And another new way to nick your car...

[timmeh]

You can't put it in gear to drive away without a key present.

You can in my wife's car. I haven't tried it in mine but I'm assuming what you said is right for mine as it's an electronic shifter whereas my wife's is mechanical.

 

[Clarkey]

I saw said person a little while ago so asked him what car, it was a golf, so VW

He said he had no warning which he thought was odd as in his 3 series it complains when you get out with the key

Could you disable it maybe, could be a reason why a hire company may want to do this? Cant think of one but there may be a reason why would

Could be interesting to see what the ranges are, eg on top of a petrol pump could be a lot closer to the drivers seat than say in a coat pocket in the boot.

Distance from the drivers seat should be irrelavent, even the early generation systems had the technology to determine if the key is inside the cabin or not, precisely. This isn't just for engine start, it's for locking too. If the keys are inside it won't let you lock, keys outside even if it's touching the door skin, you can lock. Not sure how it works but it's clever. You typically can't shut the keys in the boot either, mine would pop the boot back open if you closed it with the keys inside.

 

[theone8181]

Distance from the drivers seat should be irrelavent, even the early generation systems had the technology to determine if the key is inside the cabin or not, precisely. This isn't just for engine start, it's for locking too. If the keys are inside it won't let you lock, keys outside even if it's touching the door skin, you can lock. Not sure how it works but it's clever. You typically can't shut the keys in the boot either, mine would pop the boot back open if you closed it with the keys inside.

I'd like to try this but i can see it going wrong and being embarrassing lol.

 

[[TW]Fox]

You can't put it in gear to drive away without a key present.

You can.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Distance from the drivers seat should be irrelavent, even the early generation systems had the technology to determine if the key is inside the cabin or not, precisely. This isn't just for engine start, it's for locking too. If the keys are inside it won't let you lock, keys outside even if it's touching the door skin, you can lock. Not sure how it works but it's clever. You typically can't shut the keys in the boot either, mine would pop the boot back open if you closed it with the keys inside.

But it had that advanced unlocking thing so you need to be a decent distance away from the car for it to lock (well on all the ones I have seen anyway), as he described it anyway

Sounds like in general there are some minor differences per model, friend with JAG says his goes crazy if he gets out of the drivers side with the car running, but his Mrs can get out of the passenger door with just a ping to say key out of range.

Been told that on VW group if the key goes out of range it will pop up a message but if your moving its deemed low priority so its only displayed for 5 seconds, can see how the guy from work could miss that as in foreign country getting onto a fast road from a petrol station you my not look down the second you get a warning.

I guess its one to watch out for, and to really know your car, as to if you can put it in gear in an auto (which if you quickly google definatley seems to vary by make, maybe by age as well)

 

[Joe T]

I found this morning that if the driver tries to get out of the car without the key (with the engine turned off), the cars goes crazy a gently honks the horn. Hopefully it didnt wake any of the neighbours up at 6:30am...