You can only unlock the car by pulling on the door handle. The touch sensor is only for locking.

 

Page 61 of the Owner's Manual says that you do need to "pull a door handle to unlock and open the door" but, if you pull quickly there isn't enough time for the door to unlock and you end up having to pull a second time. When this happens I always wonder how many of these "hard" pulls (because the lock didn't release) the handle can withstand. In fact, you just need to touch the inside of the door handle and it unlocks, then pull to open. Why not just say "touch the outside of the handle to lock, touch the inside of the handle to unlock?

 

Really? Wow, six months later and I never noticed this. Guess I was not paying close enough attention, thanks very much!

 

I think there is a similar sensor on the inside of the door handle that unlocks the door. Give it half a second to unlock after grabbing handle before pulling. My wife always grabs it and pulls immediately and gets frustrated when the door doesn't open. On a similar note, if you have seat settings for two different people using different fobs, you must lock the car in order for the seat and mirrors to move to the settings of the fob unlocking the car.

 

The functionality of the procedure required to sync fobs and seat/mirror position makes absolutely 0 sense.

 

You can only unlock the car by pulling on the door handle.

Just to be more precise about this, on my 13, simply touching the inside of the handle (the "pull surface") unlocks the car. No pull necessary.

 

Let's not too cocky with this design. This system has been the biggest problem that I've had with this car. Worked great for about 2 years. Then the drivers door and one rear door stop sensing. Dealer "fixed" both. The driver's door ever since been intermittent or not working at all. 4 trips to the dealer so far and it's gone intermittent again! The door panel has been removed so many times it now buzzes and rattles with bass notes where it was silent before. I should just give up on this and retrain myself to just use the key fob because grabbing the handle and having it not unlock or touching the pad and not having it lock (especially when you're in a hurry) is much more inconvenient than not having PCC at all.

 

A few thoughts...
1) try a different dealer
2) any "repair" they have made gets it's own 2 year warranty... so if your driver's door PCC sensor fails every year, you can keep getting new ones "forever"
3) don't hesitate to tell the dealer they suck at putting the door together and they'd better do it right next time if they want good feedback on the VCNA survey you probably get occasionally
4) if you value your time more than money (with the rattles) just pop the door panel off yourself, it's really easy - just get some of that thin foam "tape" stuff and just stick that to anything that looks loose or that might rattle and put it back together

 

I have found the lock/unlock feature to be hit or miss on mine. It probably unlocks 80% of the time when I grab the door handle, and locks only 60% of the time with the sensor. Occasionally it thinks the key is not in the car as well when I go to start it. I just got the car, but it is over a year old and I'm wondering if a battery change is in order in the PCC.