I wish we had him over in the UK. All things keys here are a ball ache.
Yeah, told him he could make a lot of money working in europe, he had almost every key to every possible brand in his shop.
FYI, I asked the Maserati dealer at first here and they told me a new key would cost 10 000 rmb (1260 Euro / 1060 pounds). Which is why I tried to find another solution, obviously
Maserati really don't do themselves any favors by pricing simple stuff and repairs so high, that's one of the main reasons their car values decrease so fast and so hard, which itself it one of the main reasons people hesitate to buy their cars. Too bad they can't seem to realize that.
What base key did you use, the Chinese copy with no transponder, the factory base key or something else?
I'm not really sure, it looks just like an original one but I don't think it is since it was so cheap.
I guess it has a transponder because it can start the engine just fine and I've seen him use that electromagnetic sniffer thing to program the new key. I suppose if it had no transponder he probably wouldn't bother use this thing? Surely it's not an issue for chinese factories to make a small transponder, they do pretty much everything nowadays.
The key looks, feels and works 100% like the original, I can't differentiate it from the original in any way.
I'd love to open the key to make sure but the screw is under the logo and I fear damaging it...