I use National. I like picking my own car. Most National outlets at airports I travel through have that feature. When I used to use Avis, I often got an SUV. If it was LAX, and mostly it was, I’d almost always trade it for a car. I like the security of a trunk, especially in a big city.
I don’t think the OP realizes that many/most cars have essentially had push button start for at least the last 5 years.
Our 2011 odyssey has a key, but it is a chipped key and when you turn it in the ignition, you don’t need to hold if, if you let it go it will still crank until it starts. Essentially it’s a key activating a push button start. Electronically, it’s really no different than the ‘full’ push button start cars.
The OP was buying their first vehicle and asked this question in March ,2019 . I wonder if we will ever know what they did purchase .
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A search for “Honda push button start problems” resulted in a great many hits and would seem to indicate that there certainly is a great problem with those systems.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=push+button+start+switch+failures+Honda+TSB&t=ffhp&atb=v192-1&ia=web
What are the chances Googling Toyota, Lexus, Nissan and Subaru would result in similar results?
Searching for just about anything results in hits. That’s less about how prevalent the problem is and more about how much those pages align with whatever algorithm Google is using to find them.
For instance, you can search “Honda pencil problems” and get 4 pages of hits, and you know not a single one of them actually talks about Honda causing/having problems with pencils.
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Review the first 100 hits on my search and report your findings @shadowfax.
BTW haven’t several I/O switch problems been posted and discussed here?
You are right, and I would avoid buying anything so equipped. I prefer a metal key with no chip, and no “security system” that can malfunction in the future, and is impossible to troubleshoot/repair without the manufacturer’s proprietary scan tool.
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Now that I’m driving a car that has push button start, I’m wondering if push button start makes starters last longer by removing manual deactivation.
I owned and drove my 1998 Honda Civic for 20 years and 318,000 miles, and I never had to replace the starter, maybe because I was kind of OCD about how I started it. I’d turn the key to the “on” position and listen for the fuel pump to shut off before actually starting the engine. I’d release the key as soon as possible, occasionally releasing it too fast before the car actually started, but that only happened rarely.
With small Asian cars of this era, it was typical for them to crank longer than usual if the fuel tank was low, so I got into this habit regardless of how much fuel was in the tank. In 2006, when I got my class A CDL, I learned this was the proper procedure for starting semis.
Now that I’m driving a car that has push-button start, I don’t have to do any of that. I just put my foot on the brake, press the “start” button, and let the car do its thing. I like it.
Chip keys have been around for over 20 years and very few if any new cars have been made within the past 10 years without a chip key. I’m not aware of any; maybe someone else can chime in if they are. If you refuse to buy a car with a chip key you are essentially resigning yourself to buying 25+ year old cars.
Likewise every new car uses a computer to control the engine and a scan tool is a requirement for servicing. That’s the price of the features and performance most people want.
The good news is chip keys are very reliable and failures are very rare. Neither I nor any family members have had one within the past 20 years. I haven’t had any friends that experienced one either, that I know of.
This debate flares up here from time to time, and I really don’t get the “I won’t buy a car with a chipped key because I’m afraid it will break” crowd. They’re apparently willing to limit themselves to 90’s and earlier cars, which means they’re driving 30+ year old vehicles around with greatly increased likelihood of mechanical failure all so they can avoid a low-percentage problem with a switch. That doesn’t make sense to me.
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+1 to everything that shadowfax stated.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I have NEVER had a failure of any of the electronic systems/devices on any of my cars. Yes, the Infotainment systems on some recent models (chiefly Honda & Acura) have been problematic, but with the exception of those Infotainment systems, I believe that the dreaded electronic systems are actually incredibly reliable.
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I had two cars like this, plus an automatic transmission.
One, 1976 Chevy Nova, was stolen.
Thief lived in it a couple weeks until he totaled it running from Police.
The other, 1985 Accord SEi, stolen, not recovered.
Next two cars were stickshift, rules out most teenage joyriders.
'88 Accord also got a hidden kill switch.
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I think back to the old days. Many cars had a floor pedal that activated the starter by pushing the starter pinion into the flywheel and closing the switch to run the starter motor. A heavy spring retracted the starter pinion gear when the pedal was released. Cars then went to push button starting with a starter relay that allowed the high current that flowed to the starter motor be controlled by the low current from the starter button. It was a quick transition from the pushbutton to combining the starter switch with the ignition switch.
I can see the transition from the chip in the key to today’s pushbutton start where the computer module controls the startup when receiving the signal from the push button just as yesterday’s starter relay received current from the pushbutton or the start position on the ignition switch.
I think these changes are what buyers wanted. In 1942, the DeSoto offered, as an option, a pushbutton starter system as opposed to a floor pedal. The pushbutton starter was standard on the higher priced Chrysler at least as early as 1940. After WW II, no Chrysler product had a floor pedal starter.
I made the change from a floor pedal starter to turning the key to the start position and then releasing the key. If my next vehicle has the pushbutton start while the key in my pocket sends the signal, I can adapt to it, although I am not sure it is any more convenient than turning the ignition on and stepping on the starter pedal.
I think their reasoning is more like, “I don’t want a car with a chipped key because I know I or my significant other is going to lose the key, and I don’t want to pay an arm and a leg to replace it.”
Personally, I almost never lose my keys, and when I do, I know it’s just a matter of time until I find them, but I do understand this mentality.
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The chances that I will lose my keys or someone will attempt to steal my truck are exponentially less likely than the chances of a failure in a system with fobs, keyless entry and I/O start switches. I base that opinion on several years of repairing all types of cars and trucks and compare dealing with failures of ignition switches pre and post the introduction of fobs.
High tech has delved into Rube Goldberg territory for marketing purposes and the result is trouble and cost for the customers.
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With immobilizer/transponder key systems I have lost a least 90% of the theft recovery repairs that I used to see in the 1990’s.
With push-to-start/proximity systems I no longer replace ignition lock cylinders, I have seen many cars towed in because of binding lock cylinders.
20 years ago we sold aftermarket replacement transponder keys for $25. If the vehicle had keys with multiple buttons for power sliding doors for example a replacement key could cost $175.
Today’s proximity keys can cost $300. People spend more than that in restaurants each month but complain about the cost of replacement keys after dropping them into the lake.
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I don’t know who are those people who spend more than $300 a month in restaurants in a month, but I guess those people are either really wealthy and can comfortably afford it, or broke and don’t understand why.
In any case, there are a long list of supposedly “convenient” features that new cars have, which I simply DON’T want. Keyless entry or chipped keys is just one of them. I will only buy a vehicle with NO power windows, NO power seats, NO sunroof/moonroof, NO remote communication features (eg OnStar or keyless entry), NO alarm/security system, NO “driver assistance technology”, NO touchscreens galore, and NO buttons on the steering wheel for anythine except the horn, and maybe cruise control (which I don’t use anyways).
I want standard hydraulic brakes with vacuum assist. I want the front wheels to be physically connected to the steering wheel, and the throttle body to be physically connected to the accelerator pedal. I do NOT want a computer doing these functions for me.
I want a 3 or 4 speed automatic transmission. No crazy number of gears to add complexity, and certainly no CVT or so-called “dual clutch” transmission.
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Planning on moving to a 3rd or maybe 4th world country soon? That may be the only place to find such a critter anymore.
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+1
Even the Mitsubishi Mirage, which was designed for 3rd World consumers, has some of those dreaded electronic/powered features. So, it would likely be necessary to move to a 3rd World country in order to find vehicles that are even more “basic” than the Mirage.
If that were the argument, I’d at least understand it, even if I still didn’t agree. But most of the time it’s “they’ll break,” followed by a rant about all the things they refuse to buy on cars, including power windows. The funny thing about that argument is that I’ve had one ignition switch failure on a vehicle the whole time I’ve owned cars, and it was a binding key cylinder. And I’ve only had one window failure, and it was in a car with crank windows. The scissor jack had broken.
I’m not saying I’m full steam ahead for all car technology. I think the rush to auto-drive is foolish and will end up being banned after it kills a bunch of people because car makers (mainly Tesla) are insistent on deploying it before it’s ready.
But power windows and push button start? They’re probably more reliable than the mechanical systems they replaced. I’m certainly not going to limit myself to only buying 30+ year old cars so that I can avoid these “reliability risks” in favor of dealing with having to constantly fix a worn out 30 year old car.
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