locked out

Find a local school kid

If you have the registration and al the documentation go to the dealers and get them to supply you a new key

Are you in the AA or RAC

Surely anyone can smash a window?

As the keys are supplied by the factory you'll have to wait a couple of days if you get a replacement

Are you not a member of a breakdown organisation?

Get a wire coat hanger. Bend it 'flat' so that instead of being triangular, it's more sausage-shaped.

Slide the coat hanger down between the window and the rubber seal on door and jiggle about a bit. You'll probably be able to get some purchase on a part of the door-lock mechanism and the button will pop-up.

This worked for me on a Rover many years ago, YMMV with an Audi.

Nah., with a Howdi you're better off using that blue fabric tape stuff they use around parcels, the blue flat stuff. In through the door gap, around the inside door handle and Bob's your aunties live in lover.

The AA chap managed to unhook the ledge in 15 minutes for me 30 years ago using the same technique. This attracted quite a crowd as the car (a Honda Accord, the first shipment into the country I was told) was in a busy street in the heart of West End!

The OP can try his luck using one of these here:

That's how the AA man got into my old Passat when I did similar.

I think the crucial thing here is *old* and *many years ago*.

AFAIK more recent cars have protective guards around the vital pushrods and stuff, which make it more difficult to hook onto them. The buttons are all smooth now which stops the strapping tape method working as well as it used to as well.

I shouldn't think it's much of a problem to those in the know, though. And a rock through the window seems to be quite popular still...

Last shape Passat.

Erm, I think we're taking about different things here.

He got the strap into the passenger compartment and pulled the internal door handle somehow.

Ah, right. Yes, that would work. Barring deadlocks.

Are you talking about the stuff you strap boxes down onto pallets with etc? Metal mesh inside blue plastic?

If you have to spend money to solve the problem, why not join the AA? They have a database of break-in methods covering every car on the road.

Many modern cars are so well protected that it is usual to get in by powering up the ignition or other circuits by external means. For example, the method used for one popular medium sized car is to remove the high level brake light to obtain access to the wire that operates the tailgate lock.

Chris

Yup.

I wasn't. Mine is white ;-)

Belatedly to clarify, the ledge should corrected be termed a latch, and I had left a quarter inch gap at the top of the window, as usual, for ventilation if anyone is wondering how the improvised wire hook got to the latch. Incidentally, the fact that the AA chap had a ready gadget made out of a clothes hanger meant it was a well understood and frequently used practice, at that time.