[Chris in New England]

Hi there - I've a 2018 optima LX There's nothing that locks inside the car - like the glove compartment or trunk so anyone that gains access to the car's cabin has access to anything in the vehicle. How do you secure your stuff within the car? Has anyone adding a locking box -- years ago car stereo shops offered a locking case secured to the floor under the passenger seat to lock your removable stereo.

thanks, Chris

 

[tonester]

Wouldn't be surprised if such a feature (aka Valet mode/option) is available on higher-end Kia models. Heck there isn't even a valet key-lock trunk option--meaning that even without a key, if someone were to break into your car they can open the trunk. That even the glovebox doesn't have a keylock is Kia simply being cheap on lower-end models; to be fair they are not the only car manufacturer guilty of doing stuff like that these days.

 

[jordanhines]

Thanks for the info!

 

[Turbonut]

Never gave it much thought as how to secure objects, at least in the trunk, but being shall we say confined, decided to give it some thought.
As the fuse controls the trunk relay, fuel filler door & truck lit switch and trunk room LP, one could get creative and place a toggle switch, under the dash, into the truck lid circuit. Now we could have another problem, with the early 3G Optima's they have a truck emergency release behind the rear seat so if someone knows about the release the effort would be negated.

 

[tonester]

I don't know how much more it would have cost Kia to engineer the mechanical trunk key lock to include a valet mode lock position that you can use the mechanical key to enable but I would imagine that in the greater scheme of things it can't cost more than a dollar or two to implement it. Heck, the trunk key lock is already there and designed so that you can use the mechanical key to unlock/pop the trunk open so why not add a valet mode lock position while they're at it?

Interestingly enough, it is possible to open the trunk with the mechanical key even with the vehicle in armed mode--however, doing so will set off the alarm. I guess this is just in case someone manages to pull the mechanical key from the remote fob and is interested only in what's inside the vehicle (or trunk) rather than wanting to drive off with the vehicle itself.

Note--the above comments are applicable to the Smart Remote; I don't know if the behavior is the same for those in which a mechanical key is also required to start the vehicle.