I work for a ford main dealer as a supervisor , and it aint just the cost of the IDS that is the problem a full kit now costs about £6000 from Ford , we also have to pay for the right to use it , also we have to pay for access rights to get the " in codes " so we can reprogramme the new key .

I agree £180 is expensive , but using ford times it is about 0.7 of an hour and key from ford now is charged more cos parts have been told they have to charge a " cutting fee " to help pay for updated cutting equipment that is meant to be supplied very soon .

Not trying to get into an in depth discussion just trying to give people a balanced view of the invisible costs involved , also the fact that we also have to use IDS for most warranty jobs to raise an RVC ( Repair Validation Code ) means that IDS time is at a premium within the workshop .