Interesting project... Previously a 2006 FR2 Diesel manual, now 2006 FR2 Petrol auto and a Series 3 109 SW.

I'm not obsessed with this issue.... er, no, definitely not. But like that pesky rattle, it's always there.

Can anyone confirm if their key comes back out a few millimetres after inserting when starting the car? Mine stays tight against the back of the slot. I think that's why there's no way of giving it that push to eject when I'm trying to remove it. I can pull it about 5mm, then push and it ejects. Surely this has to be mechanical?

For a laugh, I stuck a bit of thin draft excluding foam to the front edge of the key to try to give it some tolerance to move. However, you could then just lift it out when the engine was running! So those barbs weren't catching.

I've asked a few "electronics" friends about removing the stupid thing and replacing it with something else and one suggested "why not just rewire the car?", so it obviously isn't straightforward. Another suggested leaving a key in the dock and replacing the push to start switch with some kind of key switch...

Hey, a key switch to start a car - why didn't land rover think of that? Life is an uphill struggle. Only the gradient varies.