Non Volvo car safety question please!

[Scott]

My partner (the fool) has bought one of them awful little tinny Citroen Saxo
things.....very tinny....very plasticky anyway it has a Toad alarm thing
fitted and after about 10seconds of driving it locks the doors
itself....meant to be like a anti hijacking thing.....but what i wanna know
is how safe is a car travelling with doors locked....ie if someone hits me
side on will i have more trouble unlocking door? or getting it open or
should it unlock itself when theres a smash or what?......is it safer with
the doors unlocked ?.....can anyone please tell me....for now after the
system locks the doors when im driving i just pull up the door knob and it
unlocks em all........cheers for any info

 

[James Sweet]

My partner (the fool) has bought one of them awful little tinny Citroen Saxo
things.....very tinny....very plasticky anyway it has a Toad alarm thing
fitted and after about 10seconds of driving it locks the doors
itself....meant to be like a anti hijacking thing.....but what i wanna know
is how safe is a car travelling with doors locked....ie if someone hits me
side on will i have more trouble unlocking door? or getting it open or
should it unlock itself when theres a smash or what?......is it safer with
the doors unlocked ?.....can anyone please tell me....for now after the
system locks the doors when im driving i just pull up the door knob and it
unlocks em all........cheers for any info

I really doubt it makes much difference, if you can't unlock the door then
the latch is probably jammed anyway, you can always just break a window to
get out if they're not already broken.

 

[Mark Seeley]

My partner (the fool) has bought one of them awful little tinny Citroen
Saxo

things.....very tinny....very plasticky anyway it has a Toad alarm thing
fitted and after about 10seconds of driving it locks the doors
itself....meant to be like a anti hijacking thing.....but what i wanna know
is how safe is a car travelling with doors locked....ie if someone hits me
side on will i have more trouble unlocking door? or getting it open or
should it unlock itself when theres a smash or what?......is it safer with
the doors unlocked ?.....can anyone please tell me....for now after the
system locks the doors when im driving i just pull up the door knob and it
unlocks em all........cheers for any info

Depends on where you are really... and a lot of personal preference. I do a
lot of driving in London, sometimes at night, often on my own. I tend to do
this with the doors locked (slower, less chance of a serious crash where I'd
need to get out quickly). Motorway I usually drive unlocked. The CLiffird
Concept 300 I had in my 440 previously had this "feature" and i found it
useful - check with Toad to see if it auto unlocks when the engine stops (ie
likely in a crash) or only when the ignition is turned off... the former
would be better.

Alternatively, it's usually possible (often easy) to switch this feature on
and off (as with many of its features...)... on the CLifford Concept, you
could stop it doing this without plugging in any other equipkment - just
need to read the manual to find out. Likely it's possible with the Toad
alarms too (if you get annoyed with it).

Mark

 

[Andy F]

It Should be fitted with an inertia switch which undoes the doors after an
impact and sometimes shuts the fuel supply.
I would not worry about it anyway, because if you crash that tin box into
anything then it will fold and the doors probably will need cutting open.