[sridhar24]

Originally Posted by zenren

Doesn't Fabia come with child lock (manual or electronic) at the rear? If it does and the kid opened the door while child lock was not engaged, it is the fault of the owner and not Skoda. If there is no provision of child lock in the car, it is indeed oversight from the manufacturer.

While I agree the safety aspect with door getting locked due to electronics going haywire, it is equally dangerous if kids can open the doors at their will and parents have no control on it.

The fabia does come with child lock on both rear doors just like most cars do.
I was concerned of the front door, which doesn't have it and no lock as such to prevent it from being opened accidentally say by a kid or anybody.

[tbppjpr]

Originally Posted by zenren

While I agree the safety aspect with door getting locked due to electronics going haywire, it is equally dangerous if kids can open the doors at their will and parents have no control on it.

Originally Posted by sridhar24

What i meant to say was that the kid can open the door(front), i am aware none of the cars have child lock for front passenger door. So i felt that a dedicated lock lever must be there.

Originally Posted by sridhar24

The fabia does come with child lock on both rear doors just like most cars do.
I was concerned of the front door, which doesn't have it and no lock as such to prevent it from being opened accidentally say by a kid or anybody.

I would like to express my different opinion here. Almost all the modern cars come with child safety locks at rear doors and it has been discussed many times earlier on the forum that kids are not supposed to travel sitting at front seats ue to various safety reasons. I have been religiously following the same and never let my or any other kid sit at front seats in any condition. Same is recommended in the car's user's manual as well.

Originally Posted by zenren

If the car doesn't have child lock, a 4-5 yr old in the back seat could just open the door and run into the road before the parents sitting in the front gets a chance to park properly, assess the road and let the kid out under their supervision. Not all kids in that age group show a great deal of patience or diligently obey what their parents say.

Agree with you but as I already said above (and I believe you are also very well aware of that) the kids shouldn't travel while occupying the front seats. And if they travel while seating at rear seats, then there is no need to be worried about the doors since child lock can be enabled.

Originally Posted by zenren

I've seen some cars come with features like impact sensing door unlock, which could be more safe than allowing the doors to be always openable from inside.

No, risk is again at highest because of the system't dependability on the electrical system. It may workout in some cases of impacts when electrical system remains in working condition and can sense the the impact but what if its case of fire or flood? There won't be any impact and system won't work when its needed the most. Another thing the electrical system may have already failed due to the fire or flood, chances are that it doesn't work because the electrical system have failed.

Originally Posted by zenren

Are you saying all Skoda/VW cars can be opened from inside even if locked? If it were the case, I don't think we would be discussing this topic in the first place. This thread started with the experience of a Skoda Laura owner where his kid got stuck inside after he accidentally locked his car before the kid got out and was trapped inside!

Originally Posted by sridhar24

I don't know if the doors can be opened from inside after being locked using remote in a skoda. If so wanted to know how it works. I was expressing shock over this!

These are the reasons of mentioning about the locking mechanism in VW Skoda cars because we were discussing about one of them.

I don't exactly know how the locks wok in the Laura, but in the Rapid/Vento, Polo, Fabia, the doors can be opened from inside even if they are locked, doesn't matter if doors are locked from inside or from outside using the remote. There isn't any such mechanical lever on the doors inside these cars which is found in most of the cars. Rather a electrical push-switch is on the driver's side door to lock/unlock the doors.

If cars like Rapid, Fabia, Vento, Polo etc have such system then it should be there in the Laura as well and doors can be opened from inside even if those are locked. Wanted to confirm why the doors couldn't be opened from inside? Was there any aftermarket security system installed in the car to enable the inside door locking? Or maybe the Laura has such locking mechanism where door locking is enabled from inside as well.

[zenren]

Originally Posted by sridhar24

The fabia does come with child lock on both rear doors just like most cars do.
I was concerned of the front door, which doesn't have it and no lock as such to prevent it from being opened accidentally say by a kid or anybody.

Front passenger seat is ideally never meant for kids. They should always be seated in the back seat even if the front passenger seat is empty. Infact, some places have it as a rule and allow kids to travel in front seat only for cars without rear seats. That is the reason the child locks are available only on the rear seats, whether it is a European/Japanese/Korean/Indian manufacturer.

It is the responsibility of the parents/adults in the family to understand the safety best practices in the interest of the safety of everyone in the family and to follow them.

We should not be blaming a manufacturer for the Indian customer being ignorant/arrogant of the do's and don'ts which are practiced in other countries. Those who are unaware fall in first category while those who are aware and still ignore it fall in the second.

EDIT: Adding reply to tbppjpr.

Originally Posted by tbppjpr

I would like to express my different opinion here. Almost all the modern cars come with child safety locks at rear doors and it has been discussed many times earlier on the forum that kids are not supposed to travel sitting at front seats ue to various safety reasons. I have been religiously following the same and never let my or any other kid sit at front seats in any condition. Same is recommended in the car's user's manual as well.

Agree with you but as I already said above (and I believe you are also very well aware of that) the kids shouldn't travel while occupying the front seats. And if they travel while seating at rear seats, then there is no need to be worried about the doors since child lock can be enabled.

Fully agree that kids should not be allowed to travel in front seats. I was confused for a second if Skoda stopped providing the child locks in the rear and moved to modern and advanced electronics.

what if its case of fire or flood? There won't be any impact and system won't work when its needed the most. Another thing the electrical system may have already failed due to the fire or flood.

Agree regarding the fire but disagree for the case of flood. If the water level is above a certain height which would be needed to damage the electricals, the pressure of water outside the door would make it nearly impossible to open the door even if it is unlocked. Side windows, rolling down if manually operated or breaking it in case of power windows would be the only way out.

[SafeDrive]

Originally Posted by tbppjpr

I don't exactly know how the locks wok in the Laura, but in the Rapid/Vento, Polo, Fabia, the doors can be opened from inside even if they are locked, doesn't matter if doors are locked from inside or from outside using the remote. There isn't any such mechanical lever on the doors inside these cars which is found in most of the cars. Rather a electrical push-switch is on the driver's side door to lock/unlock the doors.

For the Laura this is how it works.
When the auto lock feature gets enabled at 20kmph, the doors get locked. However you can open any door by pulling on the lever twice in succession. It does not open for one pull but two unlocks that door. The central unlock button also works.
However, if the car is locked from the outside by remote, none of the doors can be opened by pulling the lever from inside - once or twice or thrice. The central unlock button does not work. However as mentioned in an earlier post, if the lock button is pressed twice within a two second period then the door can be opened from the inside.
Is this safety or over engineering - I don't know

[tbppjpr]

Originally Posted by SafeDrive

Is this safety or over engineering - I don't know

I think they realized that it has become some over-engineering, thats why they are not providing such two stage unlocking mechanism in the newer cars like Rapid, rather keeping it simple and door can be opened by just pulling the door opening lever.

Hope they come with better and much fool proof solution in newer generation Laura cars or keep it simple like Rapid.

[interest]

In i20 the door lock can be opened from inside. The only downside is that the security system gets activated and horn starts blowing.

[don_carmaster]

Hi,
After reding this thread i decided to check on my newly bought Rapid

But i am happy to confirm that even after locking my sister inside the Car from outside, She was able to do the following
-Operate Cabin Light
-Open door (ALL) from inside
-Play the Music System.

Would love to hear others' inputs
Sahil

[mkpiyengar]

On the Ikon with factory fitted auto locking system, the car unlocks with the alarm beeping continuously till you press unlock.

However, when you start the car, it starts beeping again. So I needed to switch off the engine, Lock the car and again unlock the car.

Looks like some reset mechanism is required, to get it back to normal behavior.

Cheers
MKP

[mayankjha1806]

Yesterday i tried in both my cars. On both horn works even when the key is not present in the ignition slot. On Baleno its a bit more easier to open the door from inside for a child. The small top popping out is easier to pull and unlock and open the door.

On Civic its slightly more difficult for a child to do the same thing as it does not have those pull-able things next to the window glass.

[dezrskb]

Thanks for the person who has brought this important issue to notice.
I realize with horror that I own a Laura now since past 5 months and was not aware of this. I was under the impression that I had gone through the user manual fairly well.
I have indeed previously left my 2 kids by themselves and other times with my wife inside the car to quickly fetch something. But this was always with engine on and A/c running and never with engine off / doors locked using remote from outside. Also I take care to see that I am never out of sight of my car. Yes, there is a risk of somebody kidnapping them using my own car, but not them suffocating inside.
Also I feel it should have been the other way round - meaning, a single press on the remote lock button should lock the doors but one should be able to open them from inside where as a double lock press should secure it from both inside and out - something like double locking our house doors when we are going out of station. Anybody has an idea whether this is possible with VAG-COM?
I have never tried opening the boot from inside. Now I feel I should learn this trick too - may save a life sometimes.
That being said, yes, sometimes I do feel these modern European cars are bit over-engineered. Too many of these features makes it difficult to remember them.

[dr_vivekpatil]

Originally Posted by mb_jg

For cars with integrated headrests, you can always carry a small pocket hammer with a pointed tip. These are easily available at hardware stores & take up minimal storage space. A friend has installed a pocket hammer (as big as his palm) using velcro on the drivers side of the B pillar.

Going through the horrible images of recent Volvo fire and many of the posts in this thread, I looked up some of the online shopping sites and found this multifunction device costing approx. Rs. 200/- to be a handy tool to keep in the glovebox. Serves as a emergency window hammer, seat belt cutter, flashing warning light and torchlight, with a magnetic base to attach to the vehicle.





Any suggestions?