Steering when parked

[LastMinute]

This is fascinating - great advice here

http://www.carsafe.org/steering_locks.html

Ah - the California Driver Handbook. I remember finding a few gems in that when I was at university in California:

• In the section 'During The Driving Test':
  "You will not be tricked or asked to do anything illegal."
• Among the reasons why the Department of Motor Vehicles may refuse to grant you a licence:
  "If you do not have the skill to drive."
• "You may not make a U-turn on a one-way street."
• "Do not park ... your car on ... a railroad track."
• "It is illegal to shoot firearms ... at traffic signs."
• "You may be arrested if you drive for sight-seeing purposes to the scene of a fire, accident, or other disaster."
• "It is a traffic offense to scare horses or stampede livestock."

do not remove key from ignition whilst driving!

On a W124 (and most other M-Bs, I imagine), you can't. (Specifically, you can't remove the key unless the automatic transmission in is Park.)

 

[Ade B]

Once whilst filtering at about 2mph through a particularly tight gap in Kings Cross my Vespa suddenly stopped and half threw me across the bonnet of the adjacent car.... the kick start had caught on the out-turned wheels of a parked car...


Ade

 

[MBManInKen]

Really, I am surprised by that. Surely that renders your car accessible to a random tow away.

I will need to check my manual for the details of the protection on my 220, but without the right key present, you can't move the gearbox out of park (and you can't remove the key if the box has not been put into park). That might be part of an alternative to the traditional key lock.

Obviously the alarm will also go off when you try to tow it, but I'm not sure that's much of a deterrent these days .