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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think the bloody car should unlock from the inside!!

75 replies

AliceAnneB · 02/05/2015 23:16

Alrighty so today I had one of those surreal this can't be happening moments. I stayed behind in the car with DS (3) because he wanted to pretend drive the car. DH locked the doors of the car as he walked in the house. The car starts getting warm so I try to open the door. It won't budge. It stays locked. I try the centre console button to unlock all the doors. Nothing. I try all 4 doors - none will open. It's getting hotter in the car. So I try to honk the horn. Nothing. Now I start to slightly panic. Dh took my purse in so I have no phone and I can't get out of the car. I feel like a fool. But it's getting hotter and hotter. I'm silently thanking God and the universe for the fact that it's a coldish day for May. I try to wave at people passing. No one notices. The sun comes out - of course. It's really warming up. I start looking for something to break the glass. There isn't anything. I'm now taking off DS's clothes because damn it's hot in here for a cloudy day. Finally, finally a guy sees me frantically waving and banging on the glass and I shout to him that we are trapped and our house number. It was nearly cold today London today and it was not fun in that car. It made me realise how fast cars can overheat and that BMWs are shit. Who makes a car that you can't unlock from the inside?! The article below explains exactly what happened to us only ours is a 2009 BMW - so problem not fixed! That and I will never moan about the UK weather ever again.

www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/no-escape-california-family-sues-bmw-after-teen-dies-locked-n100881

OP posts:
Cassie258 · 03/05/2015 12:33

Haha, how are you going to word that question?

SnotQueen · 03/05/2015 12:37

Why did DH not come back? Even if he thought you could get out, would he not need to lock the doors?

SoupDragon · 03/05/2015 12:43

This isn't to stop thieves from getting out of your car but to stop them smashing a window and unlocking the car from the inside.

Both of my last two cars have made it quite clear that you should never use the deadlock when someone is in the car.

SoupDragon · 03/05/2015 12:45

This will be our last BMW. I think that's an absurd feature

You can rule out Fors and Renault too. And plenty of other cars as well.

Perhaps it would be easier to simply not lock the car with someone in it.

Original poster
AliceAnneB · 03/05/2015 12:53

The passenger side door was open when he left. As DH went in the house he locked the doors with the key fob. I guess he must of hit it twice which disabled the alarm. DS then decided we should shut the door because clearly having the door open wasn't quite fitting in with his pretending to play drive. So he clambered over me and shut the door. A few minutes later the car started getting hot so I tried to open the door again. It's then that I realised I was trapped. I'm not much of a panicky person but that did it for me. It only made it worse when I realised the horn didn't work. DH didn't know the car would deadlock. I'm just glad it was me and not my DSS who is 11. We have left him in the parking lot playing on his phone and run into the shops. It never occurred to either of us that he couldn't get out! I didn't get to sleep until 4am last night just thinking what if.

OP posts:
ProudAS · 03/05/2015 12:53

My Nissan Micra has this feature although at least the rear windows are manual.

AuntieStella · 03/05/2015 12:53

Perhaps everyone needs to ask the dealer to show them how, if you are in the car and it's locked, and there is an electrics failure, exactly how you get out?

The sort of mushroom-stalk lock thingies were (in theory at least) insecure if window opened/smashed, but something sited lower down on one door might be a handy feature.

I really don't trust cars that rely too much on computerised systems. There isn't much left though that has simpler engineering, so I bury my mistrust and hope for the best. But do sometimes dream of importing my own Ambassador.

Original poster
AliceAnneB · 03/05/2015 13:00

This car came with DH and he bought it used so we never had a manual but to be honest I don't think I've ever read a car manual unless looking for something specific.

Sorry if I got the VAG group wrong. It's what DH told me this morning - he's clearly on a win streak eh?

OP posts:
Cassie258 · 03/05/2015 13:06

It's not VAG group. Just vag. The g means group. Volkswagen Audi group. BMW is also German so a lot of people think it's part of it.

Volkswagen Group sells passenger cars under the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, Škoda and Volkswagen marques; motorcycles under the Ducati brand; and commercial vehicles under the MAN, Scania, Neoplan and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles marques.[12] It is divided into two primary divisions, the Automotive Division and the Financial Services Division, and has approximately 340 subsidiary companies

peggyundercrackers · 03/05/2015 18:53

Alice if the door was open when the car was locked then yes the alarm will not set - it's a known feature. As others have said lots of cars do this nowadays.

PurpleCrazyHorse · 03/05/2015 20:27

I've just been googling and I think our car (Citroen) has an emergency boot release. Definitely going to take a good look and ensure we have the correct tool in the boot to make that happen.

Will get a glass hammer too.

Methe · 03/05/2015 20:55

Well I locked dd in the car earlier on and she couldn't get out. I only had to press the lock button once for it to disable the button in the dash which is for thought really.

I already own a window hammer which lives in my emergency kit in the boot but I think I might move it to the glove box!

namechange0dq8 · 03/05/2015 20:55

This will be our last BMW. I think that's an absurd feature

You can rule out almost any car made in the last twenty years with central locking.

Someone upthread mentioned their Skoda has a button to release to door locks. It does: but if you have locked the car from outside with the remote, that button doesn't work. And for good reason: otherwise all a burglar has to do is break a window, reach in, push that button, and steal all the stuff from inside the car, including the boot. Deadlocking means that once closed on the remote, the car is locked until opened with the remote or a key (the arming of the alarm is a slightly different issue). There are various ways on various cars to deadlock the car without setting the alarm (perhaps you're leaving a dog in it with the windows down) or to lock the car without deadlocking it (for reasons unknown).

It's odd the OP wasn't sat there in a car with the alarm going, but it's possible the car either doesn't have an interior alarm or it's not working or it's odd. A Saab I had many years ago had an interior alarm which purported to fire on the sound of glass breaking rather than on movement in the car: all that happened in reality was it got set off every time there was a hailstorm.

AliceLidl · 03/05/2015 20:56

DH accidentally locked me in his BMW while he went to pay for petrol.

I've forgotten why I tried to get out, think I needed something from the boot, but the door wouldn't open.

Alarm didn't go off either.

Obviously he was only gone for a minute or so, but if he'd been gone longer I think I would have tried to sound the horn. I'm assuming the horn would work.

Methe · 03/05/2015 20:58

We've got a glass hammer in house too which we bought as we have to keep ds's bedroom windows locked or he hangs out of it! It lives on the windowsill upstairs.

I think many people underestimate how hard it is to smash a double glazed or toughened window.

namechange0dq8 · 03/05/2015 21:00

Perhaps everyone needs to ask the dealer to show them how, if you are in the car and it's locked, and there is an electrics failure, exactly how you get out?

Why would you be inside a deadlocked car? Even cars which have that American feature where the doors lock when you start moving (you can optionally set it on a lot of GM cars, and presumably others) don't deadlock. In order to deadlock a car with central locking, you normally either need to use the remote: there is no button inside the car that does it, nor can you do it from the outside with the physical key (there may be some exceptions to that).

That's the whole point of deadlocking: that you can't open the doors. You deadlock cars when you get out of them. Don't want to be deadlocked inside a car? Don't deadlock yourself inside a car.

AuntieStella · 03/05/2015 21:24

I said 'if there is an electrics failure' Because that is what was worrying me. Not what locking you would do on purpose, or expect to happen if the car was fully functional. Are you saying that that kind of failure is impossible?

Permanentlyexhausted · 03/05/2015 21:38

I did the same to my mother and children in my old Nissan so it isn't just a problem with BMWs. It was August but luckily it was the evening and I was only gone for 10 minutes. I just automatically locked the car doors as I left it.

My mother was unimpressed. I felt guilty but there were manual windows in the back so they weren't entirely trapped.

namechange0dq8 · 03/05/2015 21:39

I said 'if there is an electrics failure' Because that is what was worrying me.

It's possible (as in, "there is no mathematical proof that it is impossible") that a special sort of electrical failure could cause all the doors to deadlock with you in the car. But there is a risk of exactly the same size (ie, greater than zero, but extremely small) that the throttle could jam wide open at the same time as the brakes completely failed. If you're worried about events of that low probability, being in cars isn't for you, as the (roughly) one in a million chance per journey of being killed in an accident is a massively larger risk.

SilverBirch2015 · 03/05/2015 22:24

I hope the parents reading this, also think twice now about locking their young children in when paying for petrol or popping in to a shop. Do consider what would happen if they handbag was stolen or they were suddenly taken ill and couldn't get back to the car quickly. Also if the car caught fire, no one could get in quickly to rescue the children.

Methe · 03/05/2015 22:34

The trick is not to lock the door..

GiddyOnZackHunt · 03/05/2015 22:44

I went on a VAG driving course many years ago and amongst the safety lectures was the advice to buy one of the hammer/seat belt cutter things. We have them in both our modern cars.

AuntieStella · 03/05/2015 22:46

Thanks!

I didn't know how likely that event was, and so that was helpful. But attitude to a risk isn't always simply about the numbers; I know I'm mistrustful of things I can no longer fix (or in this case manipulate) myself.

Mintyy · 03/05/2015 22:52

This is a horrendous experience for you and I am so sorry you went through it!

But ... I just cannot understand WHY your dh locked the car? As he walked away knowing you and ds were in there? Why on earth would he do that??

LindyHemming · 03/05/2015 23:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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