Hyundai Repair: Sonata 1999 keyless imobiliser issue, hyundai dealership, hyundai dealer

Question
QUESTION: My keyless remote stopped working and I have to get my car towed to a Hyundai dealer and will be charged over A$600 to get it reprogrammed to another remote. This is ridiculous, surely there must be a simplier option. The only other advice I was offered was to have the imobiliser disengaged at at cost of $150 but this means I'll wont be able to use remote locking at all. This is ridiculous! If my car is impossible to get started without the remote why isnt it reflected in my car insurance premium? Anyone know of an option?

ANSWER: I find it difficult to believe that the price is $600 simply to purchase and program a remote.  I think it's more likely that there's an issue with your immobilizer system and $600 is the price of repairing the immobilizer.

Unfortunately, I cannot think of any other options than the ones that were offered to you-- either fix the problem for $600 or bypass the system for $150.

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QUESTION: If the remote is broken and cannot be used to reprogram the new remote it DOES cost 600 to buy another and have it programed from scratch. Unless you supply a security pin tag which was NOT given to me when I purchased the car from a Hyundai dealer. I have checked this with two different dealers and the answer is the same and it can only be programmed at a Hyundai dealership. There's nothing wrong with my imobiliser, its another ridiculously overpriced service item from Hyundai. I'll never buy another one, their cars are cheap but the after warranty service costs are incredibly overpriced.

Answer
I think you've just hit on the issue.  To the best of my knowledge (which is weak, because immobilizer didn't even exist in the U.S. on Hyundai until 2006), it's impossible to program the immobilizer module to recognize another transmitter without the PIN.  Most likely, this cost includes replacing the immobilizer module and the transmitter.  Although I think some blame lies with Hyundai for allowing this system to depend on being able to produce a PIN, I believe the real culpability lies with the reason you don't have the PIN in the first place.

In any event, I completely understand why you're quite unhappy with your situation.  I'd be upset, too.  Unfortunately, none of your options are very desireable.