How can a car maker be this...

[taylorkh]

irresponsible, inept, stupid, un-safety conscious, disconnected from the modern world, you fill in the blank...

Imagine you start your car, engage the transmission and drive off. The power door locks cycle and lock the doors. So far a good thing. Probably a result of some Federal requirement but still a good, common sense thing to do. And then you arrive at your destination - a dark parking deck, an unfamiliar parking lot or perhaps you just stopped on the side of the street in a not so nice part of town to look at the map. What does the car do? IT UNLOCKS THE DOORS!

Unreal? No, TOYOTA. I just purchased a 2007 Corolla for the wife and me as a daily driver. As delivered the doors unlock when you place the transmission in park. Totally unnecessary as the inside door handles override the locks so you are not locked in.

The salesman was able to reprogram the power lock system to leave the doors locked. Only took about 15 minutes but that is another story. It is my understanding that this "feature" is built in to all of their power door lock packages (although some take less time to reprogram but that again is another story). Where are all the lawyers when you need them? Imagine the tragedy when a woman drives into a less than desirable parking area, puts the car in park and in jumps a mugger, rapist, murderer or other malcontent. I find it hard to believe that Toyota, with its reputation for building solid, efficient, safe and reliable vehicles has done such a thing. End of rant.

Other that this issue, I am so far pleased with the Corolla. I got rid of my 2003 Dodge Neon (aka the blue turd). It tied for first place with a 1978 Ford Mustang II as the sorriest auto I ever owned. Traded that POS for a 1982 RX7. Seems to be a pattern here

Regards,

Ken

p.s. you will usually find me hanging around the mgbexperience.com forums

[touringcamry]

There should be instructions in the manual on how to program the lock feature. Just personal preference.

I liked the feature in my car because I drive some people around sometimes who cannot figure out the door locks so it's convenient feature for me since I typically forget to hit the unlock switch. Only the door handles on the front can override the door lock. Pulling on the rear handles does not automatically unlock the doors.

What I'd like to see however, is a feature where if the door is locked, you have to pull twice on the door handle to open the door. I remember my cousin was day dreaming and pulled on the door handle and opened the door on our van by accident on the freeway.

[Flashmn]

I fail to see the actual problem here...

would you really stop in a place where a would-be mugger would attack? Do you realize how easy it is to get into a car through the window? shooting/hitting it in... I turned off the auto-lock feature in our 2006 E class mercedes, dont have it in the corolla nor the volvo either, its annoying.

[REN69]

I believe it's a feature you can disable, read the manual or contact your dealer, they should be able to disable it for you.

Your post makes a simple feature sound so tragic

[w203]

This guy is good, he needs to help me in my debate papers. Sure can scare the shit out of the other side.

But I hope that the OT was kidding about complaing about such a small and simple matter.

A mugger could...hold the owner hostage and demand the keys or could point a gun at the owner inside the car. There are just too many variables.

Whats next? Complaining about your car eating your gas while your driving?

[daniel2002p]

and where is the problem here??? u can program this off all the way and not have to worry about it one bit... i know its ur personal prefference, but its a "convenience" feature and personally I love this feature

D

[don24mac]

I just programmed the locks to not lock when I start. I just didn't like the car deciding when the doors should be locked or unlocked. I prefer to choose myself like in my 95 Corolla.

But, reprogramming is very easy to do. Just follow the instructions in your owners manual. I believe there's four or five different ways you can have this feature work.

[Silas]

Wow that is so safe...i'm never buying a toyota ever...gosh i might be mugged even though i live in a town of less than 6,000 people

LOL. not really...seeing as i just bought an 89 'rolla wagon alltrac or whatever its called for beatin around in, and usin when my focus is getting some paint work done.

[rice]

i could probably use this feature as well. Seems very handy, can't you just lock them back up when you park in a dark and scary parking lot?

seriously though, this feature is probably more 'good' than 'bad'. I mean how many days in a year do you park in a 'dark-scary and unfamiliar' parking lot or 'stop on the side of the road' to look at a map? For me personally, I probably do that 2 or 3 times a year, so this "auto-unlock" thing could be very useful to me.

Hope everything else goes good! and congrats on the buy! welcome to toyota! =)

[freakinbox]

most cars have the auto lock feature now. If the mugger wants in and has a gun, locked doors aren't gonna stop you from opening the door and giving them the car lol

[jackwithcorona]

i just park next to a more expensive car so when the mugger thinks, should i take the 18g corolla or the 45g mercedes

[DoubleEdgedWomb]

I'm more worried about the doors auto-locking when the car is put in Drive. I know that if I crash, I want someone to be able to get me out easily.

[fistofmeat]

the autolock is was probably created for those of us that have kids so they don't open the doors while the cars is moving (provided they don't know how to unlock the doors) but unlocking the doors automatically isn't really positive or negative. probably just something they thought up to add to the cost of the car. now the idea of having to use a double pull to unlock the kids doors, is pretty nice... but then again, of all the expensive cars out there to steal/mug the driver, you'd think they would go after someone who buys the expensive luxery car rather that the broke person that buys the economy corolla...

[Nutter]

My Avalanche has the same feature. I rather like it, but then the door handles in the truck don't override the lock. But the Avalanche goes even further in that if you are in drive and you try to unlock the door, it re-locks it for you immediately. This is all programmable just as in the case of your Corolla. Either way, I really don't see how its problematic for the same reasons that others have already stated.