The guy I bought my car off of had this with the original owner's manual and the warranty card that came with my car. Does anyone know what this is?

 

Image

 

looks like a spare key/card that you can put in your wallet just in case you lock your keys in your car, you can still get in.

 

That's what it is all right, hadn't even been cut either. Don't see too many of those around anymore.

 

so it's supposed to be cut to match my keys?

 

Yep, it was designed to be cut for the door key and carried in your wallet or purse (depending on owner) for emergencies where you had locked your keys in the car.

 

clever. A good idea and something cool that came with the car.

 

The original "Onstar"

 

LOL!

 

I wonder how many of those broke off in the door lock?

 

Well, it has a piece of metal in it to keep that from happening. Still it doesn't look very strong, wouldn't wanna use it too often.

 

... why not just have a copy made?

 

That is an ignition key. They usually came with two keys on one card i.e. door & ign. I can still get them but their made out of something other than plastic. Domestic versions are getting hard to find.

 

If it is for the car listed in his sig, that would not be the ignition key unless it was used as a template to have another key made from it. Even then he would have to know the code value for the pellet in the key (VATS).

 

Our machine plugs in the ign and tells us the proper resistance of the chip. All the temp key is for is to give us the factory cuts w/out requesting the codes from GM.
VATS is almost 15 years old. Most of our competitors even have the reader to determine what blank to use. $3500 start up cost pays for itself fast at $75 per key made.