Have you ever locked yourself out of your car? It used to be a fairly common occurrence back in the days before central locking. It’d normally happen when locking the car using the inside tab, before slamming the door shut, only to realize you’d left your keys on the seat. These were also the days before mobile phones were common, so such an occurrence usually meant finding a phone, or calling AAA. That was, unless you had a nifty spare key that was readily accessible.
Enter the plastic key card. It intended to solve this problem by giving you a spare key you could stash in your wallet. These key cards became popular in the 1980s, and were often included in the owner’s manual packet with a new vehicle.
Some keycards were designed with a single plastic key, like these Lincoln and Mercury branded examples. However, in the 1980s, many American cars had separate keys for the doors and ignition. In that case, a single key card could get you into the car—useful if you’d locked your proper keys inside. However, dual key examples also existed, like these Chevy-branded versions. These had two separate blanks for both the door and ignition key styles, allowing you to both unlock and start the car without needing your regular keys at all.
Some keycards were designed with a single plastic key, like these Lincoln and Mercury branded examples. However, in the 1980s, many American cars had separate keys for the doors and ignition. In that case, a single key card could get you into the car—useful if you’d locked your proper keys inside. However, dual key examples also existed, like these Chevy-branded versions. These had two separate blanks for both the door and ignition key styles, allowing you to both unlock and start the car without needing your regular keys at all.
The plastic material would not hold up to regular use, of course. A plastic key would typically be deformed by metal lock components after just a couple of uses. In extreme cases, or if used excessively, a plastic key could leave debris inside a lock, causing it to jam. Thus, these keys were usually marked strictly for “EMERGENCY USE ONLY.”
Cutting the keys could be done by any locksmith or appropriately-equipped dealer. All that would be required is to fold the key out of the card on its flexible plastic hinge (more on that later), and cut it to match the original car key as with any other blank.
The plastic nature of these keys has convinced some people that you could just stuff them in and open a door with them as is, but that’s not their intended use. They’re supposed to be cut to suit the individual car in question. Some cars had crappy locks in the 1980s that could be opened fairly crudely, sometimes even with just a nail file, but that’s more about shitty locks than it is about these key cards.
By virtue of being plastic, owners could probably easily shape the keys themselves, too. One would simply need to hold the real key against the plastic key and file the latter to match. Alternatively, the pattern of the real key could be transferred to the plastic via a marker, and the shape filed away in turn. I’ve tested these techniques myself, and it’s easy to learn. I successfully duplicated a friend’s key from a photocopy in order to break into his house and install a bidet.
At this point, you’re probably wondering: What exactly was the point of these? That’s kind of a fair question. Old-school car keys were pretty slim; you could have stashed one in a wallet or purse, no problem. Sure, it’s neat that you can stuff these plastic keys in a credit card pocket, but really, there’s not a whole lot of utility there.
And yet, the idea was novel enough for not just one, but at least two whole American patents. One Donald F. Almblad applied for a patent in 1984 for this idea, with the patent art demonstrating up to two plastic keys integrally molded into a card form factor, with a hinge to allow them to be pivoted out and inserted into a lock. 1986 saw a Robert Almblad apply for a patent for an improved version, wherein the “hinge element” was really just a flexible plastic rod. This allowed the key to pivot more freely without damaging the hinge, which was formerly of a more linear-type design which only allowed limited movement. This later patent was also assigned to Donald Almblad; presumably the two worked together on the upgraded version. Donald’s obituary also credited him with the invention of the “Credit Card Key.”
The keycards actually made some headlines shortly after the patents were granted. They appeared on CBC’s Midday show in 1987, where reporter Bob Nixon mentioned they were, at the time, just available for North American cars. Nixon interviewed Tom Townsend of Triple E Enterprises, that was manufacturing keys for the Canadian market in nylon, chosen for being strong enough to work as a key.
Other designs exist; the Chevy ones most commonly seen online seems to use a sliding method to reveal the keys instead. There were also other patents for wallet-insertable key holders prior to Almblad’s work, too. Realistically, though, it’s a pretty simple idea that probably occurred to a lot of people in the days before central locking. “Hey, what if I had a spare key in my wallet?” they’d think, as they lamented the fact they’d just shut their keys inside their 1978 Ford Mustang II.
The full contextual history of these devices is still a little murky to me. I churned through a great deal of Ford and Chevy car manuals from the early 1990s, and could find no mention of these plastic keys. All this, despite the fact I had evidence—like Chevy’s “Heartbeat of America” slogan—that suggested they would still be around in that time period. 1980s manuals are harder to come by, but my limited research in that area didn’t turn up anything either. It’s hard to know exactly which cars these came with and when.
Ultimately, taking a closer look at the cards gives me a hint why this might be the case. The Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury key cards out there often feature the name of the card’s manufacturer—Axxess Entry Tech Inc. That suggests to me that these cards may have been something that dealerships or automakers simply had made as an additional little pack-in accessory, rather than as a serious piece of the car’s original equipment. Indeed, while many are branded for major automakers, I found at least one that was produced specifically for Gresham Ford of Oregon, with the dealership’s address and phone number printed on the front.
But then I found it—the slightest little acknowledgement that these keys actually existed, by a major automaker! Ford apparently released a TSB on April 8, 1992, which consisted of a note to dealers that were cutting “Credit Card” keys for new vehicles.
SSUE: There may be some confusion about cutting “Credit Card” keys that are included in the glove box of the subject vehicles. The key is to be cut and presented on delivery of the vehicle.
ACTION: A key needs to be cut using Rotunda 011-Series Code Cutters, Grinders or the AXXESS 2000. Like all Ford keys, the key tip must be aligned when cutting them. The operating manuals for the Rotunda 011-Series Code Cutter and Grinder specifically call for tip aligning Ford keys.
NOTE: TIP ALIGNMENT IS VERY IMPORTANT WHEN CUTTING LATER VERSIONS OF THE ESCORT/TRACER KEYS SINCE THEY ARE SHORTER THAN THE METAL KEYS. THEY ARE SHORTER TO REDUCE THE LENGTH OF PLASTIC KEY THAT PROTRUDES FROM THE LOCK. THE KEYS DO NOT CUT PROPERLY IF NOT ALIGNED FROM THE TIP DURING THE CUTTING PROCESS.
If additional quantities of the credit card keys are required, they are available for $.65 each from CCA, 31535 Southfield Rd., Birmingham, MI 48009 ; Telephone: 1-800-521-0639.
Key/Card that AAA used to give out to open/start your car in case of emergency.
byu/ChurrObscuro inmildlyinteresting
So why don’t we have these plastic keys anymore? Well, we sorta do, but we mostly don’t. Ultimately, a lot of cars started using keyless entry, which one suspects massively reduced the incidence of people locking their keys in their car. Coded keys and immobilizers also became common in the 1990s. This would stop you starting a car with a plastic key, though they’d still be useful for opening the doors. Car keys also got more complicated and more varied across the market, further complicating the effort to produce a viable plastic emergency key.
Even the, the language seems to support the idea that these were an add-on sourced from outside Ford. It seems these keycards were a pack-in managed by dealers as a useful accessory for customers.
AAA used to give these out too, apparently. The problem there being that where an automaker could order thousands of copies to suit their own style of keys, AAA would have to carry several versions to suit cars from different automakers. Interestingly, word on the street is that the AAA versions may have had a metal strip inside the plastic to help add some strength. Such a measure would likely reduce the likelihood of a plastic key breaking off inside a lock and causing more problems.
You could still do this concept today. Most car keyfobs still have a metal key hidden inside somewhere, intended for opening the car when the battery is dead. If you really wanted, you could duplicate this— in metal or plastic—and mount it inside a card-style form-factor. Really, though, it’s pretty rare to lock yourself out of your car in this keyfobby era of ours. And, as an aside, your emergency key won’t be any use as a general spare, as a modern car with an immobilizer won’t start without the keyfob chip present anyway.
The plastic key, then, was a curio of the 1980s, like Robert Smith or the Commodore Amiga. They don’t have a lot of relevance today, but they are pretty cool. If you do have a classic car from the 80s or 90s, you could always get one of these off eBay, and have it cut to suit your car. You could then whip it out to show off to people at Radwood and Cars and Coffee. It could just put you over the edge as the coolest person of the show. Good luck out there, friends!
Image credits: via eBay, USPTO, Etsy
AAA used to cut these at the Los Angeles Auto show. I had one for my 95 Chevy S10. I think I may have even needed to use it a couple times!
Interesting that most examples cited seem to be Ford and GM. My dad bought a 1989 Subaru GL four-door sedan new; the glovebox manual contained such a plastic card with two keys, already cut to match the metal keys, which he carried in his wallet though fortunately he never had to resort to such a measure. I have that card somewhere; when I come across it I’ll check to see if the keys have any metal reinforcement.
Relatedly, as the third owner of my 1969 VW bus I have the original keys which are made of aluminum. When I bought the bus from the second owner she gave me the aluminum keys and the steel/brass copies and said that the first owner had picked up her bus directly at the factory in West (!) Germany and she was told to immediately make steel/brass copies of the fragile aluminum keys. Supposedly that was the norm over there back in the day where you would buy a new car and be given aluminum keys with the expectation that you would then have copies made in more durable material. Haven’t ever checked on that though so I don’t know if it was actually ever a thing or, if it was, if it was a common practice.
Must have been a short-lived trend by Subaru. My Dad’s brand new ’82 DL, my grandfather’s brand new ’84 GL, and my grandfather’s brand new ’93 Loyale did not have them. They had cut metal valet keys, though.
Yeah, one of my siblings has bought multiple Subarus new (’85, ’93, ’02, ’14, and counting) and never had any of those plastic wallet keys that I know of. She did have a key with an integrated flashlight that came with her ’93 Impreza which was mighty nice & indeed was handy until another sibling borrowed the Impreza and at one point sat on the key which broke the flashlight. That might also have been a short-lived trend, as my sibling couldn’t get a replacement for the integrated flashlight and had to make do with a keyring Maglite flashlight.
Broke off right away in my Chevy’s door lock. Jammed a thinner flat head screwdriver in beside the broken “key” and got the lock to rotate. Used the same screwdriver to pry out the plastic key part.
Later cut out an old credit card and taped a metal key in it. Worked much better.
I remember the sliding style being included in my dad’s ’90 Suburban, and I think I remember seeing the punched-out style in one of the company cars he occasionally drove (all Fords). None of them were cut, which would explain why they were still in their respective glove boxes.
I still have the AAA plastic key card for my 82 Corolla.
Back in the 90s I found one of these credit card keys in the glove box of a $400 truck I bought, except it was only the cars and the plastic key was gone. I didn’t care because I’d likely never have used it, but it was nice to know what dealership originally sold the truck new.
How ironic, it’s now the cars that are made of plastic! 😉
I wish! My old Saturns were plastic fantastic, and they were basically immune to dents and dings. That’s one thing I hate about thin steel sheet – it’s not very forgiving.
Well, as of 2023, the average car contains just a little over 400 LBS of plastic.
And yet most of the exterior panels are still thin sheet steel.
Also, I suspect a lot of that plastic in modern cars is in the sound deadening – most newer cars have *significantly* more of that than older cars. I’d guess the old Saturns probably had a similar weight of plastic (which would be a significantly higher percentage of their total mass), but almost none of it was in sound deadening.
I was so bummed when I found out the that HILARIOUS magnet I bought was useless on my new car’s plastic bumper. 🙁
Oops! 😉
My 2013 Audi, normally operated entirely with a fob, came with a plastic key (not on a card). It could be used to open the driver’s door (after removing a cover plug). This would not start the car by itself. Instead you inserted the plastic key into a fob shell kept in the glove box, and stuck the combo into the fob slot on the dash (not normally used, but it’s there). I assume there’s an RFID chip in the key.
Until the keyless entry took over, I always kept the valet key in my wallet. I also always “forgot” to hand over that key at selling time. Still have the one from my first car, I carried that around for years in a change pocket.
I never understood why these came as blanks. If the dealer can cut keys, why not do it right there and point it out to the customer?
My 2002 BMW 530i came with 4 keys, including a plastic key (it was pre-cut and separate rather than inside a credit-card-sized piece of plastic though). I’m not sure what it was useful for, given that it’s basically impossible to lock your keys inside the car
These keys are so familiar to me, and I feel like I’ve actually used one, but I can’t remember the details. Must’ve been a ’70s or early ’80s car.
Clever idea, horrible execution.. plastic!?
LOL this almost sounds like an April Fools Day article
I can’t believe this plastic key shit was actually real
my mom had the Chevy slide out kind for her 2nd Gen lumina sedan, it was a metal key inside the softer plastic card sleeve though more like the ones they have inside the more modern key fobs. I remember having to use it a couple times and being very curious about it.
I used to immediately make several spares upon buying a car, then, with Subarus at least, use black gaff tape to secure one to a front strut.
This also worked well when my daughter went off to college 3&1/2 hours away—except I put one on each strut (good thing, too!)
—the magnetic boxes tended to fall off when I would take the 4wd Roos on excursions 😉
RE: The metal core in some versions — if you look closely at the Chevy card near the top of the article, with the two keys on flexible stems — you can see that they have the metal core inside. My Chevy in the 90s came with this kind of emergency key “card” and the dealer cut it when I picked up the car.
I’ll definitely be making a cut-down copy of my partner’s car key and probably my mail key to put in my wallet. That way I can cut my key fob bulk in half, and I won’t have to turn off my car when getting the mail or carry a second fob with me.
I like how the manufacturers went through the trouble of issuing these which still needed to be cut when an extra metal key cost almost nothing because it was just a simple key at the time
Plastic keys and Robert Smith… Nothing more irrelevant than an obsolete Cure.
Hey, it’s Déjà vu TUesday in the copy!
Meet the new Autopian: Jimmy Two-Times 🙂
The wallet I’m carrying right now has a little tab inside that you can stick a key through.
I’m reminded of George Costanza’s exploding wallet.
“I need everything in here”
I forgot about these! Our ’94 Saturn SW2 had a gray plastic key card but our ’98 SL2 actually had a metal key in a credit card shaped plastic pouch.
Was just coming to mention the plastic one with my ’93 SL2. Which I 100% used more than once, and which it never would have occurred to me to take to a locksmith.
The first thing I thought of was the gray plastic key that came with our ’92 SL2. I’m also positive I used it more than once. But, I’m not sure if I ever locked the keys in the car since it had manual locks.
Not Robert Smith catching a stray!
And just like my comments used to be on Jalopy…
“Tuesday’s gray, and Wednesday, too”
Thursday, I don’t care about you.
When I got my car as a teenager I needed a key chain and ended up taking my dog’s old choke collar and clipping my keys to one end and clipping the other end to my belt loop. I did this as a pun (key+chain, get it?) and this was the very early 90s so the wallet chain fashion of the mid-90s hadn’t happened yet. It was just long enough to reach from my belt to the ignition when sitting in the car so I always had my keys attached to me. As a result I really never locked my keys in the car, except one time they were dangling from my belt and I spun around to lock the door and slam it all in one motion and the centrifugal force swung the keys on the end of their chain into the door jamb just before it slammed shut. I managed to lock my keys in the car while chaining myself to it all at the same time.
Anyhow, that was over 30 years ago, the chains fashion trend has come and gone long long ago, and I’m still using that same chain as my key chain. Some links have fallen off over the years but it still reminds me of my HS dog.
Wow. That almost took some skill.
I had a ’95 Geo Tracker with something similar, but I think it was factory original. It was a metal key blade without the head that fit into a flexible plastic pouch shaped like a credit card and fit in my wallet. You could slide the blade out and use it to unlock the door if you locked your keys inside.
Of course, it was a soft top, so if you locked your keys in the car, you could just unzip one of the side or back windows and get right in…
Yep – my ’90s Chevy Beretta had this as well!