HOW LONG DO KEY FOB BATTERIES TYPICALLY LAST?
I have found that these 2032 style batteries only last around 25k-30K miles. This has been my experience with the 2032 batteries in my VW and MINI keys.
KEYLESS VS. NON-KEYLESS
Keyless start is awesome!
The downside is that the key's battery does need to be changed every so often. Another downside is that, over time, VW key fobs don’t have a great history of staying together. Most of my older VW switchblade keys after so many battery changes would eventually not stay together so well. At times, the pieces would separate more easily. If you have Keyless entry, you may not experience this, but if imaging walking to your car, pulling out your key to press the button and accidentally drop the key. Now that key has separated into 3 pieces (front, back, and battery) and after hunting those pieces down you still have to re-assemble it before being able to open the car.
Non-Keyless has its benefits!
Before keyless start, the next technological step in automotive production was to insert your key fob and then press the push start button. My old E60 BMW 5 series worked this way. The benefit to these systems is that the car will actively charge the battery on the key fob while it’s plugged into the car. I never had to change the batteries in those keys from 50k to 150k miles before I sold it. The downside is having to keep the key in the ignition. The BMW did have a system where you could start the car, turn it off really quick, take the key fob out, then start it again and it would start without the key inserted. This was particularly useful on cold mornings as I could lock the car and go back inside while it warms up.
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This applies to any of the newer VW cars with keyless start, the angled bottom, with or without the remote start buttons.
Including following cars:
2019-2022 VW JETTA & GLI
2018 - 2022 VW ATLAS
2018- 2022 VW TIGUAN
2022 VW TAOS