NHTSA Complaint #11417542 — 2019 BUICK ENCORE

This car has the engine shutoff feature when stopped. My wife was waiting in the left turn lane of a major street with three lanes on her side plus two left turning lanes. Due to the busy intersection the wait for a green light is long, perhaps three minutes. The engine shut off and would not restart when she released the brake pedal. Also, almost everything electrical was inoperable, including the interior door release. My wife and granddaughter were temporarily trapped inside the vehicle. She tried the door handle, tried to put down the windows, tried to unlock the car with the keyless remote but nothing would work, she was trapped. After several attempts of trying to restart the car and hitting the unlock button on the keyless entry the doors finally unlocked. The mechanical issue turned out to be a bad car battery; it had shorted out. The safety issue is when the battery dies most components are inoperable, including the interior door release. The dealer said this is the way the car works. If an Encore were to catch fire and the electrical system gets disabled, occupants would be trapped in the car. I think it is a design flaw for the doors to not open when the battery is dead. This should be easy to replicate. Unhook the car battery. Place someone in the car and have them lock the doors. Have the person try to exit the vehicle. In hindsight, the problem was going on for some time. My wife noticed the car taking longer times to restart after shutoff. The day before this incident she was at another long traffic light where the vehicle did not start on its own but the first manual try to restart started the vehicle. I believe this was due to the car battery slowing dying. The car has not been inspected for this as the dealer said the car is working as designed. The Buick dealer replaced the car battery under warranty. One thing I wish I brought to their attention but did not is the fact that no warning light came on indicating a weak car battery.