Pet peeve? Cars that honk their horns to announce doors un/locked or alarm status

[MetroMPG]

This is something that's been in the back of my mind for a long time. Whenever I hear a car horn honk when its owner presses the remote, I wonder why the car makers couldn't have used something a bit more... subtle.

It's annoying, and the "beep" is usually unnecessarily loud. (Some automakers are worse than others.)

Don't we have enough ambient noise already? Every year, the number of vehicles making this sound increases significantly... probably.

Anyway, what got me thinking about this again? Someone actually started a petition to bring this to the attention of the automakers:

Auto Industry: Eliminate horn honking from convenience-based vehicle technologies

Environment Petition: Auto Industry: Eliminate horn honking from convenience-based vehicle technologies | Change.org

102 signatures so far. Not a lot, but I bet it gets a lot more.

My sister's Toyota makes a digital "beep" sound when you use the remote. My brother's Dodge Caliber, on the other hand, makes a too-loud "honk" of the regular horn. To me, one says "somewhat sophisticated", while the other says "look at me! I'm cheap and annoying!"

My 2000 Honda Insight is the first car I've ever had with remote locking. It doesn't honk at all. You need to watch the blink of the signal lights, or listen for the actual click of the lock mechanism.

Most of the time I just use the physical key anyway, to save power.

[Old Mechanic]

I know that on some you can disable the horn portion of the locking confirmation. It should be in the owners manual, but that assumes someone actually reads the owners manual. You know one of those weird hyper milers.

regards
Mech

[MetroMPG]

Oh. I wonder if I can set the UFO's locking thingamajig to be annoying then?

Automakers should make "quiet" and/or "subtle" the default, and "annoying" the user-settable option. (If it must exist at all.)

[larrybuck]

Just one more reason not to like newer cars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JC Whitney used to sell an aftermarket horn/siren thing that could make like 26 different sounds, many of them were barnyard animal sounds.

With everything supposedly so high tech, for most people's use, would'nt the blinking lights be confirmation enough?

After all, a deaf personcan legally drive a car, not a blind one, though in todays
traffic I wonder!

I'd rather hear 5 seconds of a Joe Satriani guitar riff than a car horn, or a churp!

[MetroMPG]

Just noticed one of the comments for the petition:

I am the President of the UK Noise Association and been campaigning on this noise issue for many years. It is an international problem not just confined to the US

[FXSTi]

I just want to add my own pet peeve to your list.

Cars that turn off the headlamps when the ignition is turned off. It is annoying as heck to be sitting in my car and wanting to shine deer or other critters in the backyard and have only the parking lights come on because the ignition is not turned on. It is also a PITA when I want to fas at night.

Kirk

[cfg83]

Old Mechanic -

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

I know that on some you can disable the horn portion of the locking confirmation. It should be in the owners manual, but that assumes someone actually reads the owners manual. You know one of those weird hyper milers.

regards
Mech

I took apart my remote and disabled the "honky horn" button. That doesn't stop what you are talking about, but at least I won't set it off by accident.

MetroMPG -

The *remote* could give off a little beep when the car sends back a confirmation message. But that would require more pri$ey two way communication.

I suspect that in short order new cars will be "smartinized" so that your iThing will be able to lock it.

CarloSW2

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by cfg83

I suspect that in short order new cars will be "smartinized" so that your iThing will be able to lock it.

Which of course raises the possibility of causing your car to honk from the other side of the world.

Which of course raises the question: if you un/lock your car from far away with your iThing, should it make a sound?

Which reminds, me... if a tree falls in the forest...

[jamesqf]

I've never been able to really understand why people use those stupid remote lock things anyway. You put the key in the door, you turn it: what could be simpler?

[MetroMPG]

But think of the precious time savings!!

(And I for one can never remember which way to turn the key in the door lock.)