Motoring Discussion > doors to manual. Miscellaneous
Thread Author: carmalade Replies: 9
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New Thu 5 Dec 13 18:57 
 doors to manual. - carmalade
I have been driving a few late model cars recently and have noticed a complete lack of pop up lock/unlock buttons or flaps.The only way the doors can be locked is by pressing a button on the dash and there is no visual indication of whether the doors are locked or not.You can't even lock/unlock manually.One of the cars had a problem with a rear door .Car was locked but rear door was not.No manual overide and no security.
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New Thu 5 Dec 13 19:00 
 doors to manual. - CGNorwich
What make/model?
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Thu 5 Dec 13 at 19:01
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New Thu 5 Dec 13 19:21 
 doors to manual. - Old Navy
My Ceed has a similar system, the doors can be locked and unlocked with a dashboard button which has a red LED indication of the locked state. If the indication is flashing it indicates that one or some of the doors are locked and some not. This can be resolved by use of the said button. The doors auto lock at about 5mph and can be unlocked and opened by operating the interior handle twice, they also unlock if the key is removed from the steering column. One press of the key unlocks the front doors, two unlocks all of them. There is a separate key button for the rear hatch. Some of these systems are not as obvious to operate as they should be and a perusal of the user manual may help.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 5 Dec 13 at 19:25
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New Thu 5 Dec 13 19:30 
 doors to manual. - CGNorwich
I think the opening by operating the interior handle twice is fairly common and seem fairly intuitive. It's the action of panic!
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New Thu 5 Dec 13 21:26 
 doors to manual. - rtj70
Most cars with a button to lock will have a visual indicator of unlock/lock status. It was like that on a few hire cars I've had (Peugeot, Vauxhall) and it's like that on the Passat. Most doors will unlock when you pull the door handle so no need to press an unlock button that unlocks all door and the boot. Some need you to pull twice (e.g. Ford) but others the door opens as if unlocked (VW).

Some cars can also be setup to auto lock at 10mph. Some are a faff to do (Mondeo MK III) and others have it in the menu somewhere (VW, Vauxhall and many others).

Edit: the VW also has the option in the menu to unlock all doors when stopped. And which doors to unlock when you open car - one press for all or driver door (press twice for all doors if the former selected).
Last edited by: rtj70 on Thu 5 Dec 13 at 21:27
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New Thu 5 Dec 13 21:34 
 doors to manual. - R.P.
The 3 Series has visual buttons. Good idea for a quick visual confirmation. A large LED on the mirror confirms alarm set. Doors need a double tug to open from locked. The self locking is easily managed from the dash menu. Whole thing is a doddle but the double tug thing confuses people who are not familiar with it.
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New Thu 5 Dec 13 21:55 
 doors to manual. - carmalade
There are in fact 2 cars in question.One was an 07 golf and the other an 06 astra.On exiting the car,press the remote to lock,and on both,the osr doors remained open.My point being that that is no visual indication that the doors are either locked or unlocked.No pop up or flap.
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New Thu 5 Dec 13 22:03 
 doors to manual. - rtj70
Sounds like a fault to me.

The previous two VWs I had (a Golf and Passat) from 1999/2000 had a small button indicator that showed if a door was locked. On the Golf the driver door it wouldn't go down all the way on the passenger door until deadlocked. In fact it wasn't locked unless deadlocked. Turned out to be a common fault back then - this was a new car. Had lock issues on the Passat too.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Thu 5 Dec 13 at 22:05
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New Thu 5 Dec 13 21:53 
 doors to manual. - Cliff Pope
>> Some of these systems are not as obvious to
>> operate as they should be and a perusal of the user manual may help.
>>

I can see that car design has made impressive advances since the days of the kind I feel at home with. So you now need a user manual to tell you how to open a door. :)
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New Thu 5 Dec 13 22:10 
 doors to manual. - Old Navy
>> So you now need a user manual to tell
>> you how to open a door. :)
>>

Not so much how to open it, more the multitude of options for doing it. Car designers can't handle simple systems, they must be complex to justify the cost of fixing them when they fail. :-)
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