Why is it some owners feel they have to toot their car horn to lock the car? It’s annoying. Some have told me it’s the only way to lock their car. Is this true and if so why?
Yup…it’s true. When you click the Fob to lock the doors on some cars it toots the horn and/or flashes the lights. This lets you know the vehicle is locked and the alarm is set. Been this way on many cars for well over 20 years.
That little quarter-second “toot” is that annoying? Is your life that good that this is the last thing you have left to complain about?
FWIW, most Fords only honk if you hit the lock button twice. If you’re not sure that you were in range of the car when you hit the clicker, you can press it again to get confirmation that the doors are locked.
On some cars you can cancel this feature and just blink the lights. I find it annoying, too, and I cancelled the audible warning on my car. When I lock the car remotely the parking lights blink twice, but there’s no noise.
With my wife’s car you hit the fob button twice to get the factory antitheft system armed. I don’t know that the wimpy little toot that goes with it can be cancelled. I don’t recall seeing it when I looked through the owner manual.
I’m with the OP. If the only commotion any of us had to tolerate in our daily lives was that short toot, I think we could live with it. But why in the world would manufacturers intentionally contribute so needlessly to the noise pollution of modern life, when flashing lights would do the trick (or rely on the motorist to stand by his vehicle for an extra half second and see if the doors lock). Is it a huge deal? No, but it’s an unnecessary one.
In the 22nd century, there will be no bigger crime than disturbing the peace, because we’ll be so congested that finding even a few feet of our own tranquil space will be a luxury available to only the very few. I’m sure George Orwell would have gotten around to writing about that in time.
It is very annoying. I have a 99 Accord that doesn’t make any noise when I lock it and set the factory alarm. I have woken up in the middle of night by someone locking their car. A lot of people wait until they are twenty feet away before they blast the horn. It doesn’t matter that you are next to their car. The first question I will ask when buying another car is if the horn goes off when you lock the car. It is a deal breaker for me.
I am with dave1689. I find the horn report mindless senseless noise polution, which should absolutley be outlawed. A flash of the lights and a thunk is adequate and appropriate reporting. The horn report is a very real polutant, it can be startling if the “victim” is walking nearby, and it can wake people up from a sound sleep (many people simply cannot go back to sleep if this happens effecting their health and job performance though all the next day). Any one of these negative results should be enough reason to outlaw horn reports. It is classic "No-brainer"
but we have it anyway - what more can we do? Anyone have a fed level politician who can introduce a bill that at least phases out the horn blast?
I guess I am lucky. The wife’s Ford product seems to have a depowered toot. It is barely audible compared to the regular horn sound. I can push the buttons on the door to lock my FoMoCo product and that yields no toot.
So, the only reason we might object to a stupid loud horn blowing off beside us without warning is our life is so good we whine about trivial things? I rejoice that you are not my neighbor.
Wait a minute. Maybe you are. My neighbor is much like you.