superchan7
11-16-2015, 04:15 AM
The Fire Dept. had to open our 500L tonight. I had locked myself out of the car......with my toddler inside.
This is how it happened:
1. Wife was buying food. I sat with our 1-year-old son in the rear seat to wait. It was supposed to just be a quick pick-up, so the car was running with the heater on, recirculation disabled. Fairly cold evening by California standards, < 50F outside.
2. I reached the front console to hit the central lock button and lock the doors, thinking I could just unlock when wife returns.
3. Son became hungry. We had his snacks in the back. I opened my rear passenger door to go to the rear hatch. Just one pull of the inside door handle.
4. As I shut the rear passenger door from outside, I realised I could not longer open the door from outside. The hatch was also locked, but that was expected.
5. Called Fire Dept. and they slim-jim'd into the car and hooked onto the inside door handle to open.
Could this be a weakness in the electronic lock design? It seems that with doors locked, opening either front door from inside the car triggers a central "Unlock" of all doors.
This function does not seem to be present in the rear passenger doors. Are other cars also like this when they have the fully electronic locks, with no mechanical lock tab?
Japanese cars all have mechanical locks, and I like that. But it seems that more and more European cars are moving towards fully electronic locks (except BMW and Mercedes-Benz). So if I'm in the back seat of, say, a VW Passat or a Porsche Cayenne, and I trigger Central Lock, then exit the car from the rear seat, would I also get locked out?
Other than this our car has been nearly trouble-free for 20k miles.
I'm thinking to write to Fiat to complain about this, but wanted to hear your opinions first. We are safe and the kid is safe, and that's what matters most. Thanks in advance for your input.
This is how it happened:
1. Wife was buying food. I sat with our 1-year-old son in the rear seat to wait. It was supposed to just be a quick pick-up, so the car was running with the heater on, recirculation disabled. Fairly cold evening by California standards, < 50F outside.
2. I reached the front console to hit the central lock button and lock the doors, thinking I could just unlock when wife returns.
3. Son became hungry. We had his snacks in the back. I opened my rear passenger door to go to the rear hatch. Just one pull of the inside door handle.
4. As I shut the rear passenger door from outside, I realised I could not longer open the door from outside. The hatch was also locked, but that was expected.
5. Called Fire Dept. and they slim-jim'd into the car and hooked onto the inside door handle to open.
Could this be a weakness in the electronic lock design? It seems that with doors locked, opening either front door from inside the car triggers a central "Unlock" of all doors.
This function does not seem to be present in the rear passenger doors. Are other cars also like this when they have the fully electronic locks, with no mechanical lock tab?
Japanese cars all have mechanical locks, and I like that. But it seems that more and more European cars are moving towards fully electronic locks (except BMW and Mercedes-Benz). So if I'm in the back seat of, say, a VW Passat or a Porsche Cayenne, and I trigger Central Lock, then exit the car from the rear seat, would I also get locked out?
Other than this our car has been nearly trouble-free for 20k miles.
I'm thinking to write to Fiat to complain about this, but wanted to hear your opinions first. We are safe and the kid is safe, and that's what matters most. Thanks in advance for your input.