16 May 06
Locking your car keys in your car is a right palaver - especially if you don't have a spare set to hand.
Locking your keys in your car along with your four month-old daughter, while your hormone-addled wife has an emotional meltdown on the driveway sits a little higher on the palaver scale.
It was easily done. Late for a doctor's appointment, I bundled Amelia, complete with car seat, into the passenger seat, strapped her in, unthinkingly lobbed the keys over to the driver's side of the car as I did so, closed the door... and with a jaunty flick of its indicators The Red Car locked itself. Oh dear.
I knew that all Volkswagen Group cars have a sophisticated locking and alarm system, but in typical bloke style, I didn't bother to read the instruction manual when the car arrived. I'm a man. I don't need to be told how to do things.
Had I read the security section of the Skoda's guide, however, I would have understood Skoda's safety locking system: if the car is unlocked using its central locking plipper but the front door isn't opened, the car will, as a safety precaution, automatically lock itself after a short period of time.
Fortunately, Cliff the AA man arrived within 15 minutes of our saga and within another 15 minutes had the car open and Amelia safely in her mother's arms. Naturally she slept through the whole event - and was slightly miffed by being woken up half-way through her morning nap by a gibbering and incoherent mother.
Cliff himself broke into a bit of a sweat when he first saw the Skoda - they are apparently one of the most difficult cars to break into. Having a pair of anxious parents only adds to the pressure.
