Car Locksmith Experts
Lost Keys? Locked Out? Ignition Issues?
We come to you anywhere in South Florida.
Get Help NowUS Locksmith is a licensed (Lic #00443LK) locksmith company serving drivers across South Florida since 2004. Our mobile technicians provide 24/7 emergency locksmith service with an average 15-minute response time across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.
What Car Locksmith Services Does US Locksmith Offer?
Don't tow your car to the dealer. We bring the locksmith shop to your location.
Car Lockouts
Keys locked in the trunk or on the seat? We use safe, non-destructive tools to open your vehicle without scratching the paint or damaging the door seals.
Lost Key Replacement
We cut and program new car keys on-site, even if you lost the original. We handle standard keys, transponder chips, and laser-cut keys.
Fobs & Push-to-Start
Need a new remote or smart key for your push-to-start vehicle? We program fobs for 90% of vehicles on the road today.
Ignition Repair
Is your key not turning? We can repair or replace worn-out ignition cylinders, saving you hundreds compared to the mechanic.
Motorcycles
We also make keys for motorcycles, scooters, and ATVs. Lost your bike key at the beach? We can help.
Fleet Services
We support commercial fleets with duplicate keys and lockout services to keep your business moving.
Why Choose US Locksmith for Your Car?
Save Money vs. Dealership
Dealerships often require you to tow your car to them, wait days for an appointment, and pay premium prices for keys. We come to you, usually within the hour, and our prices are often 50% less than the dealer.
🛡 Luxury & Exotic Cars
South Florida is home to many high-end vehicles. Our technicians are trained on the specific security systems of luxury brands like Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, and Land Rover. We can open them safely without triggering anti-theft lockdowns.
How Much Does a Car Locksmith Cost?
Upfront quotes. No surprises.
*Prices depend on vehicle make, model, year, and key type.
What Kind of Car Key Do You Actually Have?
Almost every quote you get over the phone depends on this one question, and most drivers have never had a reason to ask it. Here is how to tell, and what each type means for cost and time.
Mechanical key — no chip
A plain metal key, no plastic head, no buttons. Common on cars built before roughly 2000 and on many motorcycles and trailers. This is the cheapest key to replace because there is nothing to program. If you have one spare, cutting a duplicate takes minutes.
Transponder key
Looks like a normal key but has a thicker plastic head. Inside is a chip the car has to recognise before it will start. Cutting the key is the easy part; pairing the chip to your vehicle is the work. If you have ever had a key that turns the ignition but the engine will not catch, this is usually why.
Remote head key
A transponder key with the lock and unlock buttons built into the head. Two systems in one piece of plastic, which means two things that can fail independently. We see plenty of these where the buttons have died but the key still starts the car perfectly.
Proximity fob — push-to-start
No blade at all, or a small emergency blade hidden inside. The car senses the fob in your pocket. These are the most expensive to replace and the most likely to need dealer-level equipment, though we program most makes on site. Nearly every proximity fob also hides a mechanical key for exactly the situation where the battery dies.
Is It the Key or the Ignition?
Two very different repairs, and telling them apart before you call saves everyone time. Try this in your driveway.
Signs it is the key
Your spare key works normally. The blade looks visibly worn compared to the spare, with the peaks rounded off. The car starts if you jiggle or apply light pressure while turning. A key that has been in a pocket for eight years simply wears down, and the cuts stop matching the wafers inside.
Signs it is the ignition
Both keys behave the same way. The key goes in but will not turn at all, or turns partway and stops. There is grinding or a gritty feel. The cylinder wobbles in the dash. On many older Fords and GMs the wafers wear out from years of a heavy keychain hanging off the ignition, and the fix is a new cylinder rather than a new key.
One caution before you force anything. If a key has already snapped off in the cylinder, stop. Glue, pliers, and screwdrivers turn a straightforward extraction into a full ignition replacement more often than not. We extract broken keys as a routine job, and the cost difference between doing that and rebuilding a damaged cylinder is significant.
All Keys Lost — What Actually Happens
This is the situation drivers dread, and it is genuinely more involved than cutting a spare. Here is the honest version, start to finish.
First, we confirm the car is yours. Every legitimate locksmith will ask for photo ID and either the registration, the title, or insurance paperwork showing your name against the VIN. If somebody is willing to make a key for a car without checking, consider what that means for your own vehicle sitting in a parking garage.
Then we pull the key code from the VIN. With no working key to copy, the cuts have to come from the manufacturer's records. Some makes release this quickly; others take longer or require the vehicle to sit in a security wait state before a new key can be paired.
Then we cut and program. Cutting is done on site with a code machine. Programming means talking to the car's immobiliser through the diagnostic port and teaching it to accept a key it has never seen. On most vehicles this also erases every key previously registered — which is exactly what you want if a set was stolen rather than misplaced.
How long. A common domestic or Japanese sedan is usually done in under an hour on your driveway. European makes and some 2018-and-newer models run longer because of the security delay the manufacturer builds in. We will tell you which category your car falls into on the phone, before anyone is dispatched.
When the Dealer Is Genuinely the Right Call
We would rather tell you this than have you pay twice. A mobile locksmith handles the large majority of car key work faster and for less, but there are cases where the dealership is the better answer: a vehicle still under warranty where key work might affect coverage, a handful of very recent luxury models where the security module is locked to franchised dealers, and any situation where the immobiliser module itself has failed rather than the key. If your car falls into one of those, we will say so on the phone rather than send a technician out. For everything else — and that is most cars on the road in South Florida — there is no reason to pay for a tow and wait three days for an appointment.
Frequently Asked Questions — Car Locksmith Services
Do I need my original key?
How long does it take?
Can you open a trunk with a dead battery?
We Service All Areas
Our mobile units patrol Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.