Went to pick up my new vehicle on the evening of March 15th. Was greeted by my saleskid as I got my last few things out of the truck. Was cheerfully handed the key to the car as he went inside to ready the final paperwork. So I went to open it up... transmitter wouldn't unlock car. Key wouldn't unlock lock cylinder in door. (Dealership has two locations, my car came from their other store 15 miles north). Turns out, wrong spare key was sent along, so key had to be ordered from FoMoCo. No big deal. A Euro-style key with internal cuts, local dealer has no cutter for it.

Primary key works, of course, that's how they drove the car to my selling location.

Two weeks ago, after not hearing anything, I called them and was told the spare key was in. Has to be programmed to car like most modern keys, a 2 minute procedure. Was given an appointment for yesterday at 8 am, a rainy, cold day it turned out, for the programming. Got there at about 10 of 8, took a seat in the lounge.

8:20, overheard the technician come up and tell the service advisor the key would not work. Waited another 5 minutes in lounge watching CNN, went to counter and was told the key was not cut correctly, the cuts were too far down the shaft. (I used to cut keys when I worked at the GM dealership, it happens sometimes.) Another key has to be ordered by VIN from FoMoCo.

So it was a wasted trip, about 12 miles. But the advisor gave me a card good for a free oil change, which I'll use at the 5k mile mark. A decent gesture that I appreciate. And I got to eat breakfast on the way with a bunch of old guys at McD's.

A couple of things though: spare key was never located at other dealer location. It was probably given to another Fiesta buyer as a spare, and has not been discovered yet. Also, Fiesta and 2012 Focus will likely use the same style key, dealer needs to get a key cutter for these vehicles. And, what if a Fiesta person lost their key and needed to call roadside assistance? Would they be without their car for 3 weeks while the dealer waited for a key from Ford?

So, all in all, even though it was not a success, at least it was not the complete comedy of errors I went through with my Colorado seatbelt buckle.

Misplaced/missing keys...the bane of a dealer's existence, especially when sales & service get involved. "The machine says you have it"..."No I don't"...searching...never to be found. Happens, even though it shouldn't.

When it comes to new style keys such as this, they definitely need to get the right equipment, for sure. It's hard to keep up when things change, but no excuse.

All in all, sounds like they handled the experience well, even a wasted trip or not. More than just a sorry, a complimentary next oil change. How many miles are you up to now?

When I worked at the dealership detailing vehicles, when new vehicles came in the first thing you did was tag the keys and put the stock number in the window. You put the extra set of keys in the case for the owner's manual and along with the owner's manual you gave them to the secretary to put wherever they went.

A free oil change is good.

Yup, all true. And I'm up to 1400+ miles already. Havin' a ball.

Huh. Sucks they didn't check to make sure it worked before scheduling you to come in.

Not sure how they could have done that. The cuts were correct, just too far down the shaft of the key... the key has to go in to a certain point to release all the tumblers and turn.

Glad to know your enjoying your new car...

Ah, got it.