Bonnet release

[Seriously?]

I've just discovered a bit of a Leon design epic fail.
Mrs's car is parked down the drive with the passenger side close to the wall of the house. I need to get under the bonnet to check oil/top up washer bottle, so climb in the drivers door and reach across to the bonnet release........ which can't be operated if the passenger door is shut

 

[walshy]

I've just discovered a bit of a Leon design epic fail.
Mrs's car is parked down the drive with the passenger side close to the wall of the house. I need to get under the bonnet to check oil/top up washer bottle, so climb in the drivers door and reach across to the bonnet release........ which can't be operated if the passenger door is shut

@Seriously? Seriously?

I don't think I've ever seen that before on a car

 

[Big Col]

yeah, I encountered this feature as well

Parked with the passenger side hard against the wall of the house. I'll just reach over and pop the bonnet, err hang on...

 

[Seriously?]

@Seriously? Seriously?

I don't think I've ever seen that before on a car

Yep, obviously not really thought about enough when translating the car to RHD - a bit like my VW T5 where you can't open the fuel filler without the passenger door being open....

 

[Daire92]

I always assumed it was a safety feature that prevented the bonnet from being accidentally opened by a passenger while driving in the car either by accident or stupidity(i.e children)

 

[Walone]

I always assumed it was a safety feature that prevented the bonnet from being accidentally opened by a passenger while driving in the car either by accident or stupidity(i.e children)

I believe you are correct, but it's not much of a problem on LHD cars because the driver can just open his door, but I needed to open my bonnet today to put the battery on charge while I was doing some work inside the car I just had enough clearance in my garage to open passenger door from inside and open the bonnet. I'm sure many makes of car swap the bonnet release depending on whether it's RHD or LHD at least they used too.

 

[markrtw]

It's the same on skoda (at least our octavia). The big problem is that they overlooked on rhd cars - if you have a flat battery you can pull the cover off the driver's door handle and use the key to open it manually, but you cannot unlock and open the passenger door to release the bonnet and get to the battery. The only option is to get one of those battery saver things that you plug into the cigar lighter power socket and hopefully it will supply enough power for the central locking to work. A couple of years ago the pistonheads long term test octavia vrs had this exact issue. The dealer and head office had no idea how to resolve it - the AA man had the idea of trying the battery saver!

 

[Seriously?]

I must admit, when I discovered this 'feature' the train of thought moved on to the flat battery scenario.
I didn't realise the passenger door wouldn't open if you open the drivers door manually.
My thought was to open the car manually, then push it backwards until the obstructed passenger door was clear.
A damn fine plan - apart from the electronic parking brake