New-To-Me CPO with Dead Key?

[TheMortallyWounded]

So my 2019 came with two turn-to-start keys. One was obviously used, the other looks brand new. The brand new one works fine, but the used key won’t start the car. It will open the doors, but until I changed the battery in the key it wouldn’t open the trunk. Now it opens the trunk and the doors, but it still won’t start the car. What the heck is going on? It’s bad enough that yesterday I thought I had to jump start the car from leaving the lights on. But today I’m second guessing that since I had to drive 23 miles home to give my wife the working key, 23 miles back in my H3 going through construction and hills… and the dealership is 43 miles away.

Is it possible that they provided a new key, and in doing so the old key no longer works? It doesn’t look like the keys can be programmed at home. What kind of masochistic engineers came up with this? I know this, being a 2019 BN, is a mid-year with EyeSight being installed as a standard feature, but I have never heard of such a ridiculous problem. But in all seriousness, how many keys are normally provided with a brand new Subaru these days? Do they both actually work? The one in the photo is the one that doesn’t start and it was with the remote start fob; the one that does work came later when the salesman came back outside with dealer plates for the test drive. Strangely enough, the day I showed up for the test drive, the salesman thought the battery in the car was dead then too.

 

[remy6908]

Yes, its possible they had to replace a key and didnt reprogram both keys to the ignition when they got the new one. Subaru CPO requires 2 keys. Talk with the service department they will be able to reprogram the key. Make sure you bring both keys with you though. When they reprogram them it wipes the memory of all keys and they will need to reprogram both at that time or you will be back at square one.

 

[TheMortallyWounded]

Yup... that's exactly what happened. After a bit of pestering them, one of the managers started to make sense: She sent a driver with a rental, swapped cars Thursday, and brought back my car Friday while I was at lunch. That saved me 206 miles of driving, as they originally wanted me to leave it with them. I said I could make one trip out and back for their mistake, but if I had to leave it I wasn't paying anything for a rental including fuel... I wouldn't have been able to return the rental Friday due to prior commitments. Instead, the worst part of it was letting someone else drive my Legacy for me, and having to drive a CrossTrek from work to home and back again. Granted, my car did now have to drive further (work is in the opposite direction of the dealer from my house). They really did pull through, despite having a sales guy who really couldn't make any effort to pull strings and a general manager you can't even get through to. The sales manager was awesome! Considering they screwed up the key, I didn't see why I'd have to pay for their mistake. I already missed time at work and my wife was late because of the error.

I kinda wish I had pressured them for a solid key with passive transducer and a remote start/door/trunk keyfob. But I don't know if they even have them anymore. I'm just glad I finally got what I paid for.

90 miles to go before she gets into the 5-digit mark on the odometer!