I have a ford Ka2 , 1997 registration.

I went for a (long) walk in the local forest (Hamsterley, ironically on my birthday) and lost the only set of keys.

I walked back to retrace my steps twice- no keys-nightmare

I posted some notes on the fenceposts on the way I took, asking if anyone found them to let me know-nothing-contacted the police-nothing

I assumed it wouldn’t be too complicated a job (well the last time I had this sort of problem cars didn’t have immobilisers….) to get the car started somehow.

So I called the mechanic out.

He couldn’t start the car, and said it was down to the “chip in the key” and some other stuff that I hadn’t a chance of understanding.

Car is now towed back home, dead.

Whilst I understand that answering this kind of question on an open forum wouldn’t be wise, would there be any chance someone could email me with some sort of suggestion about what to do next?

Do I really have to scrap the car because I lost the ignition key?

Having been made redundant (http://grahamchalk.blogspot.com/) I don’t have a lot of money to play with on solving this one (read that as NO money to solve this one ;)

Ford said they can sot it out. For £450. (The car cost £250….)

Would anyone out there care to save my life?

Without a key you are going to have a real problen with this. An Auto Locksmith can code a key to the car, but cant cut you a key without either the original key number or an original.

Fords may be able to give you key number from their computer based info, if you beg them, in order for you to get one cut. It sounds like they are quoting you for replacing all the locks as well as programming a new key.

Hopefully somebody else will come along who has experienced the same problem.

It does go to show that it is always worth having at least two keys for a car and better to have three. That way you can always code a third key yourself.

I make and programme car keys in lost key situations.

If the car is locked and keys are lost, We can make a key to the lock without any damage. We then plug a computor into the car , cancel the old keys and programme in the new keys and remote.

Cost is £140 for 2 working keys.