GM hasn't given up ignition keys yet
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June 03, 2018 01:00 AM

Despite ignition crisis, GM hasn't given up the keys

Nick Bunkley
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    Push-button start on the GMC Yukon has been optional.

    Editor's note: Keyless ignition will be available on the newly redesigned Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra. An earlier version of this story, which also appeared on Page 28 of the June 4 print edition, misstated the availability on those new models. 

    General Motors' troubled ignition switches seemed to spell doom for the traditional car key. In fact, CEO Mary Barra told a congressional committee investigating the 2014 ignition recalls that the automaker was considering making push-button start a standard feature on every vehicle.

    That hasn't happened. Keyless ignition has become more common within GM's portfolio in the last four years, but it's still not standard on many of the company's least-expensive vehicles. It's not even an option on any GM pickups, including the current Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra.

    For the 2017 model year, keyless ignition was not offered on 19 percent of GM vehicles sold in the U.S., down from 26 percent in 2014, according to data from Edmunds. The data doesn't identify the percentage of vehicles with standard keyless ignition or how often buyers chose the option when it wasn't standard.

    Push to start

    Percentage of vehicles on which keyless ignition is standard or optional.
    Model yearGMIndustry
    201378%67%
    201474%63%
    201583%68%
    201683%72%
    201781%82%
    Source: Edmunds

    Other automakers have moved faster than GM to expand keyless ignition across more of their lineups. Industrywide, it was standard or optional on all but 18 percent of 2017 model year vehicles, down from 37 percent three years earlier.

    Some automakers are even starting to eliminate key fobs, too. Tesla's Model 3 is designed to be unlocked and started via the driver's smartphone, and BMW plans to let some owners use their smartphone in place of their vehicle key starting in July.

    Barra: A push for push-button?

    For the 2018 model year, GM says keyless ignition is optional on the Chevy Cruze, Sonic, Spark, Trax, Suburban and Tahoe and on the GMC Yukon and Yukon XL. It's not available on any pickups or commercial trucks and is standard on all other vehicles it sells in the U.S.

    "There are some customers, notably fleets, who still want keyed ignitions, so those will continue to be available on some models and trims," GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson wrote in an email.

    For the Cruze — which replaced one of the cars at the center of the ignition recalls, the Cobalt — keyless ignition is standard on the Premier trim, available as part of a $1,195 upgrade on the LT and not offered on the L or LS. The Cruze was redesigned in 2015.

    "Price sensitivity is an issue," said Dan Edmunds, director of vehicle testing at Edmunds. "It adds price to the car."

    In just the last few years, push-button start has gone from a novelty on higher-end vehicles to something that many mainstream buyers have come to expect.

    "Eventually, market forces make it stick out when [vehicles] don't have it, and we might be getting close to that point. But we're probably not quite there yet," Edmunds said. "It's going to be like power windows or power mirrors in a few years."

    There are reasons besides price that automakers can be hesitant to universally adopt keyless ignition. While it may eliminate the problems that GM experienced on the Cobalt, it also can introduce issues for consumers. Toyota's sudden-acceleration recalls were in part prompted by a fatal crash involving a driver who wasn't able to shut off the ignition of a car with a stuck throttle. The New York Times reported last month that more than two dozen people had died since 2006 from carbon monoxide from a keyless-ignition vehicle accidentally left running in a garage.

    Wilkinson said all newer GM vehicles equipped with keyless ignitions have audible warnings and automatically shut off after a certain period of unattended idling.

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