Thanks for the responses. The car is a 2007 automatic with 70k miles on it.

Yesterday the car unlocked using the remote on the key, but first wouldn't start at all, wouldn't even turn over. AAA checked the battery and it was fine. I tried disconnecting the battery in case it was a related issue, and oddly, the car would then start to turn over 1-3 times, then die. Additional attempts to start the car without disconnecting the battery, the engine wouldn't even start to turn over. I didn't notice anything else strange, I could hear the fuel pump functioning normally. The automatic lock on the key remote still works, and the alarm isn't going off, so maybe this is not a skreem issue?

The reason I thought of the skreem first was the issues with starting in the last couple years. There have been no problems with it until the last couple years, and then just 3 isolated incidents where the car would start to turn over and die, each time 3 times in a row. The alarm would go crazy and the automatic unlocking on the key wouldn't work, the car would have to be unlocked manually. Each time, fully disconnecting the battery for a minute solved the problem and there wasn't another problem for 6-12 months.

With another car I would think it was a starter problem and take it to a mechanic, but I'm trying to prevent the situation where I take this to a mechanic who has no idea and charges me a lot to not fix the issue; generally my experience with issues with the crossfire starting!!! The closest person who is good with the crossfire is in Santa Rosa, CA, over an hour from me in Berkeley, so it would be good to know what I'm dealing with. Thanks for any thoughts.

Kara