, whether that's a street in Mount Pleasant or a parkade under a Yaletown tower. Tow only if the car has to move now (a tow-away zone, a private lot with a deadline) or the make turns out to be a dealer-only job.

How a locksmith makes a car key with no original: key code, decoding the lock, programming

1. Confirm ownership. Nothing happens until the technician has matched your ID to the vehicle's papers.
2. Get the cut. Manufacturers assign a key code to each vehicle; Honda, for example, ships a key number tag and its owner's manual tells you to keep it outside the car because you'll need it for a replacement key. If no code is available, the technician decodes the door lock by reading its wafers, or as a last resort removes the lock to read it directly. We pick and decode rather than drill, and drilling is a last resort.
3. Cut the blade. Edge-cut keys and high-security laser-cut keys are both cut on a machine in the van.
4. Program the electronics. Every new passenger vehicle sold in Canada since September 2007 has an immobilizer under Transport Canada's theft protection standard, so the transponder or proximity chip has to be enrolled through the diagnostic port. With no existing key, that can mean a security PIN from the maker or a reset of the immobilizer module; see transponder key programming.
5. Test everything: doors, trunk, ignition or push-button start, and the remote.
6. Erase the lost key if you want it dead. More on that below.

Proof of ownership you'll need

Bring government photo ID and the vehicle's registration or insurance papers showing your name and the VIN. That's the same standard the manufacturers apply: Ford's support page says the dealer needs you in person with government-issued ID and vehicle documentation carrying the VIN and your name before releasing key codes.

For a company vehicle, bring a letter from the registered owner authorizing the work. For a borrowed or family car, the registered owner should be reachable by phone and able to send a photo of their ID and the papers. We record what we checked on the invoice, and we won't make a key for a car we can't tie to the person in front of us.

All-keys-lost cost by key type: metal, transponder, remote head, smart key

The Vancouver Locksmith doesn't publish a price list for lost keys, because the key type changes the job more than anything else. Here's what each type involves and what pushes the number up or down.

• Plain metal key (older cars, some work trucks and imports): cut from code or decoded from the lock, no programming. The cheapest all-keys-lost job there is.
• Transponder key: the cut plus chip programming. With no working key, add immobilizer access and possibly a security code, which is where the extra cost comes from.
• Remote head key: a transponder and a remote in one piece. The part costs more and the remote is programmed as a separate step on many cars.
• Smart or proximity key: the most expensive part, the longest programming, and the type most likely to need a code from the manufacturer. A few brands push these back to the dealer.

Across all four, the other drivers are the make and model year, OEM versus aftermarket parts, whether a key code can be retrieved for your VIN, where the car is (Langley is a longer drive than Kitsilano), and whether it's an emergency or late-night call, which depends on technician availability. Our car key replacement page covers the key types we handle; the fob side is explained in our dealer vs locksmith comparison.

Dealer vs mobile locksmith: time, price and the tow bill

A dealer can always make your key, but the path is longer. You prove ownership in person, the key is ordered against the VIN, the car is towed to the service bay because it can't be driven there, and for some smart keys the part arrives days later. Each of those steps is a line on a bill.

A mobile locksmith with the right equipment does the whole thing at the curb in one visit, often the same day depending on technician availability. You pay for the key and the programming and nothing for transport. Where the dealer wins is on the handful of makes that lock key data to their own systems, and on a car under warranty with a suspected immobilizer fault; we'll tell you on the call if yours is one of them.

Should you rekey or reprogram so the lost key stops working?

Programming a new key doesn't switch off the old one. Ask the technician to erase all keys from the immobilizer and re-enrol only the ones in your hand; on most cars that's a few extra minutes, and it means the lost transponder will no longer start the engine. The same goes for the remote, which will keep unlocking the doors until it's removed.

Rekeying the door and ignition cylinders is a mechanical job that changes the cut so the old blade won't turn. It costs more than erasing electronics and is worth it when the keys were stolen along with your address, or when the car sits outside in East Vancouver where someone could try the blade at leisure. For a key that fell out of a pocket on the Seawall, erasing the chip and moving on is usually enough.

Call 778-655-1957 or request service online; the price is confirmed on the call before a technician is dispatched.