Some days I really miss an old-fashion key

A key is a simple thing, at least when it comes to your house or your mailbox. It's small, shiny, cut with a one-of-kind set of teeth and has a single purpose: to be a gateway to whatever is behind the lock it opens.

Inside the Wheelbase shop, one of the ongoing project cars is a 1963 Corvette. It's sleek, beautiful and from an era of amazing design. By today's standards, however, the car is ridiculously simple and so is the key. It's small, maybe half the length of a regular house key, and has two purposes: to get the door open to that wonderful leather interior and to kick start all that carbureted V-8 horsepower.

That key, or any other key for that matter, has at least one flaw, aside from being too easy to duplicate. It has a tendency to sprout legs and walk off. I mean, I swear I put it in the bottom of my purse but, after an intense search (dumping out of contents onto the kitchen table) it's nowhere to be found. Maybe it was in the front pocket of my jeans? And where are they right now? In the laundry? Oh well, at least the key will be lemon scented as well as shiny.

How about this one. You're late for work and you drop the car keys between the seat and the console. You can't exactly see where they are, so the next five minutes is spent on your hands and knees, usually in the dark, arm jammed under the seat in the most unnatural position. The only thing you can see is your watch ... loudly ticking away to show you just how late you really are.

I would have to say that one out of every 20 times I get into the car, the keys drop somewhere that requires a contortionist, or a straightened coat hanger to remove.

Oh, how the simple key has changed. Many now come as part of a Swiss-Army-Knife-looking device, called a fob, that will also lock/unlock the doors and trunk lid or hatch. Even better, in some cases, the car knows that you have the key in your pocket or purse and will automatically unlock the vehicle -- and allow you to start it up and drive away -- without taking the key out of your purse or pocket. It's called a proximity sensor that can automatically trigger several commands, such as locking the doors when you walk away. In some cases, and I'll cite the Mini Cooper as a prime example, they key is not a key at all. It's just a little plastic disc that pops into a slot in the dash. And then you have to push a start button. Don't get me going on the start button.

Anyway, the problem of the key falling between the seat and console? Solved as long as it stays in your purse, right? Case closed, another one opens.

I recently started just such a car with the key in my purse, you know, to warm up the new sedan. Back in the house, after 10 minutes of running around, I decided that I didn't need the whole purse, just the wallet. I ran out the door and jumped back into the warm car, drove downtown and shut it off.

Normally, getting out and walking away once the car is switched off would lock the doors. But guess what. The key wasn't with me, it was at home ... in the purse.

Yes, this particular car, once started, could be driven around town without the key anywhere near you.

So, there I was, stranded, after spending two hours downtown thinking the car was locked, when it wasn't, with no way to start it (because the key wasn't with me). Luckily, the ordeal only cost me a cab ride home to get the key and back to the car, plus the hour lost.

So much for technology replacing the good old-fashioned key. Now when I get into that car, I make sure I have the electronic key right there in my hand so I don't forget it, just like I used to do with the old key. I've never forgotten it since, but guess how many times I 've dropped it between the seat and the console ... two steps forward, one step back.

Rhonda Wheeler is a journalist with Wheelbase Media, a worldwide supplier of automotive news, features and reviews. You can email her by logging on to www.wheelbasemedia.com and clicking the contact link.