I have a feeling this is one of the reasons that the inside door handles break off on HHRs.

Not from the owner's perspective who know how the car operates, but passengers who are unfamilar to the car intuitively pull the door handle when the car is stopped to get out.

People are generally not used to unlocking the door first, then pulling the handle. Slight inconvenience until the broken door handle is waving in the hand of the passenger.

This wasn't as much a problem when I had my CTS, which was an auto and when the car was in park, it unlocked. But with my SS, it is a manual and the doors do not self unlock unless you shut the engine down.

My practice as the driver is to unlock the doors by pressing the button as soon as the car stops if I am giving someone a ride (such as dropping my daughter off at school).

I haven't had a broken door handle yet and am trying to avoid engineering a repair for it.

 

BINGO!!! If you have an auto, no problem, but if you want to get the mail, or drop someone off, with a manual you must unlock the door before you waste your time pulling the handle. As ChevyMgr told me, "fight another battle", but it is a grave annoyance on a daily basis, THAT JUST SHOULDN'T BE! That's it for me, it's a long dead horse. However, I sincerely hope that the NHTSA toad that inflicted this on us has every door in his house with an auto lock that can't be defeated, all with a different key, except for the bathroom, which will require two keys, both different!!

 

I 100% agree. I should be able to disable the auto lock feature completely but you cannot. Simple question simple answer. I wish some responders would stick to that credo.