True dat...

 

To be accurate I have two granddaughters 23 soon to be 24 and one of them is single. Two 27 year olds one single, and one single 28 year old. All of them gorgeous and a long way from somewhere in Michigan


We seemed to have strayed off subject.

 

When I bought my Corvette I was checking it out and noticed those handles and pulled on one and nothing happened, so I got out my book and found out what they were. Very unfortunate for the old guy. Society today has a problem...... they always want to blame someone else. I was taught to be responsible for my own actions. The youth of today are clueless. poor youth of today. It's called "Pay me now or pay me later".

 

I have thought a lot about this accident. I am very sad that it happened, and at first thought why didn't he just break the window or throw off the targa? After thinking some more, I thought, you wouldn't choose damaging your car as your first option, you would try to figure it out first. My assumption is that the guy tried to figure it out then got weak and possibly passed out.

I think it is human error, and making the handles a bright color, ranks right up there with medicine ads having to tell all of the side effects or the "don't try this at home" when something cool is done on a commercial.

It would be great if the dealers showed the new owners how to pen the doors or trunk or hatch in the event of a power failure, but it won't happen every time.

I am very sad for his family.

 

I am unsure if this has ever happened. So since the C6 with these handles have been in existence for what 9 years? Then based on trend this was user error. I am sure his family will sue however just like the guy who spilled coffe on himself and sued McDonalds.

 

I'm inclined to agree with this. The only reason I know all the things I know about my car is because I bought it when I was 19, and I had read the manual 2 years prior to that. Granted, I pretty much told the dealer that I didn't need a salesman to show me how to work my car, but there's quite a few things that the average car buyer wouldn't know about the car (like how to open the doors with a dead battery). I bet there's a percentage of people who don't even know that the roof is removable on the steel frame cars.

I've always been a believer in being prepared for contingencies. I surprisingly don't have a dedicated window breaking tool, but I imagine that my 4" blade folding knife would do in a pinch.

I think the airplane comment is funny (but true). You get instructions on how to buckle and unbuckle a seatbelt every time you board an aircraft, but when you buy a vehicle everyone assumes that you went to driver's ed and they actually taught you what they were supposed to. In reality, most people over 40 probably learned all things vehicle related through pure experience, rather than someone instructing them. Anything radically different (like a door not opening unless battery power was available) would probably baffle most people in a stressful situation (hell, many people can't figure out where the door release button is when everything is working fine..I usually have to say "the big black button with the light coming out of it!!)

 

Why Did Chevy use an electronic latch for the doors?
What did that achieve? I tried my manual latches out after reading the articles.
And yes I am a mechanical engineer and mechanical engineering manager.

Edit: I am guessing Cool factor

 

That's my conclusion. I'd be surprised if it saved weight or costs, especially with the redundant manual release, and lets face it, it adds no convenience. But you can't get in or out of the car without noticing the Vette has some electric doodad that sets it apart. Completely unnecessary, and not even cool IMHO, the car has enough styling and performance to set it apart.

 

Part of that cool styling is that there are no visible handles or key holes. I'm sure that is also aerodynamic, as an added bonus.

I also understand that it did save weight over the standard mechanical latch.

The demographics are of an older crowd (of which I'm rapidly becoming a member), but if it's too complicated to understand, then one should not be driving.

Again, we still have not heard definitively what happened, but either way, it's not the car's fault.

 

I think it's because they couldn't do passive entry without it. I'm glad that I can drive the car around all day and never have to touch the fob in my pocket. It is cool.

 

No, it's not that. Our Caddy ATS has passive entry and it also has mechanical door openers. All the passive entry does is unlock the doors as far as I know. If the car is set to manual entry, you can "double click" the door button on the outside to lock or unlock the doors.

My Subaru has somewhat passive entry. You have to touch the door handle to unlock the doors, then it's mechanical. When you're approaching the car, and get within a few feet, lights from the outside mirrors come on and are directed toward the door handles. I don't think it can be set to automatically lock the doors when you get out though ... you have to hit the door switch on the inside.

 

I'm thinking a new poll is in order. Something on the order of:
How many of you who've thought the emergency pull was poorly marked have:

1. painted the lever day-glo red
2. affixed a red "emergency" sticker
3. put a red arrow on the door panel/dash pointing the way
4. done absolutely nothing

Sure, we've all probably mentioned it to our S.O. but...my money is on #4

 

I really don't know how it could have been more plain.

Both the levers in the vehicle and the pull in the hatch/trunk have the same symbol. I sure wouldn't want to see any of the bright colored emergency signs and arrows that have been suggested on this thread in my Corvette. If dementia starts setting in and I can't remember what to do, I'll give up driving.

 

YES!! Was going to say this exact same thing. Thanks for saving me the trouble.

 

The reason was to keep weight and complexity out of the door as much as possible.

By *not* putting the latch, locks and manual opening mechanisms *inside* the door, they saved weight and complexity in the door itself. As it is, the *only* thing mechanical in a C6 door is the window mechanism (unavoidable -- has to be there), literally everything else is in the frame.

 

You started a poll based on an assumption that the man died of heat exhaustion because he couldn't get out of the car.

Because the police reported he was found sitting vertically behind the wheel with the owner's manual on his lap, it seems logical that he initially had a problem and was in the process of finding a solution when he died. Since he had likely progressed beyond the panic stage enough to read the OM, the time to find the correct page and the answer to open the door, would be minimal. I suspect he had a sudden heart failure and anyone passing by thought nothing odd about a person sitting erect in the driver's seat until 4 hours had passed.

Without an autopsy report, the question of what caused his death has not been answered, so no blame can be considered.

BTW, In August of 2005, my 97 year-old aunt was found in the morning, sitting erect in her car with the keys in her hand. The gas tank was full and on the seat beside her was a gas receipt time stamped the evening before and had the odometer reading written on it that matched the car by the same distance from the station. The obvious conclusion was she filled the tank, drove home, and had a massive sudden heart failure, which the autopsy confirmed.
That's the reason I believe that same thing happened to the guy in the Vette and why I think your poll is flawed.

 

The fact that there is a latch to manually open the door(s), is enough to preclude anyone from calling an "Engineering/Design defect" on GM. (And trust GM for doing their legal homework prior to releasing the car to the public, including getting NHTSA's approval)

I will not venture any opinion relative to the poor man and his dog, until I saw all the reports, and particularly the medical ones.
But asked to guess in the absence of facts and evidence, my thoughts would lean towards a panic attack leading to a heart attack.
Not sure about the dog though.
Do dogs have panic attacks?

 

story details on this terrible incident say the driver was found with the manual out as if he was trying to solve his dilemma. We are responsible for our actions or inactions and who's to say we would listen to the dealer explain our car in any case. Had dealers explain my navigation systems and I was still lost until I read the manual. User error but agree that making the handles more visible could help.

 

Well, I'm over 70 and, BTW, I do read manuals. However, my problem would be different from the man in question. I would have to determine how to get out of a convertible with the top down, and that's NOT covered in the manual. If anyone has any ideas I'd be glad to hear them.

 

Convertibles don't have the door latches?