In 2009, America’s General Motors unloaded Swedish-founded Saab on Netherlands-based specialty car maker Spyker Motors. We haven’t heard many complaints about the new ownership until now, when Russ wrote in to complain that his car is now undriveable because his Saab dealer is out of key blanks. Worse: Saab is also out of key blanks.

My wife and I recently Went grocery shopping and lost the primary key for my SAAB 9-3. At the time it wasn’t such a big deal, I just went home and got the spare. That’s when things went from bad to worse. The spare key would no longer work. We tried replacing the battery to make sure that wasn’t the issue and even called a locksmith to come open the car. Since SAAB uses electronic transmitters to verify the key belongs to the car, I was stuck.

So this morning I had the car towed 25 miles to the dealer to have the reprogram the key, only to tell me that it is bad. They said I would need a new CIM unit and key, about $1300. Only problem is that the keys are on backorder and when I called SAAB directly, they said they don’t even know the status of replacements. The dealer said it could take up to three months to get a replacement key. Help me, Consumerist, how can I get my car rolling sooner?

Electronic keys seem so fancy and impressive until losing your key renders your car unusable.

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