Hi,
I have been out fixing the car today with my dad, and during a quick trip inside our house we beleive somone has walked by and grabbed the keys from the car. We live in a generally nice area and this came as a shock to both of us, it was a pretty stupid thing to leave the keys unattended but neither of us would expect it in the area we live. Likly to be some yong school kid who will never amount to stealing it but is happy to put me and my father through days of woe and cost us an arm and a leg.

It was the only key that we have for the car, and unfortunatly all the windows were open at the time so the car is incredibly vunerable at the momentas they are sealed up with bin bags, I have a few questions below about getting a new key and was hoping you would all be able to direct me in the right direction, its my first post here so thanks in advance for any help.

Car is a Mk4 Golf 1999 TDI GT 1.9

As the key is gone is there any way to get a new one cut without the old key as reference, I saw somone mention a "key cut code" on another site, is this somthing i can find in my manual or am I barking up the wrong tree?

I understand its possible to get a new key rom ebay and have it programmed at the VW garage, so long as the above is possible. Is it also possible to change the code of the car itself, as there is a key in the hands of another person, I dont want to spend an arm and a leg getting a new key for somone to walk up with the one they nicked and stealing my car.

If this is infact possible and I dont have to infact replace the whole key system how much will it cost me after I take it to the VW garage?

If it is not possible (god forbid) how much am I looking at at a VW garage to get my car back in a working condition?

Thanks again for any help.