ignition

I swear Volkswagen is like the paranoid friend who thinks everyone's out to get them. There is a microchip in the key fob that the ignition reads. The car will start, then it attempts to read the chip. If it doesn't get the right answer, it shuts off the ignition. Within seconds. You can Google reprogramming the key, there's quite a few websites that will tell you how. It involves locking/unlocking/starting car in a certain order. I was able to do it, but it's been awhile so I can't tell you exactly. Or if you have the valet key (just a key, no fob) it should work.