[sarahthegemini]

In my car (and most others I would assume?) I can lock the doors internally to avoid car-jacking (although I doubt this is a common problem ) but I feel safer if I have locked myself in, however my brother said to me that if I were to be in an accident *touch wood* having internal locking can make it a hell of a lot harder to be rescued as the locking can malfunction or something? So, I'm wondering, what is actually safer? What do you lot do?

[Nuffles]

I never lock my car from the inside, but then again I've never owned a car since I passed my test with remote/central locking. My ex used to lock her door automatically because she was scared the door would open and she'd fall out (I have no idea how I stayed with her so long). I wouldn't like being locked in at all, I don't trust electronic systems with my safety, personally. There's too much to go wrong. What happens if you end up upside down in a lake? Your electric windows wouldn't work and neither would your electric locking. You'd be ****ed.

[sarahthegemini]

(Original post by Nuffles)
I never lock my car from the inside, but then again I've never owned a car since I passed my test with remote/central locking. My ex used to lock her door automatically because she was scared the door would open and she'd fall out (I have no idea how I stayed with her so long). I wouldn't like being locked in at all, I don't trust electronic systems with my safety, personally. There's too much to go wrong. What happens if you end up upside down in a lake? Your electric windows wouldn't work and neither would your electric locking. You'd be ****ed.

It's become habit now though to lock myself in, I live in a fairly rough area so as soon as I'm in, I lock it But I wouldn't want to shoot myself in the foot as such if an accident were to occur, hmm ...

[TattyBoJangles]

I only lock mine when I'm going through somewhere fairly rough at night, and if it's likely I'll have to come to a stop / drive slowly. In situations like that I'm not at particular risk of plunging into a lake / crashing at high speeds anyway.

[Nuffles]

(Original post by TattyBoJangles)
I only lock mine when I'm going through somewhere fairly rough at night, and if it's likely I'll have to come to a stop / drive slowly. In situations like that I'm not at particular risk of plunging into a lake / crashing at high speeds anyway.

But then you could get mowed into by a lorry at a junction *shrugs* I don't trust electronics, especially that they're now based entirely on circuit boards and chips rather than simple circuits.

[TattyBoJangles]

(Original post by Nuffles)
But then you could get mowed into by a lorry at a junction *shrugs* I don't trust electronics, especially that they're now based entirely on circuit boards and chips rather than simple circuits.

I could, yes, but I'd rather lock the door for five / ten minutes when driving through a rough place and run the risk of it being slightly harder to get out of the car were a lorry to plough into me. I unlock the doors again when I feel comfortable driving with the doors unlocked.

[Herr]

(Original post by sarahthegemini)
In my car (and most others I would assume?) I can lock the doors internally to avoid car-jacking (although I doubt this is a common problem ) but I feel safer if I have locked myself in, however my brother said to me that if I were to be in an accident *touch wood* having internal locking can make it a hell of a lot harder to be rescued as the locking can malfunction or something? So, I'm wondering, what is actually safer? What do you lot do?

Even though I live in one of the safest cities in Europe, both our cars have autolocks.

On the Fiat 500 when you reach 10km/h the doors automatically lock and when you switch off the ignition the doors unlock. On the BMW as soon as you shift the gear out of P it would lock the doors.

In an event of a collision the doors will automatically unlock. If I'm not wrong almost every new car has this feature that the locks will automatically unlock in an event of a crash and on many cars with power locks there is a way to program it to lock as you drive off.

Anyway I've always locked my doors, when I drove in Britain as you can never tell what kind of neighbourhood you're in as some places especially in London it's merely a lane that separates

[M4LLY]

I always leave the doors unlocked unless i'm going through a council estate.

[Nuffles]

(Original post by Herr)
Even though I live in one of the safest cities in Europe, both our cars have autolocks.

On the Fiat 500 when you reach 10km/h the doors automatically lock and when you switch off the ignition the doors unlock. On the BMW as soon as you shift the gear out of P it would lock the doors.

In an event of a collision the doors will automatically unlock. If I'm not wrong almost every new car has this feature that the locks will automatically unlock in an event of a crash and on many cars with power locks there is a way to program it to lock as you drive off.

Anyway I've always locked my doors, when I drove in Britain as you can never tell what kind of neighbourhood you're in as some places especially in London it's merely a lane that separates

And all you need is the 'unlock' function of your automatic locks to stop working in the event of a crash and you'll be stuck. As I said, if you end up in water, or there's a fire that destroys the ECU, or even just a freak fault in the system, you'll be locked in. I'll stick to my old, unsafe, 'stupid' cars that don't think for themselves thanks

[Joinedup]

Get a lifehammer if you're worried, you can cut your seatbelt and smash out your window one handed.

[CurlyBen]

Don't hold me to it, but I think even cars with power locking still have a physical connection to the lock (from the inside at least) so you aren't reliant on electronics in the event of a crash. As for emergencies, wouldn't take more than a few seconds to smash the window with a glass hammer and unlock it as normal - that's if the crash which has rendered you unconscious hasn't deformed the body too much for the door to open anyway!

[wibletg]

(Original post by sarahthegemini)
In my car (and most others I would assume?) I can lock the doors internally to avoid car-jacking (although I doubt this is a common problem ) but I feel safer if I have locked myself in, however my brother said to me that if I were to be in an accident *touch wood* having internal locking can make it a hell of a lot harder to be rescued as the locking can malfunction or something? So, I'm wondering, what is actually safer? What do you lot do?

I'm sorry but if you have an accident I don't think the fire brigade are going to be concerned about internal locking when they cut through the pillars on your car

[Nuffles]

(Original post by wibletg)
I'm sorry but if you have an accident I don't think the fire brigade are going to be concerned about internal locking when they cut through the pillars on your car

It's not always about that though. If the car's in water or on fire then sometimes you need to get yourself out. Obviously this is all worst case scenario, but considering how often electrics in modern cars go wrong anyway, I'm going to stay cautious thanks.

[Nuffles]

(Original post by CurlyBen)
Don't hold me to it, but I think even cars with power locking still have a physical connection to the lock (from the inside at least) so you aren't reliant on electronics in the event of a crash. As for emergencies, wouldn't take more than a few seconds to smash the window with a glass hammer and unlock it as normal - that's if the crash which has rendered you unconscious hasn't deformed the body too much for the door to open anyway!

I thought this used to be true but I've certainly been in several cars in which I tried to open the door before we came to a complete stop and it wouldn't let me.

[JO53PHS]

Sometimes you have to pull the door handle twice - once to unlock it and the second time to open the door.

[Education_1]

I always do it. Infact its not only me but all my family does it especially. I think its being a childhood habit. It depends really. It might be safe in one way but dangerous the other way. For example dangerous like a person said if you fell in a lake and you want yourself out then you will be ****ed but lol on the other hand if you are waiting for someone from inside your car its safer to lock it from inside and also when you travel in rough areas very important you lock it.

[mosmof]

i lock the doors when im going through a rough area, at night or if i've got valuables in transit, like phone on the front sea. i'll keep them unlocked otherwise though, just because of the possibility of it being harder to get rescued..

[beffnee]

I don't tend to lock myself in my car when I'm driving. I only tend to do it if I'm sat in my car somewhere late at night on my own (if I'm picking someone up, or something like that).

[Herr]

(Original post by Nuffles)
And all you need is the 'unlock' function of your automatic locks to stop working in the event of a crash and you'll be stuck. As I said, if you end up in water, or there's a fire that destroys the ECU, or even just a freak fault in the system, you'll be locked in. I'll stick to my old, unsafe, 'stupid' cars that don't think for themselves thanks

If in a newish/modern car you get into a crash that starts a fire chances are you would not have survived the crash anyway.

Either way the doors unlock at the same time as the airbags deploy, haven't heard of many cars that has had airbags failing to deploy in a crash, so the likelihood of that happening where the doors don't unlock is rather minute.

Car crashes into water, in most cars pulling the internal handle will open the door or in some cases there will be a mechanical override.

[Potential Trigger]

(Original post by Nuffles)
It's not always about that though. If the car's in water or on fire then sometimes you need to get yourself out. Obviously this is all worst case scenario, but considering how often electrics in modern cars go wrong anyway, I'm going to stay cautious thanks.

That's a scary thought

I still always press lock, just something natural for me, like always putting on my seatbelt. I trust Audi