Many years ago I had a company car with an aftermarket alarm system. The car could sense when the transmitter was near and it would automatically unlock the car. So as I approached the car it would unlock and chirp the horn, and as I walked away from the car it would lock and chip the horn twice. I never had to touch the fob. It was awesome. I ended up having an extra key made and I cut off the head of the key so that when it was inserted in the ignition is was virtually invisible. I never had to reach in my pocket to grab the keys. I could just walk up to the locked car, it would automatically unlock, and then I could start it because the "invisible" key was already in the ignition.

I test drove a Cadillac CTS a few weeks ago and it works essentially the same way. You don't have to take the key out of your pocket to start the car. As long as the car senses that the key is nearby it allows you to start the car by pressing the "Start" button.

So... does anyone know of an aftermarket alarm system that works the way I described? I'd love to be able to walk up to the car and have it unlock automatically.

 

While you're at it Reverend, can you get us a Push button engine start and stop too? Thanks, I'll wait a few days until you have the package ready to be shipped.

 

Keyless Ignition & Push Button Start from Digital Guard Dawg

 

Waaay back in 1996 my Covette had that feaure and you're right, it was great - reliable and extremely convenient when your hands were full. And, it always remembered to lock the car - something I don't do.

Why don't good, simple, ideas like that stick around and become more common instead of becoming more complex to the point of uselessness?

To wit, my girlfriend's brother has an $800 add-on device that starts, stops, times, measures, monitors, lights and reports on vehicle operations but guess what - won't unlock the doors until you pull it out, awake it from sleep mode, navigate to the security interface and select the door you want opened and press the button a certain way. He loves to show it off at the Saturday BBQ but it but day-in-day-out his wife just uses the key - faster, easier. A tehnology-enabled leap backward!

The idea works fine in a lab on a test bench I guess, but what wonky digit-head dreams this stuff up for use in real life?

Now, the remote top-open/close idea (RTO/C) from yesterday's posts is a great example of a user generated idea that is obviously in great demand.

 

On my car I'd have to hold the button down for ten seconds. Thanks for reminding me.

 

That would be great. In my rural area, the true test would be to find someone I'd trust to install it. I think that's a little above my abilities.

I had a guy put a remote start into an older model GMC and he really screwed that up - he was new

 

My 2006 VW Touareg has passive keyless entry, just like my 1994 Corvette did. I love it. I am already planning on adding it to my new to me 2002 XKR.

I found this website, looks like they have a product that will meet my needs and will allow me to lose the need for an ignition key as well.

Gallo Tech

I am not endorsing this product, just simply found it and thought I would share with everyone that may be interested. It does allow you to replace the standard ignition with push button start. Which is cool.

If I get it, I will try to take good pictures and document the install.

 

Thanks Jeffrey! That's exactly what I was looking for. I'm still going through all of the FAQs, but it looks like it will work with the Jag. I wonder how it deals with the chip in the key.

 

I am sure that it uses some kind of witchcraft to get past the chip in the key. ;-)

 

That reminds me of a TopGear episode a couple of years ago when they went to San Francisco and they had a Dodge Challenger with this feature. They were able to start the car in the parking lot with the transponder inside the restaurant and drive it about 100 feet before it died in the middle of the road.

 

Dittos from me from my way way back 1995 Corvette. At first I was annoyed at certain aspects of this feature. For example, if I walked near the car and was talking with someone but did not get in right away, the car would unlock and honk, then lock and honk, then unlock and honk, etc. To get it to stop I would have to at least open the door. And then there was the chance that the keys would get locked in the car (this was remedied by rocking the car so that the fob would move a bit). However, over time I really got to appreciate the passive locking/unlocking feature and wish there were some way that this could be easily/cheaply programmed into the Jaguar.


Doug

 

I like the idea of keyless entry - but to make it perfect, it would also need a light level detector, temperature sensor and rain sensor, so that it would also automatically drop the roof if the weather conditions were right.

 

This is what I call a keyless entry , I presumed MB W220 first ever used this cool feature .

 

That's EXACTLY how it worked. That was back in the days before cell phones (at least in backwoods North Carolina) and I was always having to stop and use pay phones. If I was standing too close to the car it would continually lock and unlock and chirp the horn. The fob didn't transmit continuously. It had a little BB in it and if the BB didn't move for a minute or two the transmitter in the fob would stop transmitting. If the keys were in the car when that happened, the doors would lock. There were many times when I stood on the bumper and jumped up and down to get the car unlocked.

I was thinking that it was an aftermarket system that my company had had installed, but that car was a Chevy Lumina. Yours was a Chevy Corvette. Maybe that was just the factory system at the time. If so, I wonder why they stopped using it. It was awesome!

 

You are right! I totally forgot about that but it was a real pain sometimes.

As I move through middle age I only remember the good things, thankfully. Someday I'll only remember the beauty and fun of the Jaguar and not the PITA it was to keep it running. I guess I have to earn my good memories.

 

I should also have added that the passive system that Chevy (and presumably other GM cars) used could be turned off any time. For example, if I was working on the car and had the fob in my pocket, pressing and holding one of the fob buttons would turn off the automatic system. Also, if I recall correctly, the system could be set to lock/unlock one or both doors.

Folks sometimes belittle GM but, in many ways, they were the first to come out with "state-of-the-art" features, especially on their higher-end models. Having the passive system on my Corvette always made me wonder why more cars did not have this--the pluses were much more than the minuses.


Doug

 

The only concern I would have is that if there are not enough unique frequencies and codes avaliable, someone walking past your car might unlock it. Sounds like a longshot, but last year I had the XJ8 at the dentist's office and when I pushed the unlock button, a BMW 3 cars down beeped at me. Another push of the button locked it back up. They did have some really nice stuff in the trunk. (Just kidding.)

 

So I have an 09 XF (the model with out keyless entry) and really want the addition. Would this work with my Jag?

 

I'd like to know if anyone installed either of these systems and if so, how do the look and work?

Mark