Steering Column Repair: lock cylinder in column, pontiac sunfire, 2001 pontiac sunfire

Question
2001 pontiac sunfire can insert key but not turn it mechanic says its a bad cylinder around 250 bucks and needs to be reprogrammed just quit working out of the blue

Answer
Hi Wayne:
Sorry about your problem.  The mechanic is almost right.  There are 2 parts to your lock cylinder; the barrel that reads the key and the housing that has the electronics for the security system.  
The barrel is what has failed.  It's not reading the key anymore and needs to be replaced.  Before I did that though, I would suggest you go to a dealer and have a new key punched out from the VIN.  The old key has worn badly and making a copy of that will only make a copy of a bad key.  The dealer has the original key code and will cut a new key the way it was on day 1.  That might work in the old cylinder and you will be done.  If not, it will need the new lock cylinder.  The barrel of the new lock cylinder will have to be built to fit your key.  
Then, the new barrel can be installed in the old housing thus avoiding any programming.  If the mechanic is good, he'll be able to get the old barrel out of the old housing and will save you (and him) the extra effort of programming it.
The bad news is the lock cylinder is only sold with both pieces and & I think they go for @ $200 for the part alone...so the quote is not a bad one.

Try the new key 1st, otherwise, your path has been chosen
I hope this helps you

Doug