Hi,
Hmmm, my '97 Land Rover Disco has a keyless remote. I'll have to try the
cell phone trick sometime.
Also note that most remotes work from a much greater distance if you hold
it (the remote... not the car) right under your chin while pressing the
button. No kidding. I have no idea why this works, but it comes in handy if the
remote's battery is getting low on juice.
As a precaution, I carry a spare key in my wallet. However, I'm not sure
that will solve all my problems. The remote also arms and disarms the car's
alarm system. (On LRs you *can* avoid arming the alarm by using the actual key
to lock the car and holding it in the "lock" position for 5 seconds.) Using a
plain key to open the car while the alarm is armed will set it off!
I recently witnessed a brand new Honda SUV in just this predicament,
parked right in front of the local Starbucks with a nice, large audience to
enjoy
show, of course. The driver set off the alarm while unlocking her car with the
key... and had no clue how to cancel it! She ended up driving very slowly away
with the alarm blaring "beep! beep! beep! beep! beep! beep!..." out of the
parking lot, down the street, around the corner and gradually trailing off into
the distance. For some reason the driver seemed to feel it was necessary to
keep under 10 mph, probably all the way home from the sound of it.
I think, but am not sure, that on my car and maybe hers too it would
simply be a matter of turing the ignition off and then back on to cancel the
alarm.
But, I haven't had occasion to try it.... yet.
Speaking of really dumb high tech safety stuff.... I rented a Toyota Camry
a couple years ago while on a photo shoot in Colorado. Damn thing would *lock
itself* 30 seconds after the engine was shut off and the driver's door was
opened and closed . What automotive engineering doofus thought this was a good
idea? From all the damage around the door edge and window trim, this
apparently had already happened to a number of renters in the car's brief 20K
miles on
the road. I managed to lock myself out once, too, but fortunately a passenger
was sitting in the car at the time.
Thankfully, my TR4 has no such automation, no alarm, no remote, no
hassles!
How did we ever survive, way back when we had to think for ourselves and,
gasp, turn a key in a lock?
Alan Myers
San Jose, Calif.
'64 TR4 CT17602L
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> If your vehicle is equipped with a remote key system...
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