I'm just old enough to remember cars with mechanical hand cranks to open the windows. You couldn't open the passenger side window if you were driving. It was dangerous to open the driver's side window if there was a lot going on. The rear passenger windows often didn't open at all in cheaper cars. The number of times you'd leave a window open by mistake was far higher because cars didn't alert you about it.
I'd much rather have electric windows that are cheap and easy to repair than reintroduce hand cranked windows, even just as a back up.
The only thing I don't like about crank windows is it's hard to roll down the passenger window while driving.
I've actually got 2 cars with crank windows and am in the process of converting one of them to power windows just because it doesn't have AC and I want an easier way to manage the windows.
The windows have no frame. They slide up into the body of the car. If the door opens, the car needs to roll the window down a bit, then open the door. Without power, none of that happens. And if you use the emergency switch, the window showers you in shattered glass. Quite an elegant system.
I've had many cars with electric windows. They all eventually failed, usually when it was raining, and the windows could not be raised. Fixing them would cost over $500. My truck now has hand cranked windows, and mechanical door locks. They're no trouble at all, and I'm happy with them.
It's absolutely unsafe to handcrank windows while driving, but when is that ever needed? I long for my old hand-cranked-window MB 200D days when my newer Toyota has 3 failed electrical windows out of four. And it's costing so much I only fixed my/driver side window.
Even though car power windows function really well because they are designed to be automated so that they go up and down with the simple press of a button, they can also be subject to auto repair. There will be times when you press the button and find out that the car power windows aren't working. There are a lot of reasons for this. Read on so that you'll know how to handle this type of auto repair on your own.
Something made my father skeptical. His chief argument was that a power window could get cranked down, and then wouldn't go up again, and you'd have a security issue. Keep in mind that this was more than 20 years ago: try 40 years ago. There is, apparently, not much to be done with power windows that break.
Perhaps TFA is about being trapped without power for the locks, but a rolled-down window can ruin your day, even if it just precipitates before you can get it going.
Interesting, nearly all of my family and friends carry a window breaker in the car. I started doing so after trying to help someone out of a car after they crashed, and realizing just how tough those windows are to break.
"And if you use the emergency switch, the window showers you in shattered glass"
I'll take "Things That Have Never Happened" for $800
Most people with no experience with the car reach for the handle rather than the button, as it's more intuitive. The window does NOT shatter when they do this. The window is up against a rubber seal. Rubber has give - it just drags along the rubber. Which you'd ideally rather not do, but it's hardly the end of the world.
(In case anyone is wondering why it's like this - the cars have frameless windows. The same applies to all cars with frameless windows - Teslas aren't the only ones. Generally higher-end cars.)
Power windows have existed since 1940, and electric since 1956.
In the US at least, safety legislation was watered down, but 2008-9 was the year they were last seriously revised and they appear to now require obstruction detection hence this recall.
The problem is not that your finger might hurt for a second but that a child's neck could be caught while they have their own finger on the switch - part of the reason most cars have a switch to disable operation of windows other than that of the driver.
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