[opendro]

The European style for me too any day. If we are concerned for accidental opening, there is a child-safety-lock which prevents opening from inside for the rear doors. Children always sit in the back anyway.

If someone is hell bent of making a mistake, they can still open in the Asian type too, just two switches to operate instead of one. That is all.

I have seen people arguing that hands or clothes might accidentally pull the lever on the European style. I don't agree with this argument. The levers stay a bit tucked in in locked position and very unlikely that anything will accidentally pull it. If something puts a pressure on the lever in any way than pulling, it won't open.

[GTO]

I like the European style, and especially BMW's style of door locks.

To unlock, basically pull the door handle twice . The first unlocks the door, the second pull opens it.

[BloggerMathai]

Originally Posted by BrakingBad

Think of stop and go traffic (aka Bangalore Traffic) if the door opens every time you come to stand still, the mechanism will be broken within a week, if not earlier
It is not safe to unlock automatically as you may stop in traffic signals or traffic jams and if the door is open, it is easy to get into unwanted issues.

That's not how it works. in most cars, the doors lock automatically when you reach a certain speed and won't unlock till you switch off the ignition (example Maruti with AGS auto) or shift to 'P/Park' (example if you're in a TC or CVT auto) . When you stop at a red light and shift to neutral the doors stay locked.

This is from my experience with all my cars so far.

[NiInJa]

I prefer the Indian/Japenese cars' way, with two levers as I don't have to doubt if the door is locked or not just by a quick glance at the door. Our old Linea had this Euro style locking mechanism where the only way one would be sure if the rear doors are locked or not is to actually lock the driver's door when the car is at standstill.

On that note, I think the older pull type locking mechanisms might be useful when the car is rolled over in an accident and resting one side and rescuing people can easily locate the pull type lock from outside (they are always at the corner of the door sill ) and quickly open to doors if the occupants cannot do it by themselves. Same might apply for a car which has caught fire. The pull type ones are easy to locate from outside.

[satanic_dude]

The thread title reminded me of one thing:



Just for laughs. That's Mr. Bean's Mini

Jokes apart, I don't think there's any such specific preference for a certain type of door lock, atleast for me. It's good as long as it works, is durable, and doesn't malfunction causing someone to get stuck inside!

Cheers.

[BrakingBad]

Originally Posted by BloggerMathai

That's not how it works. in most cars, the doors lock automatically when you reach a certain speed and won't unlock till you switch off the ignition (example Maruti with AGS auto) or shift to 'P/Park' (example if you're in a TC or CVT auto) . When you stop at a red light and shift to neutral the doors stay locked.

This is from my experience with all my cars so far.

I think the automatic un-lock already exist with EU style systems... I have a 2010 Fiat Linea and it locks automatically after the vehicle goes past 20KMPH (or 25/30) and it unlocks once you switch of the engine and remove the key.

[self_driven]

No such preference from my side for the door lock position. This is because locking/unlocking of most modern cars is linked to key position and there's usually a separate button to centrally control door locks when needed.

I'm picky about the outside door handles though, prefer proper pull-type handles for all 4 doors.

[bharatbits]

I like Fiat's style. I hated Chevrolet Beat's style where doors auto unlock on pulling the hand brake lever even at signals.

[landcruiser123]

I'd prefer the one with a door lock knob. I've witnessed an incident in Chennai where one of my relatives (a senior citizen) pulled the door handle rather than the holding the grab handle. Luckily no there was no damage done.

[adi.mariner]

With 2 young kids, I personally prefer the ones with the separate knob for the locking/unlocking. The speed sensitive locks (auto-lock at >20 kmph) also are a boon. I have a habit of manually locking the car using central locking once we are out of our parking space.

[Tucker48]

I would like to add this door lock system from ford iKON.
For child safety, use child lock.
Speed sensing door lock might prevent passengers to exit in case of accident that's why it's being removed from vehicles.
Image Credit : Team-BHP