OK, so I had an odd situation today that I can find no decent explanation for…
It was frosty this morning, so I decided I’d leave my car running for a bit to make sure it was nicely defrosted before I got in it (although it doesn’t take long with my heated front windscreen :D). However, I didn’t want a young scally coming and driving off in my car, so I thought I’d be cunning and lock the car whilst it was still running, using the spare key that I have. So I did that and happily left the car for 5 or 10 minutes by which time I was ready to go and the car was nicely defrosted…
Then I tried to unlock the car with the spare key… but it didn’t work in the doors and didn’t work on the boot or bonnet either! The car had decided that since the engine was running and the doors were locked that even someone with a key should not be able to get into the car! HOW BLOODY STUPID IS THAT? I mean, I could understand that if the car had been locked from the inside, then the car might reasonably not allow an external key to open the door (although I think this is still pretty stupid – think kids locking themself in the car…). But why on earth, when I am able to lock it from the outside can I not then unlock it? At least prevent me from locking it from the outside whilst the engine is running, so I can’t get into this fix!
GAH! Buggy cars!
On another note – wow, it’s been more than 2 months since I blogged… married life is going well, but keeping me busy 🙂
Update:
Yeah, of course I should have told you how I did eventually get into my car… I rang the AA and they said they’d be there within an hour, and indeed they were – about 45 minutes it took them I think. The guy used a lever & few wedges to make a gap between the door and the frame, then used a thin-ish metal rod (a bit like a straight coat hanger) to poke inside the car and push the window winder down… so down came the window and open came the door. I was quite glad it took him about 10 minutes to do it though… gives me some confidence that it’s not dead easy to break into my car.
I’ve only locked my keys in my car once before (8 years ago), and that was when I had a much older car, the AA came out that time too. That time he just used a bit of that nylon you get round parcels, doubled it up, pushed it round the window and pulled the door knob up… took him about 3 mins… not so confidence-embuing.
Anyway, hope that clears that up for you.
ha ha ha, unlucky mate. Next time let the scally steal it, at least then you’ll get a day off work.
Did you feel stupid explaining to the AA man how it happened? Oh… and i think you’ll find it was actually quicker than 3 mins to get in last time you did it…
Nah, didn’t feel too silly since I don’t think I really did anything that stupid. He seemed to understand my logic too, so that was nice.
Hmm, yeah, maybe it was less than 3 minutes… ahh, Vauxhall Novas 😀
Al… I know that many scallies probably already know how to get into a car… but if they don’t, thanks for posting a nice simple HOW-TO 🙂