Keyless fobs. Why?

[jamieduff1981]

eltawater said:

Antony Moxey said:

It's the half systems that are the problem. On my XF you needed to blip the fob to lock and unlock the car but it had a stop start button, so you needed the fob out of your pocket but then had to find somewhere to put it when in the car - none of this leave in the pocket and forget mullarkey.

Edited by Antony Moxey on Tuesday 24th May 09:17

It depends on the trim level of your XF. The higher ones like the Portfolio had full keyless entry and go, no fob blipping required. As with the Ford mentioned elsewhere, you pull the door handle to unlock the car and open the door, get in and hold the start/stop button to fire up the engine. Press the button to stop the engine, get out, close the door and press the door button to lock.

There's a little slot to the lower right of the steering column where you "dock" the fob, although I normally use the armrest cubby as it's attached to my housekeys.

The brand new Evoque I had as a hire car last year had an annoying half system too, fob to unlock and button to start, which was surprising given how much they cost.

My XF has the full keyless system and it's great.

The fact is that stupid and/or easily distracted people will find a way to fk up in life all the time using whatever resources are available to fk up with. The bellends who wander off with the transponder fob in their pocket leaving the driver stranded are just that. People were physically locking keys inside cars for years - because they're stupid. These people always seek to blame inanimate objects for their never ending saga of ballsups in life - it's less painful than just acknowledging that one is a moron.

Keyless entry is great, and my XF key just stays in my pocket. It has a physical key on the fob for emergency access, and there are black buttons on the door handles which lock or unlock the car. There are buttons on the fob which also lock or unlock the car.

It's as ideal piling the children in on a pissing wet day as it is when me or my wife are on our own.

Those whining are probably either using German systems (who also supply cars with st electric parking brakes giving them all a bad name btw) or are just people who struggle to adapt.

[Antony Moxey]

eltawater said:

Antony Moxey said:

It's the half systems that are the problem. On my XF you needed to blip the fob to lock and unlock the car but it had a stop start button, so you needed the fob out of your pocket but then had to find somewhere to put it when in the car - none of this leave in the pocket and forget mullarkey.

Edited by Antony Moxey on Tuesday 24th May 09:17

It depends on the trim level of your XF. The higher ones like the Portfolio had full keyless entry and go, no fob blipping required. As with the Ford mentioned elsewhere, you pull the door handle to unlock the car and open the door, get in and hold the start/stop button to fire up the engine. Press the button to stop the engine, get out, close the door and press the door button to lock.

There's a little slot to the lower right of the steering column where you "dock" the fob, although I normally use the armrest cubby as it's attached to my housekeys.

The brand new Evoque I had as a hire car last year had an annoying half system too, fob to unlock and button to start, which was surprising given how much they cost.

I know, mine wasn't a high enough spec for full keyless, and I wasn't going to pay Jaguar prices for it as an option. I ended up lobbing the fob in the centre armrest with my phone and other junk I used to cart round with me.

[alock]

Having never had keyless or stop/start, I've wondered if you could ever leave your car running without realizing?

Could you come to a stop (so the engine switches off), forget to press the stop button (because it's already stopped) and then just leave the car thinking it's off and will lock itself? Would it lock the doors? Does it turn the ignition off by itself? Could it run the battery down to the point it decides to restart the engine several hours later when you are miles away?

[Far Cough]

All this talk of keyless , may be worthwhile mentioning the security downside of The Relay Hack :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSNX4o2RGK8

a simple faraday purse ( see ebay for many ) will prevent this instantly if you are concerned

[ashleyman]

alock said:

Having never had keyless or stop/start, I've wondered if you could ever leave your car running without realizing?

Could you come to a stop (so the engine switches off), forget to press the stop button (because it's already stopped) and then just leave the car thinking it's off and will lock itself? Would it lock the doors? Does it turn the ignition off by itself? Could it run the battery down to the point it decides to restart the engine several hours later when you are miles away?

When I first got my Golf I remember trying out different things with the keyless system.

To answer your question for my car I worked out that if the car was ON - ignoring Start/Stop - then when you walked away the car wouldn't lock. You'd have to come back, press the STOP button and then the car would lock.

If you left the car in D or R with the engine stopped because of Start/Stop it would beep if you opened the doors. If you put the car in P it would not beep if doors were opened.

[joshleb]

I loved it in my Megane

Would just keep keys in my pocket or bag or something and it worked well, unlocking when I opened the door and just pressing the start button with the foot on the clutch.

Mine would highlight on the dash if you drive off without the keys, and to stop it without the keys you have to hold the stop button for longer.

When moving, you just hold the stop button for 3 seconds and to start it just foot on the clutch and it would restart, even when moving.

Fun time was when my mates hid my keys in the car, and I couldn't find them for a couple of days. Ultimately they were inside the passenger seat, accessed from underneath. (Sounds a bit wrong)

[Bagpussawake]

How do you check the doors have locked properly if you have keyless entry?

If I'm parking anywhere dodgy (or leaving the car for a while) I normally check that at least the driver's door and boot have actually locked. With keyless entry it sounds like, unless you took the fob out of range and left it before coming back to the car, this would be as effective as opening the fridge to see if the light had gone out when the door was closed...

[speedking31]

I had a rental Clio with this feature. When paying for fuel didn't like the feeling that the car was unlocked on the forecourt with all our stuff in. Don't know if there was a manual override to definitely lock it. Also, I suppose there is some way of achieving the equivalent of ACC on an ignition barrel so you can close the windows which you've left open when you STOPped the engine. With no handbook, I had to keep restarting the engine to shut the windows.

[K50 DEL]

Love keyless entry.. so useful when approaching the car with armfuls of stuff, pull the handle and the tailgate opens.
Not bothered by keyless go, would rather have remote engine start than either of those 2 things

Would however have been even happier if my Rav4 (which has keyless entry / go) was intelligent enough to realise that the fob was inside the jacket pocket, in the car when I temporarily closed the door whilst I went to fetch more stuff.....
Had it realised that fact, perhaps it wouldn't have locked the car, causing me to have to smash a window on my own car to get in... said damage costing me £240 to repair.

I did somewhat fall out of love with keyless that morning!

[Gareth79]

Disastrous said:

I'd rather a key.

I've heard too many stories of people who keep their key in the house, close to the car physically, who have got in and driven away only to discover that they've driven out of range and once they stop the car, they're fked.

I seem to remember that happening to a reviewer with the Ducati Multistrada. From memory, he left the key in a filling station and was able to ride away and only noticed at the next filling station.

Is that still a real possibility or have they come up with something clever?

The Leaf (and probably all Nissans with that system) will beep and display "key not present" (I think) if anything is awry with the keyless system, but perhaps if you were very distracted it might be possible. The range is so low that you would probably have to be parked hard up against a window with the key on the sill or something for the car to unlock, and I don't think it will even start unless the key is physically inside.

Bagpussawake said:

How do you check the doors have locked properly if you have keyless entry?

If I'm parking anywhere dodgy (or leaving the car for a while) I normally check that at least the driver's door and boot have actually locked. With keyless entry it sounds like, unless you took the fob out of range and left it before coming back to the car, this would be as effective as opening the fridge to see if the light had gone out when the door was closed...

Some cars have a physical button you need to press to unlock (eg. my Leaf), some unlock when you pull the handle or are close, in those cases I can see it being a problem and I guess you'd need to listen for the 'clunk' if you were worried.

[Howard-]

Bagpussawake said:

How do you check the doors have locked properly if you have keyless entry?

If I'm parking anywhere dodgy (or leaving the car for a while) I normally check that at least the driver's door and boot have actually locked. With keyless entry it sounds like, unless you took the fob out of range and left it before coming back to the car, this would be as effective as opening the fridge to see if the light had gone out when the door was closed...

Have your doors ever failed to lock when checked?

[GetCarter]

Bagpussawake said:

How do you check the doors have locked properly if you have keyless entry?

If I'm parking anywhere dodgy (or leaving the car for a while) I normally check that at least the driver's door and boot have actually locked. With keyless entry it sounds like, unless you took the fob out of range and left it before coming back to the car, this would be as effective as opening the fridge to see if the light had gone out when the door was closed...

As I walk away from the car I hear the clunk of the doors locking and the indicators flash twice. It's not rocket salad.

[Bagpussawake]

Howard- said:

Have your doors ever failed to lock when checked?

The driver's lock on my wife's last car (Mk2 Pajero) sometimes didn't lock although the others did and the car made all the right "clunking" noises with flashing lights as expected (my car doesn't even have central locking ).

[GTIAlex]

LuS1fer said:

Birdster said:

Is your car an ST-2?

With the ST-3 you have the keyless ignition as well as the keyless entry so you jay press the button on the handle and open the door. Makes more sense that way. I would pay extra mind, it's just the deal I got was on the ST-3.

Yes. So I have to unlock the car on the fob, get in, throw the key in the tray, press the START button and when i stop, I have to press the START button to stop the engine and then root for the key so I can lock it when I get out.

So many opportunities to lose it or have to root round ypour pockets looking for it.

Yes, it has a key inside it for emergencies but really, I prefer a key. I actually like the turning of the key, not the pressing of a button.

Glad I ordered an St-3 now, that would really piss me off.

[GetCarter]

[redacted]

[13m]

The Lithuanian scrotes that nicked my Range Rover thought keyless ignition was extremely convenient.

[Morningside]

[redacted]

[alangla]

The Fiesta ST2 is a masterpiece in how not to do it. I love the car, but the keys drive me mad. Like loads of other folk in the owner's club, I've got a Disklok because of the various stories of keyless thefts. This requires a physical key to unlock, so it's not just the previous hand in pocket, press unlock, get in, start procedure, I now need to take the key out to undo the Disklok. If you drop the key near the handbrake, there's a helpful hole at the back of the handbrake lever that the fob will fit through. Your hand won't. Luckily it was running when that happened & I was about to head home, so the fishing about with various tools happened on the driveway, other owners haven't been so lucky. Obviously the car can't be locked while the keys are lost inside it & it'll start, despite it complaining about a poor signal from the fob, so it can't be left. Great bit of design that...

There's also a perfect fob shaped & sized cutout on the passenger side doorhandle. This can't be an LHD/RHD thing because the LHD ones also have it on the passenger (right hand) door! No-one knows whether it was intended for the fob or not.

I'd rather have had a folding key if I'd had the choice.

[giblet]

I don't have any issues with the keyless system in my ISF. All I do is walk up to the car and grab the door handle for the car to unlock. Foot on the brake pedal before pressing the start button and then when I leave I just press the button on the door handle to lock the car. The only time the fob ever leaves my pocket is if I want to open all the windows whilst I'm walking up to my car.

[juice]

I have a new C-Class that has the keyless thing. Most of the time it's great apart from this morning when I took the car to the local hand car wash to get it done quickly. The keys were in my bag so as they were drying it I got out to have a ciggy.

Turns out you can lock the car with the keys inside!, as they must have hit the lock button on the door while wiping it down. So there we are wondering how to get in when I remembered the Connect-Me app that allows you to remotely lock/unlock the doors which worked a treat.

So keyless - bad
Connect-Me - lifesaver !