I have just spent two weeks with a hire car that had a 30 second delay before auto locking the doors,
It may be a good security feature but with no warning from the major hire company I was a little confused until I investigated what was happening.
I saw two unfortunates that had managed to auto lock their keys inside.
From the same hirer I had a Scenic with an electronic dipstick that lit up the dash with warning messages if I parked on a slope.
US cars with dash light dimmers that switch on the internal lights
US cars that have the filer cap and trunk release buttons in the glove box.
What other features should hirers be aware off? (VX indicators?)
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Alarm systems can be a problem, we hired a Ford Escort softtop in Guernsey in 1986. Parked it outside a cafe, locked up, and went inside. I had forgotten to take out camera from boot, so went back and just opened the boot with the key, all hell broke loose!!!
Fortunately managed to work out quite quickly how to disarm, but briefly embarrassing.
Hertz agent had made no mention of the alarm.
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IMA Honda's need to depress the clutch. before the thing will start and that awful auto stop thing.
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IMA Honda's need to depress the clutch. before the thing will start
IMHO, you should be pushing the clutch anyway.
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The hire car company which I work for supplies with each rental a A4 size instruction sheet specific to the particular make/model you will be driving.
This consists of only the basics.. ie how to open filler cap, what to do in an emergency, how to adjust seats, how to set alarm, how to start if not a conventional key etc etc.
For full instructions you need like any car the full sized handbook. These are removed as company policy because they are repeatedly stolen and the cost of replacements are prohibitive (remember the turnover of cars per year runs into several 1000's)
My advice is to familerise yourself with the car before setting off, reading the car instruction sheet thoroughly and if you in doubt about anything.. ASK!!!
To be completely cynical though a view i've heard in the hire car trade many times is that *we cannot drives the car for you!!*
I do not subscribe to this point of view.
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Getting into a new Laguna at Berlin airport in the night and wondering where the hand brake was
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Some "Tiptronics" where change up is a push forwards and others where change up is a pull back.
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Trying to open the fuel filler cap on a BMW 3 series prior to returning to Frankfurt airport and (embarrassed cough) not having enough German to be able to ask. They had left the handbook in the car but... it was in German! In mitigation I can get by in French but, surprisingly enough, that wasn't a great deal of help.
Tim{P}
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I too have sat in a Renault fairly recently wondering how to get the handbrake off - but most embarrassing was a Vauxhall I hired many years ago.
I spent 2 days unable to engage reverse because I wasn't aware of the pull up ring thing under the gear knob. Parking was fun, luckily I had a friend with me who got out and pushed when reverse was needed!
I regularly drive hire cars now and I've lost lost count of the number of times i've stopped outside a garage forecourt to check which side the fuel filler is... not to mention time spent searching for some of the more obscure elease mechanisms...
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"30 second delay before auto locking the doors"
It will only autolock if the doors have not been opened - i.e. remotely opened in error. You should not be able to lock keys inside because you'd have to open the car. If it does lock after a door has been opened then there is a fault somewhere.
I agree on some features/controls need describing on some cars because they are not obvious. That is why it's a good idea to familiarise yourself.
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I saw two unfortunates that had managed to auto lock their keys inside.
This is impossible. Autolocking works in two ways - firstly 'antihijack' mode where the doors lock when you drive away, secondly if you unlock the car with the blipper and don't actually open a door, the doors will lock again after a period of time. In both of these scenarios it is not possible to get your keys locked inside the car/
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Unless you have a Touran, where it possible to unlock the car with the remote, leave you keys in the rear hatch, shut the hatch and the car will autolock.
Why? becuase VW removed the code to check the rear door from some functions, yet funnily left it on others, so for example the rear wash wipe wont work if the door is not properly shut. (and no there is no contacts to be made)
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Unless you have a Touran, where it possible to unlock the car with the remote, leave you keys in the rear hatch, shut the hatch and the car will autolock. ------------------------------ TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
I believe that to prevent drive away theft, the keys should always (ok, not when you are in bed, perhaps) be within touching disytance.
That is - in the ignition - in your hand - or in your pocket.
There was a story on the Beeb some months ago of a women who had her car stolen from a filling station, with the baby inside. What had she done? She had gone inside to pay leaving her keys in the ignition.
The interviewer was very sympathetic, but I thought the woman should have been prosecuted.
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I saw two unfortunates that had managed to auto lock their keys inside. This is impossible.
>>.......secondly if you unlock the car with the blipper and don't actually open a door, the doors will lock again after a period of time.......it is not possible to get your keys locked inside the car/
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Well I know what happened with the car I hired.
I would unlock the car using the remote, undo the boot with the key and 30 seconds ( I timed it) later EVERY time. clonk - doors locked.
Certainly I could have locked the keys in the boot.( it had no external button just a trigger by the drivers seat)
I am pretty certain it would auto lock even if I had opened the doors.
I watched a car hire employee unlock a car retrieve the keys from the back seat and hand them to the hirer.
Up to then, the hirer had been sitting next to me in an agitated state.
The market requirement may be different in SA
I must admit to not RTFM as we have a Yaris and the Corolla had the same controls.
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A colleague locked themselves out of their new BMW 1 series - something along the lines of automatic unlocking of the door through a proximity sensor detecting the key, putting coat on back seat with key still in pocket, car detecting key inside vehicle and re-locking for security. Sounds weird but I might have forgotten some of the details.
BIG
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I hired a Renualt in Spain last year that wouldn't start unless the clutch was pressed, your hands were at ten to two and you had your sunglasses on. It took 10 minutes of cursing for me to figure out the correct combination but I was damned if I was going to trudge back to the rental office and ask.
When I filled up my current 406 for the first time, the mat had slipped over the filler cap release and it took me five frantic minutes to track it down in a busy station with people behind me.
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