A Chinese (err Japenese) puzzle box

Set up the puzzle box by doing the following...

Go to a water park with your wife and daughter. Since you are at a water park, remove your SKS fob from the little spare key and leave the fob in the center console, along with your wallet, so it doesn't get wet. Press the little "Key" button under the steering wheel to turn off the SKS system since you are leaving the fob in the car. Lock the car with the little spare key and then put the spare key, along with your id and park passes, in the handy waterproof wallet that came with your swim trunks. Enter the park and have fun for a couple of hours.

Return to your car with your family to get your lunch from the cooler you have in the back. Unlock the car with the little spare key and then put it back into your handy waterproof wallet. Open the hatchback, extract your lunch, and then put your handy waterproof wallet on the floor of the hatchback while you lean over to help your daughter adjust her shoes.

Then have your wife, with amazing speed and agility, slam the hatchback shut and then open the driver side door, press the lock button and then close the driver side door. Turn towards your wife and with a look of shock and disbelief, ask her what she just did. After shouting a few colorfull words that you had promised yourself you would never say infront of your five year old daughter, send them on their way to eat lunch while you deal with the fact that your SKS fob and the spare key are now locked securely inside your car with the SKS system turned off.

Find a pay phone and call AAA roadside service and have them send out a tow truck to unlock your car. After twenty or so minutes, the tow truck driver will arrive and will begin a task that typically takes him less than four minutes to perform; at least on a normal car.

Watch (and weep) as the tow truck driver drives a thick plastic wedge between the weather stripping on the outer edge of your door, prying the upper part of the door and window about an inch away from the door frame. He then will stick a long bendable rod through the gap he made. Now the puzzle begins.

The bendable rod is capable of pushing buttons and pulling levers inside your car. What actions should the tow truck driver take to sucessfully unlock your car?

Should he:
A) Press the unlock button on the door
B) Pull the inside door handle
C) Flip the little lock lever that is integrated with the inside door handle
D) Press the power window button
E) Press the "Key" button under the steering wheel to turn on the SKS and then repeat steps A,B,C, and D

Answer:
F) none of the above

Option A doesn't do anything. No clicks, no beeps, no nothing.
Option B causes the car to honk loudly for about 30 seconds, but otherwise does nothing.
Option C causes the car to honk loudly for about 30 seconds, and the lever flips back to the locked state immediately.
Option D doesn't do anything.
Option E was seemingly a stroke of genius since the fob is inside the car. Surely once the SKS is turned back on, the car will recognize that the fob is in the car and allow the car to be unlocked. However, upon pressing the button and then observing the little red car with a key flashing on the dash board, Options A, B, C, and D provide the same results as before. The car knows the fob is in the car, but it won't let you unlock it.

The solution...

After about 20 minutes of trying the above options over and over and over again, send the tow truck driver on his way with the instructions to call a locksmith. When your wife returns to ask how things are going, have her call the local Toyota dealer for advice. Your wife will then be told by the "prius specialist" from the service department that Toyota made this car really smart and there's nothing you can do but use the other key that came with the car. Of course, that other key is clipped securely to your wife's purse, at home, 45 minutes away. Send your wife and daughter back into the park so they are out of your hair while you scream and curse repeatedly.

Wait over an hour for the locksmith to arrive and then call AAA back to ask for the status of your call. AAA will then tell you that they didn't receive a second call from the tow truck driver to request a locksmith. AAA will further proceed to tell you that locksmiths are expensive and before they will call one out, they will send yet another tow truck to try again. They assure you that this time they will send a "specialist" who can usually unlock a car when others fail.

Return to your car to wait for the next tow truck to arrive fully expecting the same results. All the while it is rapidly approaching the park closing time which at some point afterwards, the park will make you leave whether your car is unlocked or not. The frustration builds, along with thoughts of divorce, and just when you start searching for a large enough rock to break through the driver side window, the second tow truck arrives.

Once again a large plastic wedge is jammed through the weather stripping of your door and options A through D are repeated, with the same results.

Then a flash of true genius rockets through your brain. You ask the current tow truck driver if he can reach the Power button with the long bendable rod. After several attempts, he manages to press the Power button, and yes, the car does come on. With your heart racing, you then ask him to press the power window button. You wait anxiousely while he repositions the rod for the task and lo and behold, when he press the power window button, the window lowers and you can unlock the car.

As the thoughts of divorce gradually fade from your mind, you then re-enter the park to spend the last half hour before the park closes with your family.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(CraigCSJ\";p=\"94204)</div>

Well, at that point, I guess it's time for the locksmith, who most likely will arrive and tell you Toyota uses some special super-secret lock mechanism that he can't open. After that, the only option left is to continue looking for that large rock.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(delrey\";p=\"94217)</div>

Good point.

In our other cars, my wife has often locked the doors while she sits in the car as I run into a store. I'll have to experiment with that sometime. Is the car smart enough that if you lock the doors from the inside when the doors are all closed, will it allow you to unlock it without a key? I would hope it goes into impenetrable mode only if you lock it from the outside or use the inside door lock button with the door open and then close the door (as my wife did at the water park).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bobc\";p=\"94282)</div>

Frigid.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(delrey\";p=\"94293)</div>

But then I'd have to take the key out of my pocket!!!!!

Although I've only had my prius for about a month, I've become very used to never having to remove my keys from my pocket.

It's gotten to the point where I expect all doors to just open when I grab the handle or door knob. It's a major annoyance now when I get home on the rare occurance when my wife and daughter are not home and I have to actually pull out my keys and unlock the front door. Occasionally I also arrive at work in the morning before anyone else shows up and I just stare at the office door dumbfounded when I pull on it's handle and it doesn't open.

Removing my keys from my pocket anywhere except infront of the dresser in my bedroom now feels like an unnatural act.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(richard schumacher\";p=\"94310)</div>

My solution is to impress upon my wife that before she locks a car that she did not drive, she must utter 6 little words: "Do you have the car keys?"

My wife actually said to me "But I thought you had the keys. You always have the keys with you."

In her defense, she's almost right. I am very good at keeping track of car keys and with the SKS, since the keys never leave my pocket, the statement "You always have the keys with you" is almost certainly correct.

Almost that is, except on the day when we're at the water park, where I've turned off the SKS, left the fob in the car, am wearing swim trunks instead of regular pants, and get momentarily distracted by the sudden wailing of my five year old daughter because she's got a piece of gravel in her swim shoes, so I put down the water wallet in the back of my car to help my daughter adjust her shoes mere seconds before my wife decides it's time to close the hatchback and lock the car.

It was the perfect storm of car lockouts.