These things only work with automatic transmissions, right? I can’t imagine anything good coming from leaving the car in neutral with the parking break on and then starting the car from outside.
asterion,
You seem to be confusing push-button ignition with remote start.
Oops. Well, I refuse to ever drive an automatic or pay for those little fob things, and I don’t see the value in push-button ignition.
Jeremy Clarkson complained about one of these systems on Top Gear. His complaint: You could never tell if your car was properly locked, because whenever you’d approach it it would unlock itself. So then you’d leave, and wonder if it locked properly. But if you turn around and go back, there’s no way to know if the system was working and just unlocked the door, or whether it was broken and not locking the doors.
I don’t know what kind of car he was talking about when he made those comments, but mine doesn’t work that way. To unlock mine, I have to put my hand behind the door handle and have the key fob on me. It will not unlock simply by walking up to it. It also gives an audible beep and flashes the lights when it unlocks, just like everyone else’s remote keyless entry works. To lock it, I have to push a button on the door handle, and again audbile beeps/flashing lights. It’s just as obvious when the car is locked/unlocked as it is with a remote keyless entry. My key fob also has the same lock/unlock/panic buttons, although there is never really a need to use those. I can’t say I’ve ever had to use my key fob buttons.
The key fob also contains a hidden key that will open the door in case the fob battery dies. It fits in a hidden key slot in the bottom of the handle. You have to look under the handle to see it. I recall reading something about a chip in the key fob contains just enough power to still send the passcode to start the car even if the fob battery is dead.
Again on the Volvo system To lock the car you either push the button on the remote (Thing that looks like a remote here scroll down for a larger picture) or push the small button on the door handle. The car locks and stays locked until you grab the handle to open the door or the trunk. In addition if you are within 100 yards of the car, you can press the status button on the remote and get a live read out if the car is locked, unlocked or if the alarm has been tripped. If you are beyond 100 yards you will get a read out of the last time the remote talked to the car. Here in the US if the alarm shows as tripped, the car looks for a heart beat from inside the car. If a heart beat is detected, the owner is notified via an LED on the remote. (yeah, I know don’t bother)
ETA: If you scroll down on my link to where you see the larger picture of the remote key, you will see a green LED next to the lock button. This indicates the car is locked.
RFID finds a happy home.
GM discovered, after some market research, that cops hated having their doors automatically unlock when they approached the car. Auto-unlock never got past the beta test phase in the Impala police package…
No fun when you have a crackhead stewing in the back of the car and your door handles don’t have the mechanical disconnect option in back…
Outside of the convenience, what’s so great about pushing a button to start your car? British cars were like that in the 1950’s-you had to insert your key, and turn it to the "on’ position. What’s the difference between turning the key a little more?
Frankly, the utility of this feature baffles me!
Outside of the convenience what’s so great? Mmm… nothing.
I thought the “convenience” was the selling point, not the “pushing a button”.
now you’ve scared me…
the fob has a battery that has to be replaced? Does it warn you when the battery is low? Or do you just wait… until a nice freezing cold rainy nite and discover that you can’t open your car to drive home. But no problem, you can still use the key…just look for the hidden slot …that you can’t see in the dark.
mmmmm, maybe those Luddites were right…
Again on a Volvo yes there is a warning on the car’s information display that the remote battery is getting low.
These things are a pain in the ass for us Valet Drivers: the owners quickly get into the habit of just leaving the key fob in their pocket, and more often than not, they simply forget to leave them in the car for us.
This ties up our porte cochere with a dead car other cars must negotiate around, more often than not leaving us with a log jam while we page the casino for the owners over the P.A. system.
My brother’s BMW recharges his keyfob while it is in use - he has an advisory to use the spare for at least 15 minutes once a year.
Why? Try hotwiring a car without a keyed ignition. You can’t which means the car can only be driven away on a flatbed. It is for security as well as convenience.
Granted there is likely a set of contacts behind the pushbutton, but they send a signal to the computer - they don’t close a relay that turns the starter motor. And the computer will only crank the cazr if it detects the coded fob.
And to answer another question, on the BMW, the fob is charged via induction when in the fob hole.