DealersEdge Professional Forums

How many GM dealers can cut the "side cut" keys in-house on demand? We cannot. Small store and simply can't justify the machine and maintenance cost. Hasn't really been an issue until today.

I would like to know if we are in the minority and should be looking at this investment? Or are we just like most of the other dealerships and order by code on as needed basis?

You're not alone, we are a smaller store too and just order cut as needed. Just really hard to justify that huge initial expense for the equipment, plus any maintenance and updates. Would have to see alot more vehicles coming down the line with milled key style cylinders first.

There are only 3 stores in the entire northeast corner of Oklahoma that have one. Of those, 1 gave up on their machine and started ordering the keys again, 1 does everything they can to avoid cutting keys including front loading whomever is asking that if the bit breaks, they will have to pay the $65 to replace it, and 1 will cut them albeit reluctantly. It took me two years of begging and a photo of a pile of ruined keys worth over 2k for them to buy me a PC+ machine, so there is no chance of getting one here and from what I've heard, it will never be worth it.

We have one on a lease, around $225/mo. DEFINITELY a losing proposition, but one of those things we just have to have. Kind of like the shop is forced to buy tools that they never use, or renovate the showroom cause the Mfg says the color's a shade off. My justification is picturing a new Sierra or Terrain locked up blocking the Service drive and impeding morning flow, or a friend of the DP losing a key at the beach. We try to recoup some cost by charging a $10 "cut" fee for these side milled keys, which is cheaper and of course quicker than ordering, but doesn't nearly pay for the machine. Plus we still have the PC Plus, so we lay out around $400/mo. Even the $20 "key code obtaining" fee doesn't cover it all but we still have to have both machines.

We just ordered and received our Bd Laser and will be setting it up this week. We didn;t have a key machine to cut the Cobalt keys by code and relied on another dealer close by to cut them from code, but now with the dreaded recall we needed to step up and get a machine to do that. I was actually loking at the Kabo Ilco machine that would cut both types of keys but that one was on back order and now GM Dealer Equipment reduced the price on the Bd Laser from $9,800.00 down to $7,400 so we stepped up and purchased that one. I heard horror stories about it, but from what I understand the problems usually occured swapping it back and forth from double sided to flap keys frequently. I will let you know how we make out this week after setting it up.

We don't have one and won't be getting one.

We order by code, and most get here within two days.

I have ordered early in the day and made a "SPAC" case for an emergency and had the key show up the next day.

camaroman wrote:We just ordered and received our Bd Laser and will be setting it up this week. We didn;t have a key machine to cut the Cobalt keys by code and relied on another dealer close by to cut them from code, but now with the dreaded recall we needed to step up and get a machine to do that. I was actually loking at the Kabo Ilco machine that would cut both types of keys but that one was on back order and now GM Dealer Equipment reduced the price on the Bd Laser from $9,800.00 down to $7,400 so we stepped up and purchased that one. I heard horror stories about it, but from what I understand the problems usually occured swapping it back and forth from double sided to flap keys frequently. I will let you know how we make out this week after setting it up.

Our BD Lazer+ is a bit cumbersome to switch out the jaws, however it would just be nice to be able to duplicate a key properly! That is one of our malfunctions with this machine (we are on #4). Always get a code, and more recently, never "Repeat Last Key"!

Good luck to all!

MY BD laser has been out of service for nearly 2 months now, and the new company just doesn't seem to give a damn. I've emailed, called, had reps here, and it's just sitting. I havn't paid on the lease in 2 monthes now, maybe they will just come get it so I can buy a new IllCO or something, because the level of service on the BD is less than zero.

I've had to send out over 40 keys to another dealer in this time, and order at least 12 precuts now. Our Hyundai store also uses our machine, so I have no idea of the number of keys they have missed out on because of this issue.