New owner (<500 miles) . . . discovered this funny button the manual calls the "manual release button" (p.186 sec 4-2): "If a door cannot be opened using the door opener switch, the door can be opened using the manual release button. Firmly press the button until the door opens." Without the fob, I locked the doors with the lock button inside. Everything locked as expected. Fortunately, pressing/holding the manual release button didn't unlock the door. So what is its purpose and how/when would you use it? TIA Don
sorry to hear it. you're fairly new, but you'll get used to me, or there's an ignore button available
Like bisco, I don't have a gen 5, but from context in the manual, this is clearly a mechanical release, not an unlock. If the door is unlocked, pressing the button hard enough/far enough will mechanically release and open it. If the door isn't unlocked, it won't. The front door handles look like conventional mechanical ones. When you pull, the handle mechanically releases the door (as long as it's unlocked). That doesn't depend on anything electrical. The 'normal' way of opening the rear door is to reach your fingers behind the lip and touch what turns out to be an electrical switch, which releases the door (provided it isn't locked), as long as there is electrical power, you haven't touched it too many times lately, the car hasn't crashed in the last 10 seconds, and all that electronic jazz works. But there might be times when you just want to press a mechanical button that'll open the dumb door (as long as it isn't locked), and for those times, you have that button.
The manual button is to release the latch, not to unlock the door. To unlock without the fob, you need to use the physical key on the driver's door handle. Twist right to unlock all doors, including the rear ones. Once unlocked, you use the manual button to open the door. The manual backup is obviously a backup in case the electric button fails for whatever reason.
If the handle should open the door, the button should. If they handle should not open the door, the button shouldn’t
If they had to do the electric locks on the rear doors to achieve the coupe look, I think it was worth it.
Point is, if the electric handle should open the door but doesn't, the mechanical button still will, so you have a way to get in. On a related note, this: is a neat trick, but of course relies on a working electrical system to unlock the other three doors. Mechanically, the driver's door is the only one the key unlocks if the electrical system isn't functioning. But then you can go in through the driver's door and flip the inside lock buttons by hand on the other three doors.
