Auto lock doors

So you want the doors to lock every time you close the car door without having to touch your FOB or the door lock? Seems like the money you'd spend on that is going to be more costly than the effort it takes to just push the button... Perhaps you could help us understand why this additional feature is needed?

 

Don’t know if you are in Europe, but over here all cars auto lock after 5mph or so, common feature pity Toyota didn’t integrate this, but as said above it’s a minor inconvenience.

 

in case you forget, or in a thunderstorm you shut the door and press the button on the handle but don't hear the beep over the rain and rush into the house, and the next morning you come out to discover the stupid button didn't work and someone has broken into the car and stolen everything valuable out of the cubbies. Happened to me. Even my front door deadbolt automatically locks after a few minutes if left unlocked.

Stupid design that engineers don't think though. Another thing is the homelink buttons. Not keyed to the ignition so if my car is parked on my driveway, all somebody has to do is to break into the car and push that button, open my garage door and steal all my tools.

 

You can resolve this for free by adding redundancy... For example, everytime I get out of my Prius I open the door, then push the door lock on the inside of the car forward to lock everything. I then close the door and as I'm walking away I click the lock button on my FOB one or two times to be sure. That way if I get distracted and miss a step the redundancy ensures it's still locked.

The biggest problem with after market auto door lock is if it auto locks when you forget your key in the car, which means you're stranded and have to call AAA of someone more expensive to break in to your car for you. Whereas if you're using the existing system it will detect that your keys are still in your car and refuse to lock the door so you don't get locked out. That's a smart design, not a stupid one.

 

sure there's a lot of things I could do if I never walked away from the car with both hands full of groceries or carrying a box. I could pull the door handle to double check its locked. That only takes a few seconds. And I could do away with power locks completely and turn a key for manual locks. I could also clip a standard garage door opener on my sun visor instead of having homelink. And I could flip a lever to dim my rearview mirror instead of having it automatically done.

I could do a lot of things myself. The point is I pay for the convenience of an automated system and it is flawed or lacks certain features.

Another feature Toyota did not add, on all my Honda's and Acura's, you walk up to your car that is baking in the hot sun and hold down the unlock button on the fob. All the windows roll down and let's all the heat out. In the Toyota I have to get in, hit the power button twice, roll down all the windows, get back out of the vehicle, wait for it to cool down.

 

Do you often complain about the lack of features in consumer products that are 15 years old? Is this a thing that you like to do? Seems like you'd be better off not living in the past? As for myself and many others on here we prefer it... Gen2 Prius are classics. We love them and if people complain about them enough we stop being nice about it and start getting mean.

 

it's ok, its just a car. I'm sure it's feelings won't be hurt if you point out the flaws.

 

I wasn't refering to the car's feelings, I was referring to people who love Prius' feelings... Sometimes people seek out advice or repair work from people who love to work on Prius and then they wonder why the person stop replying to them or helping them because they've picked the wrong person to tell all the reasons why they hate their Prius and how it's not good enough. It's kind of like telling a parent all the reason they think that their kid is a loser. It doesn't go over too well... If you want help with your Prius, we'd love to help. If you want to tell us why you think your Prius is a loser, maybe go find a coal rollers support group in your city?

 

I personally have turned off the auto lock/Auto Unlock feature on 3 of my cars because I don’t want the extra wear and tear on the door lock actuators.
The 2007 Tundra I just bought had 2 of the 4 power locks broken, likely due to frequent unlocking and locking when the transmission shifted in and out of park.
To each their own though. I can see wanting the feature you’re looking for if you’re worried about having stuff stolen out of your car.

 

The Prius C has known problems with door lock / latch hardware... But Gen2 Prius are super reliable...