Panic button a bad idea. Disable it?

I always assumed horns honking in a parking lot were people fumbling with their car alarms. Now after buying a new car (an end-of-year 2003 G.M.) I understand that it's probably people accidentally touching the "panic" button on their remotes ..like me. Mine has gone off maybe 6 times in in a month-and-a-half just taking keys in and out of my coat pocket. I'm starting to carry my keys around like eggshells, ...and tired of waking up my retired neighbors when I leave for work. Whose dumb idea was the panic button anyway? That's why God gave us vocal chords. Is there anyway to disable it?

Reply to
M.Burns
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Sure- you can take the remote apart and put a little piece of tape over the circuit board where the panic button (almost certainly an molded conductive elastomer overlay similar to a TV remote) contacts it.

Reply to
Mark Olson

In our extremely litigious society, can you imagine the lawsuit against a dealer and automaker if a customer who had the panic button disabled were to be mugged, carjacked or killed near their vehicle?

Multiple millions. You won't get the dealer to disable it.

KennyH

Horsepower is cheaper than therapy.

Reply to
KHanawalt

I just did mine this morning. Open the key fob and lift out the rubber with the circuit board in it. Peel the rubber back, and you'll see the little gray contact point that presses against the circuit. I used an exacto knife (or a razor blade) and cut the gray part off. No more contact. Takes about

Reply to
George

Spilled Pepsi on my remote and one button isn't working. OP: Same principle, put two droplets of super glue on the undesirable button gaps.

I'm not lucky enough to live near seniors so, a panic button is a good idea. I even configured my car to activate a panic button if the car isn't started in a certain fashion. I even keep a baseball-bat in my trunk. And yes, if you step the gas to the floor, an ignition coil is activated under the right foot...

One other thing... I urge Californians to drive a petition against felons. Hey, to all you felons, WE'RE TRYING TO LIVE, here. Indi

Reply to
Indian Summer

Reply to
Mike Behnke

We can only hope. Unfortunately, the legal process isn't always that reasonable.

How much did that lady get from McDonald's for spilling hot coffee on her crotch? A few million, I believe.

A tobacco company was ordered to pay millions to the family of a life-long smoker after the guy died. Incidentally, the deceased jokingly referred to cigarettes as "coffin nails" throughout his life.

Gun manufacturers are sued because their product worked properly, and they are ordered to pay millions.

I would laugh the key-fob panic button case out of court. There are apparently many juries out there who wouldn't.

KennyH

Horsepower is cheaper than therapy.

Reply to
KHanawalt

Different kettle of fish. The reason for the large award was that McDonalds' made the dangerous assumption that you were not going to actually touch their drive-through coffee before you got to work (ie, not in the next twenty minutes), so to insure that your coffee was still hot after that delay, it was served at a temperature that would instantly produce an injury if you spilled it. Their not-quite-boiling-hot coffee was a lawsuit waiting to happen. We ponder about the woman's intelligence, because we do not drink McD's drive-thru coffee, or because we have never touched the cup before we got to our destination.

Reply to
Richard Bell

Reply to
Bob Hetzel

A couple other points you never hear about this infamous case is that the woman had to undergo extensive and as you can imagine very painful skin grafts to her groin area as a result of the accident. It's just not reasonable to expect that kind of injury from a commercial food product. Plus McDonalds and other fast food places like Burger King had already settled quite a number of similar injury cases out of court at the time of this one, and should have known there was a problem. Another fallacy is that these suits are "clogging the courts". My understanding is that far more civil court time is taken up around business issues, like one company suing another over patent & copyright infringement, than is being devoted to tort cases. Unfortunately the public is being effectively convinced to give up what is often their only avenue of redress in cases of injury at the hands of large, power economic entities such as corporations in the name of "tort reform".

Dan

Reply to
Dan

bullshit. If I were to buy coffee at any drive thru and spill it between my legs I would fully expect to experience some pain and suffering. Hot coffee is not made to spill on yourself.

Their not-quite-boiling-hot coffee was a lawsuit

Only if you pour it between your legs. Didn't your mama ever tell you "be careful it's hot?" or would you sue her too?

We ponder about the woman's intelligence, because we do

I do it all the time and constantly burn the tip of my tounge. Hell I even put a cup between my legs once to drive around the corner to work and guess what happened? I turned a corner and clinched my thighs together and spilt half a cup of hot coffee on my crotch. I didn't consider suing anyone but felt like a total idiot for ever doing that. I have not done it since either. We question her intelligence for the same reason.

People in this country, America, are in the mindset that if something bad happens to you you are entitled to a winning that rivals any lottery. The epitome of this is the 09.11 debacle in NY.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ end of rant

Reply to
entropious

How many weeks were you hospitalized for? And what about skin grafts? Lots?

Reply to
Stephen Bigelow

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