I just thought of this today. The only way to unlock the doors in the Crossfire is with the switch on the center console. When the doors are locked, the things (don't know what they're called) near the window showing if the doors are locked or unlocked go flush with the door. Say there is an electrical failure in the car, there is no way to unlock the doors. Am I right? This seems to me to be a pretty dangerous design. What if there was a fire that cut out electrical power? You could break the window to get out, but the windows are really small, and it would be very hard to even maneuver to get out through them. It seems like it would be an easy problem to fix, by just relpacing those pieces. Am I right to thnik this is a safety problem?

 

If you pull the interior door handle, it unlocks the door as it releases the latch. This is mechanical and not dependant on the electrical system.

When you open the door from the inside with the doors locked, watch the door lock indicator ****. I think you will see what I mean.

 

ahh, true, I didn't even think of that. I forgot that the car automatically locks the doors when you are driving. I never lock them on my own so I just assumed they were unlocked when I was getting out of the car. ops:

 

I believe this is a curiously American agdiction. Europeans don't lock the doors when they drive, for safety reasons as you suggested in your post. I would bet Merceds has the doors automaticaly unlock in an accident. If not the dealer can reprogram it to not auto lock, if he is given the info from Mercedes.

 

Actually, all Americans do not live in constant fear, of car jacking, or most other things. American advertising does want to create as much fear as they can, so as to sell more stuff. Afraid your clothes are not white enough? Buy more bleach. Afraid your teeth are not white enough? Buy more bleach. Afraid your newly laundered bed clothes are not clean enough? Buy more bleach. :roll: Even though American, I have little fear of insufficient whiteness.

The auto door locking is a safety feature. It keeps folks in the car better during roll over and other tumbling accidents. Being ejected from a car kills far more people than it saves. The doors automatically unlock a short while AFTER a crash is "detected" by the car. It's in the manual.

 

Gotto disagree with you there Tony,as we do lock doors for safety reasons even in europe and the cars i've bought in the last 7-8 years have all had auto locking and window overrides (saves on seperate child and window locks,rear hatch/boot locking)and its becoming more popular with a lot of main stream manufacturers.
As with the reprogramming surely Chrysler can do it ,as it is not a Mercedes.

 

Hey Seaxfire, I fully agree. Of all people, Marilyn Manson made an excellent point of this in Bowling for Colombine.
As for macjake, I believe the European auto mfgs. did autolock after they were capable of doing autounlock post accident. I agree Chrysler could do it, but I know Mercedes already has the program from the SLK, and I only asume Chrysler has it.

 

How do you spell PARANOID ?
AMERICAN

Good Grief ! If there is a fire, the electrical is shot, I figure little less is left of the Xfire ! or who is in it !

And yes most Americans live in fear, thats why they call it the PATRIOT ACT?! Have you read it yet ?!

 

Hmm, Smells like teen troll. :roll:

My '68 MGB-GT used to catch on fire all the time, electrical shorting usually from the batteries under the rear seat.

(It was really just a shelf not a rear seat. And yes, there were two six volt batteries to make the 12 volts needed. One on the right side and one on the left for 'perfect" balance. The batteries were right next to the fuel tank.)

Alas, I died seven times in the fires, :shock: and the damage was horrific, No wait, it wasn't that dramatic, it just seemed that way at the time. :lol:

Hard stops would start the fires, but I eventually made a fire drill procedure that would put the fires out rather quickly. I also began carrying fire extinguishers in the car at that time. I still do.

Although the news media tells us that we are scared all the time, so that we need to watch the TV more, we're actually not. We adapt, we become more vigilant. You probably don't remember doing atomic air raid drills once or twice a day while in school. Or black-outs in coastal cities so the u-boats can't see the horrizon for targeting.

 

If you mean Panzer1's post, agreed. Seems to be his/her MO on the board. :cry:

I've read that the U-boats used the horizon lights to silhouette ship's between them and the coast. Having spent a lot of time off the coast of the NC Outer Banks, a very effective tactic indeed.

 

Given Panzer's comment about the Patriot Act, if Panzer is a teenager, he's an educated one.

 

Vielen dank !

 

Bitte! ... I hope the spelling is correct.