Autoblog

The Ford GT is on the short list of coolest cars in the 21st century, with up to 600 horsepower, killer retro looks, and Ferrari F430-beating athleticism. Buyers were more than happy to accept a limited edition Ford supercar, but many owners were less than thrilled with Ford's corporate key and fob. While it sounds a bit petty, sharing a key with an F-150 just doesn't scream exotic track star.

The creative key kit crafters over at ExotiCARe have remedied the situation with a limited edition kit that turns your pedestrian keys into a car starter worthy of a Ford GT. The easy to install kit is nothing more than silver-finish covers for your existing keys, which doesn't exactly seem like $295 well-spent, but for those who can afford a $175,000 sports car it may be a deal. ExotiCARe is only making 350 of the kits, so there is an exclusivity factor, as well. Is $295 too much for nothing more than key decoration that you have to assemble yourself? You tell us after the jump. Thanks for the tip, Andrew!


[Source: ExotiCARe]

NOTE: After reading some of the excellent comments on this post, we decided to test this again from 30 miles away... and it didn't work. We're going to retest at a different location but similar distance to see what gave us the positive test. Stay tuned.


About a month ago my brother sent me an email explaining that if a friend or family member has the second key fob for your car, you can call them up on your cell phone, ask them to hold the key fob up to the phone, press the unlock button, and your car door will unlock. In theory, the sound waves from the key fob, which are unintelligible to the human ear, will be transmitted via the cell phone, and the doors will unlock. Well, we've seen enough spam emails before that were full of it, but we decided to see for ourselves if this works.

When we tested this theory, we were stunned to find out that it actually works. I was so excited that I pulled out the wife and daughter outside to shoot a quick video on the front lawn. Before getting this on camera, we tested it five times, and it worked every time but one. There was a lot of traffic during the one failed test, so our best guess is that the noise from the passing cars negated the sound from the key fob signal.

Mad props to the wife for getting eaten alive by bugs and keeping the camera still at the same time (for the most part). Hit the jump to check it out, it's pretty damn cool. Test this out with a friend or spouse, too, and let us know if it worked for you.

BMW's MINI brand has never had a big advertising budget, but everyone would agree it's ad agency knows how to stretch a dollar. The latest promotion from MINI is a program called Motorby that takes interactivity at 60 mph to new heights. According to MotoringFile.com, a large MINI enthusiast/news site, select MINI owners were recently email an invitation to join the Motorby campaign, whereby they give MINI some scraps of info about themselves and are then sent a special key fob in the mail. Special billboards called Motorboards have been set up in cities like Chicago, New York, Miami and San Francisco, and when one of these MINI owners drives by the billboard will light up with a personal message like "Looking good today, Scooter," and "David, your hair looks great today". It's a very creative campaign, and if successful (and no one causes an accident by trying to read their message at speed), the brand may roll out the program to all MINI owners.

We have to assume that MINI has people on the back end screening the info that each owner provides, but we'd give our right foot for a pic of a Motorboard that says, "Did you read Autoblog.com today, Joe?" Come on, there has to be a few people at MINI who would let that slide, right?

[Source: Motoring File]

USA Today is reporting that General Motors will introduce a new key fob next April that makes your current controller look like a batter-powered key. The new fob wil feature an LCD display so that your vehicle can actually communicate things to you like the ' tire pressure, the odometer reading, how much fuel's in the tank, etc. You can also change the stereo's radio settings remotely and start the car with the fob if you've opted for GM's remote start package. Oh yeah, it'll unlock the doors, too. GM has jacked up the operating range of the fob by a factor of six so you can even pick up its signal in Ann Taylor while waiting for your wife/girlfriend to finish trying on turtlenecks (or is that just me?). The best part about the new key fob is its price: $150. That's not too shabby considering what it will do. The fob will initially be an option on the Cadillac Escalade and other pickups and SUVs across the automaker's brands. GM also promises it will cost less than $100 to replace if it were lost or broken. It has, however, been thoroughly tested to withstand the rigors of even the harshest daily routines, so durability shouldn't be a problem. Now if they'd only throw in 4GB of flash memory and let me hook it up to iTunes...

[Source: USA Today via Winding Road]

It used to be that you had to go out and buy a nice flashy keyring to tell the world about your premium ride. After all, relatively plain, black keys don't do much to inspire others to be jealous, or the girls to be more friendly. If you wanted to flaunt your ride socially, you had to stick the key on a branded ring.

Nowadays, however, in the age of multifunction key fobs, that's over. The fobs themselves have glitz factors all their own. Take, for example, the Bentley Continental GT/Flying Spur/GTC key fob. There are automobiles who's on-body badging is less detailed than the "winged B" on the Continental's key. And it's a substantial, weighty little bauble, as our own John Neff noted when he took delivery of our Flying Spur tester. It oozes quality and exclusivity. Attaching a real keyring to it, like the one in the photo, borders on being obnoxious.

Many other automakers are taking a similar approach, making the fob as visually arresting as possible. Brands like Jaguar and Cadillac leverage their well-known logos. Others go for a more high-tech approach, eschewing the traditional key altogether in favor of keyless entry and start systems that let the fob stay tucked away. Since keys are slowly going the way of the dodo, it's only natural that the electronic fobs that replace them become more ornamental. After all, most of the time, they never need to see daylight. For those occasions when they do, it makes sense for them to be as slick and recognizable as possible.

Edmunds has selected the top 10 key fobs out there today. We've listed their selections after the jump..

Thanks to Lucy for the tip!

[Source: Edmiunds}