We had the car towed to the dealer and $340 later got a new ignition/pass code module and the car is almost like new. The extended warrenty didn't cover this, what a surprise

My daughter did mention that the security indicator had blinked a couple of times and then went out, otherwise no significant warning.
I tried most of the suggestions listed in this forum with no luck - still wonder about the guy who got his working by disassembling and cleaning. When I took mine apart there doesn't seem to be any mechanical parts to cause the problem - appears to be an electronic failure. Wonder if the best fix is to bypass the the passcode read of the key resistance with the correct value of resistor.