I discovered recently that my car ignition key can be removed even when the car is not in the Park position.

 

Anyone else come across this?

 

It seems to have the main dealer baffled !

Well yes, otherwise you would have to put it in park to get the key out.

According to my dealer you should not be allowed to remove the key unless the car is in the Park position ! Something to do with a safety precaution.

The dealer or employee at the dealer is quite possibly wrong.   Was it a sales person or at the Service Desk?

 Do they never just get into a car they sell and try one, then try another?

 

The car can be parked in N.   You might need to to service the car, or for any reason.  You need it in N if you want to turn the front wheels and not have them locked by the Pawl.

Read the Owners Manual.

The car starts in N or P, but not in N if minus 10*oC.    Unless things have changed with DQ200 DSG,s. 

Edited 10 September, 20232 yr by toot

It was the service staff - they picked up on it when it was last in for a service,  The car can be sitched off in the Drive position and the key withdrawn. I never noticed it before because I always switched on and off in the Park position.

Was it there first day working on Skoda,s or VW Group cars? 

 

Which of Scotland's amazing Motor Group Dealerships had this employee, was this West End ?

yup

We trust our nearest and dearests lives when they work on our vehicles.

On job training has a lot to answer for, or the Colleges including the ones Arnold Clark own that train too many. https://gtg.co.uk

 

9 hours ago, dbayman said:

According to my dealer you should not be allowed to remove the key unless the car is in the Park position ! Something to do with a safety precaution.

I have very little experience with automatics but it sounds like absolute rubbish to me.

 

How would you implement that on a keyless start car? Stop you from taking your seatbelt off until you put it in park, or maybe deadlock all the doors? 😂

 

 

Thanks guys for all your thoughts  -  I believe that on some VW dsgs it is indeed the case that the car has to be in the Park condition before the ignition key can be removed. That was changed for some regions to allow the ignition key to be removed when not in the Park position.  I just wondered what the case with Skoda where it is "Simply Clever"

On 10/09/2023 at 20:13, dbayman said:

Thanks guys for all your thoughts  -  I believe that on some VW dsgs it is indeed the case that the car has to be in the Park condition before the ignition key can be removed. That was changed for some regions to allow the ignition key to be removed when not in the Park position.  I just wondered what the case with Skoda where it is "Simply Clever"

 

Hmmm...it was certainly the case with our late mk1 Tiguan that the key couldn't be removed in Drive.   It was my wife's car and I'd sometimes turn the engine off as the car stopped and then be momentarily baffled by why the key wouldn't come out.  

 

Thinking about it, this is something we'll have to be careful of with our recently acquired Karoq as it's keyless, so nothing to force you to put it into Park.

Edited 17 September, 20232 yr by Rory

The key should not be able to be removed with the shifter in D.   But it should and could in N. 

Edited 17 September, 20232 yr by toot

If its in D or R and it is keyless starting and you open the door the car will not accelerate and you get a dirty great warning.  Tried it today. Car in R with engine on and the door was open.  I accidentally pressed the accelerator a bit while I was faffing with my phone before setting off and I got a loud warning and a red colour in the central console display telling me to put the car into P.  The only conceivable way you could accelerate is if the window is open and you use a long stick to press the acelerator pedal (unless its been adapted for disability (in which case I defer to someone who knows that scenario). 

Edited 18 September, 20232 yr by smipx

 

The conclusion to the question is that my 2019 DSG 1.6 TDI Karoq DOES NOT HAVE TO BE IN THE P POSITION TO REMOVE THE IGNITION KEY!

 

from the manuals pdf file - page 203 Starting-off and Driving 

  “For vehicles with automatic transmission, the ignition key can only be removed

if the selector lever is in position P (this only applies to a few countries). “

 

I phoned Skoda to try and find out what countries this applied to but couldn’t get an answer from them.

 

The dealer spoke to Skoda technical - they have confirmed that my Karoq is not fitted with the isolator switch and that the key on my vehicle can indeed be removed when in any position. 

 

So just to be clear, you can stop the car, turn off the ignition so stop the car in R, D or S and the key can be taken out the ignition. No need for it to be in N or P?    When you put the key back in the the selector where you left it what do you do?