I'm looking at the new Town & Country minivan- some have a feature called Enter-n-Go. Apparently if you're within a certain distance from the door with the key fob, all you have to do is touch the door handle and it will unlock. Is anybody familiar with this? I can think of a number of situations where you just want to get in an lock the doors- for example if you're traveling and need to pull over into a rest stop for a nap, you're going to have the key fob with you in the car, which will be like leaving the doors unlocked- most of the time not an issue, I usually like to lock doors for a time it could be an issue. I like the feature in general, but is there a quick way to lock the doors and keep them locked if needed?

Thanks

Had that type of system on two vehicles now.
At first you will find it a real PITA but you eventually adapt to it
(Editorial: why doe WE have to adapt to it? Rant over.)
Absolutely every worst case scenario you can come up with (What if... But what if... Yah, but if...) has been addressed by the 18 year old coders staying up all night on energy drinks.

I'm not familiar with the current Enter-n-Go but if it works transparently for 75 YO grandparents bordering on Alzheimers, you won't even have to give it a second thought after a week.

Ask the salesman or read the owner's manual,
these systems are pretty foolproof and offer many user changeable
options on locking/unlocking.

You have to be within a couple of feet on my car for the doors to unlock with a touch.

You also have the ability to use the buttons on the fob to control
security.

Joe

The doors will still lock at 15 mph I believe(my buddy's 300 does) You still have all the fob options as well as the buttons inside to lock doors.Push button start I assume? You will actually learn to like it......I don't have to wait for the wife to fumble around the purse for a key...just grab the door handle(I have the feature on a '13 Taurus) However I'm sure it will get pricey if it stops working

Thanks for the replies. I read the T&C owners manual downloaded from the Chrysler website- it tells how it works, but doesn't say anthing about what, if any, overrides there are...

The system seems to be able to tell if the key is inside or outside. My wife tried to lock her purse in the car, of course with the fob in it, wouldn't lock.

Robert

Thanks! That's interesting- that would pretty much address the concern I have.

my wife's Toyota has it along with push button start.

the car *THINKS* it's smarter than you are.

here's some things I've noticed with it.

Key in the car or in your pocket, at a car wash, the high pressure from the hose apparently simulates a hand touching the door handle. if you leave the key fob in the car, you get the long audible tone that says "hey dummy, you can't lock your keys in the car" and it continues off and on the whole time you're trying to wash the car. if it's in your pocket outside the car, the doors will constantly lock and unlock, and give you the loud double beep that says the doors just locked/unlocked.

both situations are extremely annoying.

Key fob inside the car, you can hit the lock button the the door, shut the door, and the car automatically unlocks the doors, along with another long "you can't do that!" tone.

Sometimes when trying to lock the doors while standing outside, you have to caress the handle in just the right way to get the car to lock. but never had it hesitate to unlock when you first walk up to the car and grab the handle.

If you are in the car, pull over and stop, but remain sitting in the car with the doors closed, and you hit the lock button, the doors will lock, because the car 'knows' that you're still sitting in the seat. I don't know if this is based on weight sensors in the seats (they have them to control the airbags) or if it's in the computer logic--"ok, we were just driving, door never opened, so someone must still be sitting in the seat, so it's ok to lock the doors now"

on the push button start/stop, it does NOT function as an emergency kill switch. I've tried to turn the engine off while driving and in gear. it won't turn off. I've tried it while moving and in neutral. it won't turn off. Apparently when the engine DOES turn off, it's going to also automatically lock the steering wheel so they don't want you to be able to do that while still moving.

so...what happens if you're driving and you get the run-a-way toyota problem? at least on my wife's car, you CAN still shift it into neutral while moving, so if it happens, you end up in neutral with a motor bouncing off the rev limiter while you safely brake to a stop and then turn the engine off.

Her traction control system also thinks it knows better than you and if you turn it off, but it detects excessive wheel spin, it will over ride your choice, and turn itself back on automatically. I discovered this once during a snow storm when I preferred to have some wheel spin here and there such as when starting out from a dead stop. the system would detect wheel spin and cut off the motor, leaving you sitting there at idle with a green light and cars behind you getting upset because you're not moving.

Overall, I find the whole system annoying and intrusive, because it stops you from doing things you may want to do under certain odd circumstances, but for the average everyday soccer mom who just gets in, starts the engine and drives while yapping on the cell phone and barking orders at the kids, it's probably a wonderful system.

Oh, and there have been a few instances where, while sitting in the car, with key fob in your pocket, the car has said 'no key' and would not start. I had to get out of the car and stand up so I could retrieve the fob out of the bottom of my pocket, get back in, and hold it up to the dash as if to say "see, I DO have my fob, now start!"

my wife has also had to pick her purse up off the floor to get the car to "see" the fob and allow it to start....while other times, the fob can be in our luggage in the back of the car and it will start up just fine.



I've also talked with Gus about the key fobs. his advice...DO NOT LOSE ONE!!! the key fob has a unique serial number that the PCM in the car can read. It then confirms that this serial number matches the number stored in the cars memory, and validates that it's the correct key fob to allow it to work. If you lose a key fob, you have to not only buy another *expensive* key fob, but also pay the dealer an hour of labor to reprogram the PCM in the car to recognize that key fob.

good news is you can at least change the battery in the key fob yourself, and not have to worry about losing memory to anything and having to go to the dealer, since none of the security programming is in the fob itself, it's all in the cars computer.

anyway...that's how it all works on the Toyota stuff. I cannot tell you if the Chrysler is the same way or not, but I imagine it's pretty similar

if it's like my 2011 charger, it's not a big deal and not as scary as you think.

you actually have to touch the underside of the door handle to unlock the door. once you're in the car, you can lock the doors manually and they'll stay locked, but like others said, you can't lock the FOB in the car (I presume it's using the weight sensors in the seat for the airbags)...it also won't let you lock the fob in the trunk (trunk will pop open)...it's actually quite convenient, and I like it, IMHO

Washing the car with the fob in your pocket is probably a bad idea, especially if you've got it on accessory and the rain sense wipers turned on!

I can shut the engine down by pressing and holding the start button, takes two or three seconds, works in or out of gear. I'm slightly uncomfortable with the computer having to acquiesce if I want the car shut off. As the car comes to a stop it shifts itself into park, another annoyance. Unless the engine is running, it will NOT shift out of park. Sometimes I just want to push it a short distance, no can do anymore. I don't think it locked the steering, seriously doubt it, now I'm going to have to check.

Traction control should be off by default. There are some rare instances (ice storm) when I would appreciate that feature. The rest of the time, NO.

My dealer offered a key fob policy at a nominal fee, I can get up to five new fobs for $25.00 ea., no reason required. I don't know if that would allow me to have more than two fobs though?

On occasion the car didn't "see" the key, the second attempt (so far) has always worked, never showed the car the fob though? The car is pretty smart and has cameras so I suppose that would work?

Robert