i believe it was a buick commercial that i saw not oo long ago about a car that can be started with the remote keychain thing. Do any toher cars come with this option? And surely you have to do a sequence on the keypad, to prevent your car from being started by bumping the keychain in your pocket, right?
Others better versed in cars can give better advice than I can, but what I can tell you is that here in western Canada it is **very ** common to have a remote starter installed in your car. You can get them in various brands, that have different ranges for how far you can be from your car and get it to start, and with features that include setting your vehicle to start autmatically at intervals.
Here, it is incredibly easy and common to get a remote starter installed on a vehicle post-purchase. It is less costly if the vehicle is an automatic, and also, I believe if the vehicle doesn’t have extensive anti-theft devices (though I don’t know much about the latter). A standard run of the mill remote starter for an automatic car costs in the range of $200 Canadian installed.
For the ones I’ve used or seen, you push one or two buttons to start. They weren’t coded. Can’t speak about all brands though.
For those living in colder climates, it is money incredibly well spent. I hated getting in a bone-chillingly cold car.
I have a remote starter- but it didn’t come with the car. It’s part of the alarm system. No sequence- there are three buttons on the remote- one for audible locking/unlocking, one for silent, and one to start the car. I have accidently started the car- but it’s not really a problem. If I’m close enough for the remote to work, I’m also close enough to hear the car start.
In addition to what’s been mentioned already, the starter I installed would only run the vehicle for 10 minutes anyway. You could change that to 15 minutes, but that was a long as it would go. So even if you did accidently start it, it would shut off rather quickly.
I belive GM is the ony manufacturer that offers factory installed remote starters.
On the aftermarket remote starter remotes I have seen the button is recessed to make it difficult to press accidently and/or requires two buttons to be pressed at the same time. The remote for my wifes car has a recessed button that has to be pressed twice in a row, unlikely to happen by accident. If the remote is in your pocket and not pointing in the general direction of the car it is unlikely to start the car even if the button is pushed.
Most remote starters shut the car off after 10 minutes or so (if you don’t put your key in), so an accidental starting would not be a big problem anyway.
I’ve seen that feature on some Eastern European/Russian cars before but I can’t for the life of me remember what they were called.
I have a new Chevy Malibu that has it. It Rocks!
You have to push the lock button twice, and then hold down the start buton for 2 seconds. It will run for 10 minutes. After that, you cannot do it again until you start the car with the key.
I’m not sure it is legal to use, because the TV news people keep reminding people that it is illegal to leave a car running unattended in Maryland. But in this case, the steering wheel and shifter are still locked. 
But when it’s 4 degrees in the morning, it’s a risk I’ll take.
Don’t forget the hidden benefit that it pre-explodes car bombs wired to your starter or ignition.
At shop near me that installed these (along with alarms, keyless entries etc.) I asked about getting one put into a car with a manual transmission. They said that they really, really, REALLY don’t recommend it because almost all cars today don’t have neutral safety switches.
Instead they have clutch safety switches (you have to push the clutch in to start the car). Which means the only way they can make a remote starter work is to just bypass this. Which then means that if you leave your car in gear it will go thru you garage wall if you remote start it!
They said that if the customer really insists they have to sign a liability waiver stating that they were made aware and accept the danger of this before they’ll install it.
Has anyone installed a remote starter themselves? How easy or difficult is it? My wife got one for my stepdaughter for Christmas and we’re trying to figure out if we should take it to a mechanic or if this is something I can do myself.
(I don’t remember the brand of starter. The car is a 2000 or 2001 Neon. Automatic transmission, no alarm system.)
You can get them at Best Buy for under $200 with free installation.
Note: They won’t put them into manual cars due to liablility.
I believe it would be illegal because of concerns about the increased pollution, not the possiblility of someone stealing the car.
You must have an alarm that’s designed for a manual. My Compustar works just fine with my 6 speed and does not permanently by-pass the clutch switch.
How mine (and most others I’m sure) works is that when you want to ‘set’ the autostarter you pull your hand brake, take your foot off the brake and release the clutch. Turn the key and the car will keep running. When your close your door the car arms, doors lock and my pager (my alarm is a paging alarm) will sound a tune.
When I want to start it up I have to hold down my auto-start key for 2 seconds. The pager confirms that my car’s running with a little graphic. It’ll run for 15 minutes (which is hardly enough if it’s -25 C but better than nothing!).
Then cities should have an incentive to do something about their stupid traffic lights. I recently spent a week in Florida – both coasts and time in the middle. Just another spot in the country to remind me of how good it is to drive in Michigan. 
I thought to myself at every street light (in Florida), how many gallons-per-minute are we burning by just sitting here with no advancement whatsoever?
In any case, it’s usually done for theft purposes. I know when I was living in Lansing, MI a few years ago, the news there used to announce it all the time. It was about the time remote starters started getting cheap enough for the common masses to install them. The Lansing police said at the time that yes, they’d ticket you sure enough.
I wonder if keyless entry – aftermarket – would work in my car with an encoded key? Not that I need it. Where I’m currently working, it’s 72 and sunny with a forecast of 81 later in the day.