Comments on: Designers, Please Explain This Feature https://www.privatefleet.com.au/blog/automotive-design/designers-please-explain-this-feature/ News and views about cars in Australia Fri, 18 Aug 2023 13:03:55 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.5 By: Bill Nixon https://www.privatefleet.com.au/blog/automotive-design/designers-please-explain-this-feature/#comment-8263 Thu, 23 Jan 2020 12:03:10 +0000 http://www.privatefleet.com.au/blog/?p=10195#comment-8263 I have a 2019 Mustang and have not observed this yellow emergency boot opening handle inside the boot. I wonder if Ford has stopped fitting Mustangs with this device. I will have to check. To open the boot in my car you have to press a button next to the steering column or a button in the rear bumper bar, both are electrically operated. If the battery is flat the boot will not open.

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By: Kev https://www.privatefleet.com.au/blog/automotive-design/designers-please-explain-this-feature/#comment-8248 Wed, 15 Jan 2020 05:23:41 +0000 http://www.privatefleet.com.au/blog/?p=10195#comment-8248 It would seem Ford was quite confused about the boot. My old Mustang has a hidden button inside the cabin that you can push and open the boot anytime, without the keys. That said there is a yellow handle inside the boot that has a picture on it indicating a person pulling the handle then jumping out of the boot and running away! Perhaps muggings, car jackings and kidnappings in the USA are so common that a boot escape (dare I say trunk) is a necessary feature that comes standard.

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By: Paul Fletcher https://www.privatefleet.com.au/blog/automotive-design/designers-please-explain-this-feature/#comment-8245 Wed, 15 Jan 2020 04:25:05 +0000 http://www.privatefleet.com.au/blog/?p=10195#comment-8245 Your last few sentences are correct. Even though you keep crossing between “boot” and “hatch”, I guess you mean sedan. The law in NSW, if not other states of which I’m unsure, says that all taxis must have a mechanical means of opening the boot from within it and the item must be yellow. That came about after a taxi driver, Roy Savage, was locked in the boot of his taxi by assailants, some 45 odd years ago, and the car was set alight. Unfortunately, Mr Savage died. Most releases were aftermarket but Ford started making them themselves as an optional part. Such part, a piece of wire with a clevis type end to go in the boot latch and a yellow handle are still available and, in fact, fit the Camry.

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By: Bill https://www.privatefleet.com.au/blog/automotive-design/designers-please-explain-this-feature/#comment-8243 Wed, 15 Jan 2020 03:49:32 +0000 http://www.privatefleet.com.au/blog/?p=10195#comment-8243 I’ve always thought the internal boot release lever was a safety measure in case a kid got locked inside – playing or for whatever reason. It might be interesting to know the frequency of such incidences AND whether or not the internal release lever is/was required under Australian design regulations. My pet design hate is the impossibility of switching off the radio in our 2017 Mazda (but it seems the same in modern Toatoas) and the dinosaurian GPS that could learn from the simplicity and functionality of the Gamin.

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