Thanks, Ol' Grouch. Typically I'm driving the cars but sometimes = weather, it's not possible.

While we're on this subject has anyone seen what I would term "last gasp" from the car? And what I mean by that is one day I went to the garage and the trunk was open, battery dead. So instead of having to crawl through the back seat to open the trunk the trunk was open. Has anyone seen or experienced this? I have had dead batteries where this did not happen. Just curious.

 

I've never heard of that but if it's a design feature, it is a good idea.

I bought a '98 Crown Vic several years ago and the owner had never used the key in the truck, Just the button. I tried to get it working but dirt and salt had rusted it solid. This was a former police unit. It's a good thing I checked it. P71 police cars may LOOK like a regular Crown Vic, but there are differences. Civilian sway bar end links were $40 or so back then. Police spec. ones were $125. The lock cylinder on a P71is totally different too. A regular lock was easy to remove and ran around $50 for a new cylinder. Police cars ran $175 and took the lock smith nearly an hour to replace. At least they managed to rekey it to fit the other keys.

With all the computers, I'm pretty well done with newer cars. My CX-5 is just barely understandable to me.

 

I'm not familiar with the car specifically, but my thought would be did the truck get popped and the light being on drain the battery? It seems everything is pretty battery friendly anymore with lights timing out after so much operating time, but just a theory.