Good morning everyone!
My car has a push button start with a smart key. As long as the key is within a certain distance of the car, I can unlock the car and start it without having to physically put a key in the ignition.
When we bought the car, I thought that feature was superfluous, until I realized that having a push button start with a smart key meant I would never have to search through my purse for my keys again. The smart key/push button start will work as long as the purse is close enough to the car with the key in it. (Not having to search through your purse is not a big deal for most people, but it is for me, since my purse is Fibber McGee’s Closet in miniature and has a talent for ensuring that whatever you are looking for at that particular moment is buried in the deepest darkest part of it.)
I managed somehow to confuse my car enough on Tuesday, though, so that it refused to start for about five minutes at lunch time. That night, just to be sure that it was a fluke and not a problem with the car, Mark and I decided to swap cars for a few days.
Yesterday I drove his Escape to Birmingham, where I had a meeting. When I finished my meeting, I got back into the Escape to leave and was very frustrated when the Escape failed to start as well – until I realized that I was pushing the air conditioning button repeatedly instead of inserting the Escape’s key in its ignition and turning it on.
Have a great day everyone!
Nancy
Tales from the Mom-Side 
So wait, you don’t have to use the key? If you are close, you just push a button on the door? That sound very cool, yet complicated, yet not complicated in the way that the car manufacturers were trying to overcome.
Love the part about not digging for keys. My purse has loads of stuff, plus the stuff that my daughter slips in there when I’m not looking (i.e. printer cartridges, spoons, small pointy toys…)
Yup, that’s right, if you are close, you push the button on the door once to unlock the driver’s side door, push it twice to unlock all of the doors, and then sit down and push the button that says “Start” on the dashboard to start the car, or stop it. (The car will only start, however, if the gear shift is in neutral or park, and if the brake pedal is being pressed at the time.) It took a while to get used to, but I really like it now!
ha, ha, ha…nice post; perhaps you should call it ‘a smart car’ instead? Having the AC button next to the Start one is a genius idea – nothing better than a little fresh air blowing in your face when utterly frustrated 😀
True, as long as you can get the car started so the air will come on!