the world wide web is a great thing for vehicle owners who don�t like to spend allot of money � or any money for that matter. i purchased fred, my 1998 explorer, last week and being as it is a used car it’s needs a small amount of work. fred is really in great shape, but he does need small things like replacing the keyless entry remote. i called my local ford dealer about replacing the keyless entry remote and they told me they would be glad to replace it and reprogram the system for the new remote for a mere $110 ($75 for the remote plus $35 for programming). they thought it was a great idea. i thought it was completely overpriced. i can buy a new non-ford system for $40. since half my genetic code has come from floyd terrell my dna has programmed me to be naturally cheap.
ebay fits right into my cellular need to not spend money. ebay is the internet home of the cheapskate. i went to the site and searched for a keyless entry remote and found one for $11. bingo. half the problem was solved but i still needed to figure out how to program the stupid thing. a remote without programming to match the vehicle doesn’t do much good. i guess i could stand outside the car in parking lots and just pretend to lock the truck with the remote hoping that any car thieves around see me and decide not to steal the explorer based on the fact that they saw my remote. i could even make the little locking beep noise with my voice. that should scare off all the criminals. if nothing else they might think “don’t mess with the crazy guy’s truck.” i think that would be an effective anti-theft device.
once again the internet saved my cheap side the grief of having the spend money. with a 15 minute search i found the instructions for setting the vehicle to recognize my $11 remote. the $35 reprogramming fee that ford was going to charge me was for turning the ignition switch on 8 times in 10 seconds and then pushing any key on the remote. that’s all it took to program the receiver to recognize the new ebay remote. i bet ford had to spend weeks training their mechanics to know how to do that.
so let me tally this again – ford wanted $100 to give me a new remote and program it – the internet only cost me $11 to do the same thing. i love the internet.