Modern Vespa

My car locks its doors automatically as soon as I turn on ignition.
Salima's car does not.

I feel safer in mine (from intruders-despite living in an area with probably the lowest crime rates in the US)
She feels safer in hers (being rescued in case of a crash, and the convenience of being able to immediately get out if needed)

How does your car work, and, regardless of that, which way would you prefer it for you? Could this feature be dis-/enabled (how)?

Great. Something else pointless to argue about.

Old fashioned I guess, I just prefer manual locks.

And window cranks.

My doors auto lock and I don't like it. I don't like feeling locked in. OMO, The chances of an intruder attempting to enter while I am driving is smaller that the chances that I might be delaved exiting if it were on fire or ther was some other reason that I had to get out fast. A carjacker could berak the passenger window reach in and open the door while I was struggeling to find the unlock button. Why not make tham so that they can be opened from the inside but not the outside?

Wow! I thought I was the only one left!

Give me ol' fashioned manual door locks and window cranks, too. I buy my cars tiny, and I can easily reach all the doors from the driver's seat.

Light, simple, and easy to repair... that's how I roll.

My scooter doesn't have doors. Do you guys know something and aren't telling me?

Locked, I always drive with my doors locked and not for reasons one may think. I am not worried about car jackers. If I get in an accident, I don't want my door flying open because the impacting car hit me just right that it opened the door handle of an unlocked door. And yes, this does happen in roll overs too.

This is also the reason given in my car's manual for keeping the doors locked when driving.

It's just more crap to break. Keep it simple.

My car gives me the option to program the locking feature. I can even choose to turn off the feature and manually lock my car. I leave it at the factory setting whic is set to lock when the car reaches about 10 mph.

Jess,

On a fly fishing forum I am on our conversations drift from the topic of fly fishing and at times the conversation gets heated. This is the time of year we refer as 'cabin fever'.

The chances of the door opening in an accident because it wasn't locked are possible but unlikely. I'm not worried about that much because I always wear a seatbelt. A swinging door might break my arm or an open door might let in something that might cause an injury but again I don't think the door being locked or not will make much difference.

subject of discussion considering that we all ride PTWs here and being in ANY cage in ANY configuration of locked/unlocked is leagues safer than riding any PTW.










carry on

I prefer doors on my scooters. And a roof.

It's all about safety, you know.

It happens a lot more than you would think.
The door being closed is part of the vehicle structure, it's open and you some loose reinforcement in the part of the car. The door is a very integral part of the body structure.

Example: You can total a Corvette just by opening the door while it's on a lift.
It can crack the frame just behind the door. How do i know, I got screamed at by the service manage that was standing there as I was getting ready to open the door on a Vet that was on the lift. All I heard was a very loud, "STOOOOOOP"!! I was like, What? He pulled up the Service Bulletin and showed me in the owners manual.

I think I'll head over to Modernskydiver.com and enjoy the cholesterol thread....

I agree that the door is a structrual part and it is better if it is closed in an accident. But I don't think that locking the door will help very much to keep it closed.

Can anyone recommend a good cup holder ?

Bill X

Absolutely!

And let's not forget our Saint Christopher pin.

They are designed to stay shut if locked. It's a lot easier for it to open once that linkage inside starts getting all bent up from an impact if it's not locked.

Have a friend with a tow truck, I ride with him a lot at night. See a lot of roll overs where the doors open because they weren't locked. Lots of stuff to grab those door handles as the car is rolling/slide across a field or through the woods.

Less worried about myself and more worried about my Grandmother. Her car auto unlocks when [I cant remember] either she puts it in park, or turns it off. I think that I would absolutely not want my car to auto unlock.

OK, make it so that they are locked on the outside but can be opened from the inside.

Mine auto lock at 15mph and unlock in the event of the airbags being deployed.

In most cases, yes, you can enable/disable the feature. How? Consult your owners manual. With a Dodge truck that my wife owned back in 2002 you turned the key on/off 4 times, leave the key in the on position and pressed one of the radio buttons (don't remember which one). Yep... it worked.

Along the lines of redonculous safety concerns... See the photo below. This is one of the buildings where I work. Notice the pretty new yellow railing along the roof lines. These are a new feature added in the last month to keep us from falling off the roof. Um... there is no roof access except with the proper badge. No regular work goes on up there. Sure you need to patch to roof every now and again. But railings? Really? I've worked here 17 years and nobody has fallen off the building yet. I wonder how much that costs. Since our bonus is tied to profit, we now refer to this project as the "Bonus Reduction Program" (BRP).

Mine does too, and I actually find that convenient. When I shut off the engine, I want to get out. If I don't, which is rare, I can manually lock again.

Buy a Volkswagen then. It's all configurable via the Menu system. It locks at 10mph or so and it unlocks when you remove the ignition key by default, but you can override that by opening the car door with the manual realease (the handle).

Cashnd1, I feel your pain. My guess is it has to do with liability or code. Maybe the insurance gave a discount with the BRP-rail installed?

I had checked my manual before I posted and there was no mention of it being on/offable. Okay, it is a 95 MY Corolla (and sorry, DougL, I am not replacing it yet).

Read the owners manual, the feature can be changed fairly easy in most cars.

The feature is configurable in all cars.

Edit: I got the decisive tip on a Toyota forum that this is a feature of my aftermarket alarm system, not of the car itself. And there it was described, in the alarm's manual. Problem solved.

The first thing we did in our new car was to change the auto lock/unlock settings. I don't want to be automatically locked in and I really don't want to be automatically unlocked. ( As a woman in an urban environment.)

I have power locks and windows, I can decide when I want them open or closed just fine by myself.

All right Billdog, I'll bite. What do Europeans have against cup holders? I'm not saying the 8-12 in a typical SUV or minivan isn't overkill but what's wrong with a couple between the front seats? The 25 year old Benz I bought last year cost the equivalent of $135,000 in today's dollars when it was new and there isn't a single cup holder to be found.

Arno, as others have said, there is a way to program your car to lock or not lock automatically but every car varies with how you program them. My own preference is to have them lock when the car is put in Drive. (Oh, I forgot, no automatic transmissions in Europe except on Vespas.)

Ken, I can't speak for "Europeans", the individual cultures are too different. I can only speak for Germans, and back then (when your Benz was built), there was no culture of drinking out of cups in a car (or much anywhere else, for that matter). Germans drank out of glasses. Plastic bottles of water, maybe. No open cups and no cups with a lid. So, what would one need a cup holder for?

77 million Germans might take umbrage.

"This morning I shot 6 holes in my freezer. I think I've got cabin fever. Someone sound the alarm." - J. Buffet

I would rather have them lock after removing the key after parking the car. I got locked out of my running car and had to call a tow truck to open it up at work.

Locks after reaching 10 mph automaticly - never thought if it was good or bad

My new GTL motorcycle is set to automatically lock the panniers and top case (while setting the alarm) as I am walking away and what I thought what was once cool is now annoying. I found the preferences and changed it back so I need to manually lock the bike with a click of the alarm. It would be cool if you could change the setting?