What about a U.S. BCM?
C6 Corvette 2005 to 2007 Canadian Spec Remote Fob
- Thread starter Lee Munro's Garage
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #22
Interesting idea. I wouldn't want to be the first guy to pioneer it. Really hoping for hands on experience here.
No luck with your locksmith?
- Thread starter
- #24
coming Friday
- Thread starter
- #25
Locksmith showed and 30 minutes later, Mission Accomplished!
Can you share the details why the locksmith could accomplish this whereas no one else supposedly could do it?
Because that's in their field of expertise. Which is why I recommended he find one. GM is obviously too stupid or don't want to be bothered learning the proper way to program key fobs. When I wanted my Lincoln fob programmed I went to Ford. They said yes but would be $325. My locksmith did it for $150. And same thing. 30 minutes done and gone. Pretty good payday for a GM tech if they just bothered to look after their customers.
- Thread starter
- #29
Here’s a stronger version of your forum response. I’d keep it clearly framed as your experience and opinion, while adding the history behind why you think the problem exists. Your original thread establishes that multiple dealers were unable to program the Canadian-spec cars, while a locksmith ultimately accomplished it in about 30 minutes.
As a former new-car dealer with multiple franchises, including Chevrolet, I don't think it's fair to simply blame the technician.
In my opinion, the problem starts much earlier in the process — at the service-advisor level and, ultimately, with how the modern dealership service department has evolved.
In our case, we had Canadian-spec 2005–2007 Corvettes that needed replacement key fobs programmed. We contacted multiple GM dealers and were repeatedly told, "Yes, we can do that." The cars were booked in, technicians spent time attempting the programming, customers were charged, and the fobs still didn't work.
The service managers I subsequently spoke with seemed to understand the real problem: their dealerships simply aren't equipped or comfortable working on some of these older electronic systems anymore.
That's an important distinction.
There was a time when a Chevrolet dealership might have the same technician, shop foreman or service manager for 20 or 30 years. That institutional knowledge stayed in the building. The dealer operator was often a lifetime car person as well, and either possessed decades of mechanical knowledge personally or made a point of hiring and retaining people who did.
Today the business is different.
Many dealerships are large, sophisticated operations owned by dealer groups with multiple stores and often multiple brands. Employees change. Experienced technicians retire. Special tools become obsolete. Software disappears or is no longer supported. Parts that haven't moved in years become too expensive for manufacturers and dealers to inventory indefinitely.
Eventually, the knowledge of how to repair a 20-year-old car can disappear along with the parts and software needed to repair it.
Our experience with these Corvettes illustrates the problem perfectly. Canadian-specification C6 Corvettes use a different fob-programming process from U.S.-specification cars and require dealer-level intervention rather than the owner-programming procedure published for U.S. cars.
After multiple unsuccessful dealership attempts, we were even warned that proceeding with a complete relearn could potentially erase the only functioning fob and leave the vehicle unable to start.
Then we called an automotive locksmith.
Thirty minutes later: Mission accomplished.
That tells me the car wasn't the problem. The technology wasn't necessarily the problem either. The knowledge and tools still exist — they simply no longer necessarily reside at the franchised dealership.
I also don't particularly blame the service advisor. His or her job today is largely to sell and book labour hours. If the computer says the operation pays X hours and the appointment can be booked, the customer gets booked.
The problem comes when "Yes, we can do that" turns into several hours of unsuccessful diagnostic time followed by a bill for the customer's share of the learning experience.
None of the dealerships involved offered to refund the money after failing to accomplish the requested repair.
That illustrates another change in the business: increasingly, the product being sold by a service department is flat-rate labour time, rather than necessarily a successful repair.
There is a factory-level issue as well.
Manufacturers cannot economically warehouse every module, special tool and piece of software indefinitely. Parts with little or no demand eventually disappear. Software platforms become obsolete. The people who understood them retire or move on.
These are the legacy costs of supporting automobiles for decades after production ends.
Traditional manufacturers such as GM, Ford and Mercedes have enormous fleets of 10-, 20-, 30- and even 50-year-old vehicles still on the road. Maintaining parts, software, technical information and expertise for all of them is enormously expensive.
Newer manufacturers such as Tesla and Rivian haven't yet had to deal with that problem on the same scale.
But they will.
And as vehicles become increasingly software-dependent, this issue becomes much bigger than finding a discontinued water pump or trim piece.
A mechanical part can often be reproduced.
Copyrighted, proprietary software may be an entirely different matter.
The lesson from our Corvette experience was encouraging in one respect: the independent automotive aftermarket adapted. A locksmith had the equipment and expertise to accomplish in 30 minutes what several franchised dealerships could not.
Perhaps that's where much of the knowledge required to keep today's cars operating 20 or 30 years from now will ultimately reside.
This isn't exclusively a GM problem, and it certainly isn't exclusively a car-dealership problem.
But automobiles make the issue very visible to the public.
When software becomes the part that wears out, who is responsible for keeping the car alive?
As a former new-car dealer with multiple franchises, including Chevrolet, I don't think it's fair to simply blame the technician.
In my opinion, the problem starts much earlier in the process — at the service-advisor level and, ultimately, with how the modern dealership service department has evolved.
In our case, we had Canadian-spec 2005–2007 Corvettes that needed replacement key fobs programmed. We contacted multiple GM dealers and were repeatedly told, "Yes, we can do that." The cars were booked in, technicians spent time attempting the programming, customers were charged, and the fobs still didn't work.
The service managers I subsequently spoke with seemed to understand the real problem: their dealerships simply aren't equipped or comfortable working on some of these older electronic systems anymore.
That's an important distinction.
There was a time when a Chevrolet dealership might have the same technician, shop foreman or service manager for 20 or 30 years. That institutional knowledge stayed in the building. The dealer operator was often a lifetime car person as well, and either possessed decades of mechanical knowledge personally or made a point of hiring and retaining people who did.
Today the business is different.
Many dealerships are large, sophisticated operations owned by dealer groups with multiple stores and often multiple brands. Employees change. Experienced technicians retire. Special tools become obsolete. Software disappears or is no longer supported. Parts that haven't moved in years become too expensive for manufacturers and dealers to inventory indefinitely.
Eventually, the knowledge of how to repair a 20-year-old car can disappear along with the parts and software needed to repair it.
Our experience with these Corvettes illustrates the problem perfectly. Canadian-specification C6 Corvettes use a different fob-programming process from U.S.-specification cars and require dealer-level intervention rather than the owner-programming procedure published for U.S. cars.
After multiple unsuccessful dealership attempts, we were even warned that proceeding with a complete relearn could potentially erase the only functioning fob and leave the vehicle unable to start.
Then we called an automotive locksmith.
Thirty minutes later: Mission accomplished.
That tells me the car wasn't the problem. The technology wasn't necessarily the problem either. The knowledge and tools still exist — they simply no longer necessarily reside at the franchised dealership.
I also don't particularly blame the service advisor. His or her job today is largely to sell and book labour hours. If the computer says the operation pays X hours and the appointment can be booked, the customer gets booked.
The problem comes when "Yes, we can do that" turns into several hours of unsuccessful diagnostic time followed by a bill for the customer's share of the learning experience.
None of the dealerships involved offered to refund the money after failing to accomplish the requested repair.
That illustrates another change in the business: increasingly, the product being sold by a service department is flat-rate labour time, rather than necessarily a successful repair.
There is a factory-level issue as well.
Manufacturers cannot economically warehouse every module, special tool and piece of software indefinitely. Parts with little or no demand eventually disappear. Software platforms become obsolete. The people who understood them retire or move on.
These are the legacy costs of supporting automobiles for decades after production ends.
Traditional manufacturers such as GM, Ford and Mercedes have enormous fleets of 10-, 20-, 30- and even 50-year-old vehicles still on the road. Maintaining parts, software, technical information and expertise for all of them is enormously expensive.
Newer manufacturers such as Tesla and Rivian haven't yet had to deal with that problem on the same scale.
But they will.
And as vehicles become increasingly software-dependent, this issue becomes much bigger than finding a discontinued water pump or trim piece.
A mechanical part can often be reproduced.
Copyrighted, proprietary software may be an entirely different matter.
The lesson from our Corvette experience was encouraging in one respect: the independent automotive aftermarket adapted. A locksmith had the equipment and expertise to accomplish in 30 minutes what several franchised dealerships could not.
Perhaps that's where much of the knowledge required to keep today's cars operating 20 or 30 years from now will ultimately reside.
This isn't exclusively a GM problem, and it certainly isn't exclusively a car-dealership problem.
But automobiles make the issue very visible to the public.
When software becomes the part that wears out, who is responsible for keeping the car alive?
How did you decide on which locksmith? Curious if any old locksmith would do.
One thing you mention that I find interesting is that dealerships are able to charge upwards of $200 dollars an hour for a " maybe we can , maybe we can't " service appointment. Are there no consumer protection laws that would question this ? One would think that there must be litigation of some sort initiated by customers because of this questionable behavior. I was a contractor for many years and if asked to troubleshoot or repair something for a customer and was unable to accomplish it the customer did not receive an invoice in the majority of cases .
On another more pressing point, and I'm sure of great interest to numerous members of our forum , are you aware if the fobs for Canadian C7 and C8 MY's are programmed the same as US models ? And if not would you recommend obtaining an extra fob or 2 in the event this same situation occurs down the road with these models.... thanks for your input .
Last edited:
I told him in post #9 about my experience with a locksmith and also mentioned that not many here had the equipment to do it. Just a matter of a few phone calls to find one who can.