Ok, some articles. These are a few years old now, but that just underscores that user preferences were like this for a while and manufacturers aren’t contradicting demand.
Here’s one article from 2015 showing a majority of consumers polled wanted push button start in their next vehicle:
And another from Forbes about how consumers like their push button start:
That last one does lend some credence to your reaction, though. They noted a distinct minority that hated them.
I love my keyless car - I’ve had a Prius for years - for a while I had a Volvo and what I hated most was its key requirement. Key is in my purse. Purse goes with me pretty much everywhere. I can’t drive away without my purse. Of late I’ve moved my key into a zip pouch that also carries my credit cards and ID - so I don’t get to the grocery store with “were is my debit card?”
(It may be the ONE automotive improvement that benefits women more than men, since women tend to carry a bag).
I’m waiting for the ability to key my car to my phone - that will be AWESOME.
The answer to your question - most consumers prefer the keyless fob - its seen as an improvement. Its enough of a driver that I dumped my Volvo for lack of it and rebought a Prius - and would have not considered a car without it.
Nissan lists their Intelligent Key system in the Comfort/Convenience section of their glossy brochures and I think that’s about as GQ as you’re going to get without some insider automotive test-market/focus-group knowledge. Consumers like convenience and 10+ years ago this was a new and exciting way to provide it. More recently, it’s provided an easy way to provide other convenience features through the same system, like remote start, and seats/settings that auto-adjust based on which fob is being used.
Personally, I’m on my third car with it and will never go back. I just had a rental on vacation that had a remote with the flip out key and it was such a pain in the ass.
I remember being taught that, with a keyed ignition system, you could “drive” a stalled vehicle in an emergency using just the starter motor by putting the car in Drive, turning the key to the Start position and holding it there.
Can anything similar be done with a keyless ignition system?
I’m not sure that can be done with a modern computer controlled car.
Actually, I have a hard time imagining anybody preferring a key. The convenience of a keyless fob is off the charts by comparison.
A while ago, I rented a car with keys; they were gigantic (much bigger than my little 2" x 1" fob) and kept sticking me in the leg when I had them in my pocket.
I’ll never go back.
Another disadvantage that the OP didn’t mention is that thieves can use equipment to amplify the fob’s signal, so they can easily open your car’s locked door in your driveway even if your key is inside your house.
Do I need to buy a Faraday cage?
This is me too. I thought I’d hate it but after using it, I was sold pretty quickly. Now, I really don’t like using my key at all. I want to install a key fob on my house, but that’s a bit expensive.
We recently got a new (used) car, our first with keyless entry and starting. I could give or take the starting, but the keyless entry is very convenient, especially when carrying things.
As the responses to your OP suggest, you appear to be wrong about that.
Fair enough. Most of that bulk appears to be so that it can hold an actual mechanical key inside it, as well as buttons for locking/unlocking the car and opening the trunk. If you took away most of those things so that you were just left with a battery and radio transponder (to enable the dashboard push-button start feature), the fob would probably be quite a bit more compact. But owners like being able to lock/unlock the doors or trunk from a distance, or from the far-side of the car, or from up-close without having to dig for a key. Far fewer scratches on the door from sloppy attempts to insert a key in the key hole, or from other keys on your giant key-ring dangling against the paint.
I don’t think I’ve ever had the repair guy not ask for the key. the handoff process requires him to document the odometer reading, which requires turning on the accessories…which means he has to ask me for the key.
Have you actually forgotten to hand off your key fob to a mechanic yet, or are you just speculating on this?
Why would you take it out of your pocket while you’re in the car? :dubious:
I used to to this with old-school mechanical keys, mostly to deal with the rare occasion when I locked a key in the car while away from home. But your car is smart: it knows where your fancy electronic key fob is. It can sense when the fob is inside the car; afterall, this is how it knows it’s OK to start the engine when you push the the start button. If your car senses your key is inside the car, it will not let you lock the door from the inside and then shut the door; if you do that, it will just unlock the door, and possibly beep to let you know what’s going on. If you want to lock the key inside the car, you have to shut the door and THEN lock it from the inside (which means you’re in there with the fob).
When my mechanic is done servicing my car, I almost always pick it up after hours. Since it’s impossible for him to lock the key fob inside the car or trunk, he has to stick it behind the latching fuel filler door. Anyone who can do that accidentally has such a capacity for calamity that they should probably not own a car.
No argument there. Replacement cost sucks, but the flip side (if you manage not to lose your key fob) is the great benefits that come with having it in the first place. FWIW, I can’t remember the last time I lost a key (or a key fob); YMMV.
“Battery runs out” is not the same as “fail.” It just means you need to replace the battery - just like the many other things in your life that use batteries. Like your TV’s remote control. Or your car itself. My car warns me when the fob battery is getting low. Got a box of AA batteries in your desk drawer for your TV remote? Great, toss a couple of spare batteries in there for your key fob as well. Car having trouble detecting your key? Swap out the battery. Takes a couple of minutes, and then life goes on.
Your car is smart. It knows where your key is. If you’re standing outside your car with the fob in your pocket, a person in the driver’s seat of your car probably won’t be able to start it. Go ahead, try it. Put the key on the floor just outside your car door, then get in and try starting your car.
I will tell of one unique incident that I had, related to keyless entry/ignition. Several years ago I bought a new car with a manual transmission and keyless entry/ignition. I offered a friend the opportunity to drive it while I sat in the passenger seat. I handed him the key fob, and we both got into to the car (I realized later that giving him the fob wasn’t necessary, as the car would have started/ran just fine with the key in my pocket, over in the passenger seat). We went for our drive, and then he drove to his office, where he got out and went to his office, and I got in the driver’s seat and drove away.
He still had my key fob with him, but I didn’t know this because he left the engine running for me. I was several blocks away before I noticed the dashboard warning “NO KEY DETECTED.” Uh-oh. Remember, this was a manual transmission: it was running fine right now, but if I stalled it with sloppy clutchwork, I would not be able to restart it without that fob!!! :eek: Thankfully, I was able to navigate back to his office with an extra dose of finesse on the clutch during launches and recover my key fob.
You haven’t been able to do that for decades. On any car made since at least the 1980s (maybe even earlier; I don’t know when it became required) the starter motor won’t turn unless the gearshift is in park or neutral if it’s an automatic, or unless the clutch petal is depressed if it’s a manual.
I skimmed the thread so forgive me if this has been mentioned. But the thing that blew me away the most when I first got my Prius was discovering that “igniting” the engine wasn’t the major trauma (ok, I exaggerate a bit) I thought it was. Remember learning to drive in a keyed car? If you didn’t turn the key and hold it long enough for the motor to start, you’d have to try again. If you held it too long you’d get that awful grating noise. It took a while to learn the knack of finding that exact 1 second long enough to start the engine properly.
Push button start? You can hold the button down as long as you want and nothing happens because it’s when you let go of the button that the magic happens (learned this because my husband is odd with technology and always holds the button down for 2 - 3 seconds). And then with the Prius, automatically turning the engine off and on at stops or decelerating… what a revelation! No grinding, no failing to turn the engine over. It just starts. Perfectly.
Here’s your factual answer. You’re wrong. Most customers prefer the keyless.
Here’s a regulation from 2005-ish, although there may have been other regulations earlier.
2 yrs ago, I thought keyless entry/start was ridiculous. having had my car for 2 yrs, I like it just fine. I stick my keys in my pocket, then I open the door by touching the handle, start/stop with a button, and lock the door by touching the handle.
A mechanical key “switchblades” out of the fob, to enter/exit/start/stop if battery dies.
The ONLY thing I had to “train” myself was to NEVER put my fob down inside of the car. Not sure exactly what I would have to do to lock the car inside or anything, but never wanted to risk it. Keep the key in your pocket at all times, then when at home, always put it in the same place - and it works great.
Of course, I’ve had remote unlock/lock for years before keyless, and I really liked that. So I’m used to bulky/pricey fobs.
When it works, it’s a wonder of convenience.
When it doesn’t, your 75 year old father is stranded at a convenience store because the key fob is 5 miles away in your mother’s purse.
The disconnection of the fob/key to the operation of the car is convenient but makes errors more costly.
Want to bake your noodle even more, My Volt doesent have a starter per se, it uses the smaller electric motor/generator and links to the gas engine to act as a starter.
Without reading the replies…
I don’t have to take a key out of my pocket to get into the car.
I don’t have to take a key out of my pocket to start the car.
I don’t have to put a key into an ignition lock.
It’s just more convenient.
I can attest to this – a few weeks ago I must have accidentally hit the trunk button somehow and didn’t notice until I started driving and saw the warning light illuminated (it was unlocked but not physically open). So I pulled into a parking lot and left the engine running while I got out to close the trunk. As soon as I got out with the key still in my pocket the car started beeping at me to warn me that the key was no longer inside the car.
Since you mentioned manual transmissions, one very minor annoyance I have with my car is that if I do stall it I have to press the button twice to restart it. Pressing it the first time turns the car “off” even though the engine has already stopped running, then you have to press it a second time to restart it.
A second annoyance is that if I get home and have what NPR calls a “driveway moment” (I get home but I want to sit there and finish listening to the story before going inside), there doesn’t seem to be a way to shut off the engine but keep the radio on. With a key I could turn the ignition directly from “run” to “accessory” and the engine would stop but the radio would stay on. With keyless start pressing the button turns off the engine and the radio, and to get to “accessory” mode I have to press the button again with my foot off the clutch so the engine won’t start. And thus I miss a few seconds of the radio story I was listening to. I don’t know if they all work like that or if this was just an oversight by Mazda.
But those are both very minor complaints. Overall I love the keyless starting and locks and the fact that I never have to take the fob out of my pocket.
Faraday pouches are available at Amazon fairly inexpensively, and they work just fine. I think the prevalence of signal-stealing devices may be overstated, but I have a pouch and it’s well worth it for the peace of mind.