Here's how you start my 1947 Cadillac: You insert the key into the ignition switch on the dash, and then you press a starter button.
Here's how you start a 2008 BMW 5 Series: You insert the key into the ignition switch on the dash, and then you press a starter button.
You'd think we would have come further than that in 61 years.
Thus begins my rant for the day: why do so many automakers feel a need to answer questions that no one asked? Did BMW have customers calling and sending emails, complaining that it was too much trouble to turn a key and would you please add a starter button?
Sure, proximity keys are cool, in a power-trip kinda way. You walk up to your car, and it recognizes you from several steps away and obediently pops its locks (and if it's expensive enough, it can also move the seat and set the stereo to your preference). From there, since the automaker figures it's too much work for you to then pull the key out of your pocket, you simply press a button, the engine springs to life, and away you go.
The fact is, I like putting the key in the ignition. For one thing, I know exactly where it is. It's not digging into my leg through the pocket of my jeans, or thrown in the cupholder where I'm likely to forget it, or in this coat pocket, or ... maybe this coat pocket? For another, I'm not likely to start the car, remember something I should have grabbed in the house, go back in, come back out, and drive off with the key on the back steps. Don't laugh; people do it more frequently than you think, and once you turn the car off at your destination, it won't start again.
I'll also be more likely to remember to actually shut the car off. I still remember the night I came home with a Nissan Altima Hybrid, which uses a button to start and stop the engine. The problem is that, because it's a hybrid, the engine shuts off when you drive slowly into the driveway. So I think I can be forgiven because I forgot to turn off an engine that wasn't running anyway. Just before I went to bed I looked outside and noticed headlights, and went out to find the engine running. Night had fallen, the automatic headlights came on (because the car wasn't shut off), the battery ran down, and the gasoline engine came on to charge it. There's a drawback to having a car smarter than you are.
Back in 1949, Chrysler came out with an all-in-one key system that eliminated the starter button. It was hailed as a revolutionary breakthrough, and became almost universally adopted within a few years. No one wanted to be stuck pushing an old-fashioned button. I wonder what those drivers would think of us today.
