Small Details Matter in Your Car

Pulling out of the underground parking area of our building I have to stop between the sidewalk and the street to wait for traffic to clear. The sidewalk in front of our place can be pretty busy. When the traffic cleared I entered traffic and heard the doors automatically lock, 15 mph in my vehicle, and realized, while sitting there waiting for the traffic to clear I was vulnerable to someone walking up, opening the door and getting in or attacking us. So this stands as a reminder, lock your doors as soon as you get in your car, don’t wait for the automatic lock to engage, it’s simply a few more seconds of relative safety.

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Mine automatically lock when I shift out of Park

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That should be setup by default :+1:

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That still leaves the seconds of minutes while you screw around with seat belts and the like.

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Depends on the year it was manufactured

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I always manually lock my doors when I sit down.

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Is it a Ford?

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I have a convertible…

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Lock your car !
A 2021-07-26 21-42-02

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^^^ this

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I’m in the habit of locking my doors as soon as I get in the car if I am out and about. But many new cars have options on how to handle door locking as a back up to manual locking.

I was able to keep the lock on shifting out of Park option on my work vehicle but turn off the Auto Unlock when shifting back to Park. This gives me more time to look around until I am ready to get out of the car.

My family vehicle didn’t have this option but I was able to make it wait to unlock the doors until I turn off the car instead of when I shift to park.

Read the manual and see what options are available. Some vehicles you can adjust yourself, some you have to have the dealer set.

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The dealerships can plug in and change ALOT of settings since most cars come in different packages all the extra options on the higher priced models are also included in the lower priced models, just not turned on.

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My vehicle -a 2011- doesn’t auto-unlock the doors until the key is pulled from the ignition. Thing is, until I read this thread, I thought that feature was intended to keep you from forgetting the keys when you get out. Never considered the tactical safety aspect. At the same time, I did appreciate the safety aspect of the fob unlocking only the driver’s door with a single push of the button; it takes a second push to unlock the rest of the doors.

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I own a 2020 Volkswagen Passat. It has a few options related to locking and unlocking the doors. It will unlock the driver’s door when a key fob is within proximity and a hand is placed within the driver’s door handle. A second pass of my hand unlocks all doors. My wife carries the other fob and can unlock the three passenger doors by placing her hand in the front passenger door handle.

I can set the “I’ve come to a stop” unlock at “Park” or “key removal.” I don’t remember right off what I set it to. I’ve only drive 3200 miles over the past 8+ months. The “started up, now moving” lock is either at shifting to Drive or reaching 10 mph. As mentioned above, I take a manual approach to locking the doors.

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Thanks @Mike164

Good advise.

To everyone else, thanks for giving me a project. I now have to check the options in my electronic package! :face_vomiting: :face_vomiting:

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I’m wondering if we made few members think about buying new car… :joy:

Auto-lock became standard in 2015, but still few manufacturers make default settings not as we expect, usually using speed as the trigger.
Fortunately new cars can be setup properly on user’s demand.

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Just slightly off topic, but someone mentioned seatbelts… I don’t buckle up until I’m out of the parking lot, or at least not near my original parking location.

Statically I can access my firearm quicker, or evac out of the vehicle quicker.

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Nice One! Thanks for that. These are the small but important details that sometimes get missed.

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I believe that getting in or out of your vehicle is when you are most vulnerable. I gave up on a shoulder rig; carry on the right hip. But that pistol is in my hand getting in or out. I use it as practice flipping the safety on and off, although I almost never engage the safety. Just me.

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In your hand in the holster or in your hand out of the holster? Either way, if I saw someone getting out of their car with their hand holding a gun I would be assuming they intend to use it against someone.

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