Smart Key Nightmare

Hi,

I have a 2005 Smart ForTwo Diesel licensed to Canada that I've been driving in New York. It was one of the first in the country and it's gotten a lot of positive attention from hundreds of people over the years. But every now and then I have to deal with some insanity caused by a combination of technology and the fact that the car is licensed to another country. For instance, no Smart dealer in the U.S. was allowed to do any maintenance on this car because they had no access to the computer system with the codes for this model. Last year, the main computer in the car failed less than a month after the warranty expired and it cost over $3000 to replace when there was nothing mechanically wrong with the car. Both of these involved having to drive to Canada to resolve the problems. But I digress.

The latest problem came when pressing the unlock button on my key resulted in the parking lights flashing rapidly. I understood this to be a warning that the battery was running low. But instead, the battery had apparently already run so low that the doors couldn't be unlocked at all. I was able to unlock them by physically turning the key in the hatch lock. But then when I tried to start the car, a key icon flashed on the dashboard panel, which meant I had to press the middle button on the key to clear it. But since the battery had little power, this didn't work. I found a replacement battery in my driver's manual but when i put that in, the key did the exact same thing. I figured the battery was from 2005 so maybe it was close to drained as well.

Fortunately, I had a spare key in my house and I was able to unlock the door properly and get the car started. But here's where my real concern comes into play. I tracked down a replacement battery at Radio Shack and inserted it into the other key. The same thing happened as with the other two supposedly drained batteries - the parking lights just flashed rapidly. So whatever problem there is with the key, it doesn't appear to be with the battery.

I want to have two keys so that I always have a backup. I've taken the car off the road for fear of what could happen if the other key does the same thing. What could have happened to the first key to make it start acting like this? And, more importantly, how can I get this fixed or dealt with without having to drive all the way back to Canada?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

emmanuel