{"id":57309,"date":"2026-10-02T17:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T15:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/accidents\/lost-car-key-big-bill-what-motorists-need-to-know\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T17:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T15:30:07","slug":"lost-car-key-big-bill-what-motorists-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/accidents\/lost-car-key-big-bill-what-motorists-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost car key, big bill: What motorists need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A recent post on the I Love Bryanston community group about a R6,750 bill to replace the lost key of a 2010 Suzuki SX4 prompted a familiar question from motorists: Surely replacing a car key shouldn&#039;t cost that much?<\/p>\n<p>According to Dewald Ranft, National Chairman of the Motor Industry Workshop Association (MIWA), a proud association of the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI), the reality is that today&#039;s vehicle keys are a long way removed from the simple metal keys of the past.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Many motorists only discover how sophisticated &ndash; and potentially expensive &ndash; their car key is when they lose or damage it,&rdquo; says Ranft. &ldquo;A modern key is not simply something that opens the door. Depending on the vehicle, it can incorporate a remote locking system, transponder technology and electronic coding that allows the vehicle to recognise the key and authorise it to start.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>That technology brings added security, but it can also bring an unpleasant surprise&#8230;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arrivealive.co.za\/news.aspx?s=1&#038;i=78772&#038;page=lost-car-key-big-bill-what-motorists-need-to-know\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more on Arrive Alive <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent post on the I Love Bryanston community group about a R6,750 bill to replace the lost key of a 2010 Suzuki SX4 prompted a familiar question from motorists: Surely replacing a car key shouldn&#039;t cost that much? According to Dewald Ranft, National Chairman of the Motor Industry Workshop Association (MIWA), a proud association [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.arrivealive.co.za\/ckfinder\/userfiles\/images\/Keys%20drunk%20driving(1).jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2149],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-accidents"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.arrivealive.co.za\/ckfinder\/userfiles\/images\/Keys%20drunk%20driving(1).jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}