If you’ve owned a car for a couple of years, the following has probably happened to you. You get to your destination, happily get out of the car, and shut the door, only to realize that your keys are left inside your car. It’s not uncommon for drivers to start panicking when they find out they can’t get inside the car, but if you use our simple tips, getting into your vehicle shouldn’t be a problem.
The coat hanger trick
Be careful: this trick only works for older cars. Older cars usually don’t have sophisticated protection system against break-ins, so usually you won’t have a problem with breaking in your own car. However, this solution should not be used on cars that are less than 20 years old, as well as luxury cars, because they usually have a lot of electrical wiring built into the doors that you can easily damage.
The only tool you need for this method is a metal coat hanger. Take your hanger and bend it, so that there is a straight line with a hook on one end. If the coat hanger is made from thin metal, you can combine two metal lines to get a stronger door pulling mechanism. Slip your hook between the window and the rubber weather stripping on the bottom of the window. Push the hanger low enough, but make sure not to scratch the metal or the paintjob. Then you’ll need to slightly jiggle the hanger to hook the opening mechanism. As soon as it’s hooked, pull the hanger and unlock the door.
The shoelace trick
This car opening trick works strictly for vehicles where doors open by pulling up the lock on the door panel. For this method you’ll need a reliable shoelace. Create a loop in the middle of the shoelace using your favourite looping technique. When the loop is ready, place the shoelace at the corner of the door and start sliding the string back and forth to lower the shoelace inside the car. As soon as the loop is close to the locking mechanism, slide the lace some more to place the loop around the lock. Pull the loop tight and then move it upwards to unlock the door.
Use the trunk
There is a small chance that you’ve locked yourself out of your car while the trunk is still open, you can move the rear front of seats to get into the vehicle. Of course, you need to be quite physically fit to enter the car from the trunk and move all the way to the front seats where you’ve likely left your keys. However, if you’re able to do it, this trick may once save you from stress and the costs of having a locksmith unlock your car.
How to avoid this situation?
It’s safe to say that owners of newer cars rarely have this problem, since their cars are equipped with electronic door openers that can open the vehicle from a distance and don’t require physical access to the lock. These door openers have alert systems that don’t allow the owner to lock the car while the key is still inside. Unfortunately, in case you lose your electronic car key, you’ll have to spend thousands on a new one. Besides, usually only your car dealer can order and install your new electronic car opener, so be prepared to wait from a couple of days to a couple of weeks before you’re able to drive your car again.
If you belong to the category of drivers who tend to leave their car keys inside fairly often, you can benefit from having a spare key somewhere around the vehicle where it can be easily accessed. We recommend using a special magnetic box that sticks to any metal surface on a car and doesn’t take too much space. Of course, the key box should be located securely – for example, in the engine compartment of the car, where it won’t be seen by other people but can be accessed effortlessly by you.
