The range with normal usage is very short though. If I'm on the driver side of the car, it doesn't work on the passenger door, and vice versa.
I still can't really fathom starting a car if I dont turn the key manually... I guess its like you say, silly until you use it
Have you tried electronics? 5,000 RPM should do the trick. 7,000 RPM for those extra-tough jobs.
And I've heard it's much easier to make it happen in ehm... older cars.
Edit: after reading some Mazda forums, it looks like you can just hold the shift button (if you have an automatic) while on park to make the radio stay on, no need for neutral or other gear. You might want to try that.
Physically pressing that button and hearing the click is enough for me. It takes some training, but it works quite well. So maybe it's your rental but most cars with the keyless entry have thought about this.
There's an edge case where if you unlock the car, the mirrors unfold, and if you don't open the door within 60 seconds, the car re-locks itself, but the mirrors do NOT fold. So you might think it's unlocked when it's not, but you won't think it's locked when it isn't.
My Prius has the "pull the door handle to unlock" method, and a push button to lock. But while opening the passenger door or trunk will unlock all doors, opening the driver door only unlocks that door. There is no way of automatically unlocking all doors from the driver side (other than the interior lock button).
Many cars unlock the driver's door only by default (assuming using a keyfob) but have the option of setting it to unlock all doors.
One neat thing about VW group cars (VW, Audi, etc) is the ability to use VAG-COM to reprogram a dizzying array of car functions. Other vehicles have this ability (BMW comes to mind) but require extremely expensive dealer-only tools to do it.
My problem was that I kept my key in my pocket, sat down, the key slid out onto the floor, I drove around which i could still do because the key was in the right area, but then I had a heck of a time trying to find the key so I could lock everything when I got out.
This is the same behavior I've used on all cars I've owned that have (push-button remote) keyless entry for, I don't know, decades?
1. Lock the car using the fob (which sounds the horn)
2. Unlock the car using the fob, and then lock it using the door button.
3. Pull on the handle.
This is one of those cases where I wish all products had open firmware, so that you can install a best-of-breed user interface on all cars (not to mention, have my car fob also work on multiple cars from different manufactures, and also on the my house door lock).
I quickly get used to it, but it's a bit of a barrier every time. But the problem is really around rental cars more than the feature being a bad idea.