Do you always turn your car off if you get out of it?

The only time I don’t, is when I park in front of my house, to check my parking.

Before I exit, I put it in park, and engage the parking brake.
If I’m satisfied with my parking, I reenter and turn it off.

The reason I don’t turn it off then, is because letting my car idle for less than an extra minute, causes less wear and tear on my ignition system.

I am sorry this happened.
Yes, I always turn off my car when I get out of it.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to tempt some people.

Not always.
If I stop for a minute at a customer’s house, I will not lock the door but (in the summer) will set the parking brake. (I have a manual transmission so there is no “PARK.” If in the winter, I don’t use parking brake but will shut off engine and leave transmission in gear.)
If I’m warming up my truck at my home I will remove the key from the ignition and lock the door. The carport is flat and the truck won’t roll away so I don’t need the parking brake here.
(It’s not a good idea to set a parking brake in the winter because it can freeze and you won’t be able to move the car until it warms up enough to thaw out.)

The only time I don’t is when I stop at the corner mailbox. It’s flat, so there’s no chance of rolling there, and in any case I’m on the sidewalk.

Otherwise, i not only turn it off but take the key and lock it, even to run back in the house for something or take the first load of groceries in.

I don’t always turn the car off if I’m getting out of it. The typical time that I am stopping and getting out of the car is when I pick up mail at my mailbox, and I’ll put it in park. If I am ever closing the door while the car is running, I will usually put the window down. Once a long time ago (different car), the door shut and locked while keys were in the ignition and that was a disaster. I know that cars now don’t allow that, but I still am cautious and so will put the window down if I am leaving the car running to get the mail. I will never leave the car running if I am stepping away from it. There are a lot of stories about car jackings from people leaving the car running and stepping away from it.

I drive a truck/van for a living so, yes, out of habit engine off, even if just expected to stop for less than a minute. Other habit is, at least while at work, always rolling the windows down no matter the weather to hear any instructions that may be coming from the dock or elsewhere, and to prevent from getting locked out of vehicle. After 30 years professional driving you pick up habits like these.

I do on rare occasions get out of my car when it’s running (NEVER when I had a manual shift, only with an automatic car). Usually, it’s when I realize I left something in my house and run back inside to get it. Even in that situation I usually turn it off.

Similar to @Acrylic I open my window if I leave my car running, so that’s a big reason I usually shut off the car, because I don’t want any bees or wasps to fly in. That probably sounds paranoid.

My newest car sets the emergency brake automatically when the car is in park, so now I am out of the habit of setting the parking brake. I was thinking if I left this car in neutral or a gear by mistake, I would not have set the emergency brake either, while in the past it would be likely I would have put the emergency brake on before exiting the car.

She had just had an accident, so she was probably a little frazzled, and maybe in a rush since now she was delayed getting to where she was going.

I always shut it off and brake it and put it in gear. Typically because I drive a Standard.

No, I will leave it on if I am just getting out for a second, like to throw something in the trash, or picking up the newspaper. But I am a fanatic about setting it in Park and applying the Parking Brake.

We have one car with remote start, start it in driveway.

I never leave it running if I am getting out of it. NEVER. Think about liability.

Update: It’s possible she had turned the car off, but it wasn’t in park. I asked someone who might know and waiting for a reply. I wish they would have said what gear the car was in in the news report. It just says not in park.

@filmfann that’s how I think. It only takes a moment for somebody to jump in your car and steal it if you leave it running. And I have my dad’s old car, and before he gave it to me he had long since lost one of the keys, so I only have the one set. So I certainly don’t want to lock myself out of the car, so the car gets turned off and locked if I’m going further than just cleaning snow off of it.

@JLeslie well considering that she was probably pretty stressed having just had even a minor accident, she may very well have done that because she might not have been focused on doing so. But what a sad, horrible incident!

@jca2 reading your response just reminded me of something that happened to me a number of years ago. I was probably in my early to mid-30s, although I would really have to try and think to figure out exactly. Anyway, I worked at a grocery store in the pricing department and the store was about 30 minutes from where I lived. I think I was still taking college courses and still living at home for a bit. Anyway, I had worked all night and when I left in the morning, it was around 5:00 a.m. and still dark. And the worst thing was that we were having sleet mixed with freezing rain, so my car was quick covered with ice and took a while to clear off. So I had it warming up while I was trying to scrape the ice off the windows, but I was very careful not to close the door all the way because if it had latched, I would have been potentially locked out of my car. Well as I was going around scraping at the windows, I really had to put some oomph into it and in the process, I leaned on the car door too much and it latched closed. At first I thought, I’m pretty sure I left it unlocked, but when I tried the door, it was locked! I didn’t know what I was going to do. My car was running, I really didn’t have money for a locksmith, and the other copy of my key was 30 minutes away at my parents house. But I called my dad and he drove all the way over from the house, in the icy weather, and brought my keys so that I could get into my car and drive home. I’ll never forget that my dad did that for me.

@LifeQuestioner for me, it was that a coworker told me that her wedding photo was in the window of a local photographer’s shop. She was divorced at the time she told me, but she said if you want to see my wedding photo, stop at this shop and you’ll see it in the window. It was at night, around 8 or 9 pm, and I was driving by so I figured let me stop and take a look. I hopped out of the car and the door locked. My cell phone and handbag/pocketbook were in the car, along with the keys (obviously, because the car was running). My mom lived about 15 minutes away from there but luckily I was right near the Fire Department. I stopped into the FD, they let me use their phone to call my mom, my mom came and took me to my apartment (about 15 minutes in the opposite direction from my mom’s), I had to run in, get the spare car key (using the spare apartment key my mom brought) and then went back to my car. The whole thing took about an hour out of my night. Even now, that the car can’t lock with the key in the ignition, I will put the window down because I don’t want any tiny chance of that disaster happening again.

@jca2 oh I understand perfectly! And further up, but I don’t know if you saw where I said it, my dad gave me his car a number of years ago, but he only had one key at the time and I was never able to find it when we were going through my parents’ stuff, so now it’s even more important that I not locked myself out of my car!

I’m like @zenvelo – put it in Park, set parking brake. When I let off of the brake pedal I make sure the car doesn’t move. Then I’ll jump out and do something quickly before getting back in. Don’t want the car to roll away.

Yes engine off car in park and emergency break on.

Yes. Except when the windshield is covered with ice in for in the winter. I start the car to let the defrosters come up to temperature that much sooner. I scrape the windshield with the engine running.
I have my door lock preferences set to not lock unless I lock them. I shut off all forms of auto locking.

Thanks for the reminder. Tragic.

@LuckyGuy I like that my car doors lock once I’m driving the car for a few seconds or reach a certain miles per hour (I think it’s ten). You don’t want that?

I set my doors to lock when I put it in gear. Keeps rif raff out if I’m not driving fast enough for the speed triggered locking.

@jca2 I only want to have my doors lock when I push the button. I want to be able to open the door when I want. Fortunately 99% of the time I don’t need to worry about carjackings or whatever, and I don’t have little kids in the car who might open the door accidentally. My cars are not locked at night.
If I am driving in a sketchy area I will lock the doors by pushing the button but that is rare.

@LuckyGuy Oh, my car doors lock automatically when I’m driving but I can still open the door from the inside any time I want, by just pulling the handle.

@jca2 – my VW has that feature. It was very useful when the car battery drained and the unlock button couldn’t unlock.