 

A couple years ago some guys in Washington state murdered their friend by intentionally locking him inside of their car, then abandoning him, leaving him to asphyxiate inside. It was in winter, and at night time. It wasn't carbon monoxide because the car was off. When he was found in the morning he was already dead from asphyxiation. 

The car was off and the doors were locked. I'm not sure what model car it was, but it looked recent. Some (most?) cars don't allow you to unlock the doors if it's been locked with the fob (BMW said their reason was to keep car thieves inside of the car). I was really confused about the whole thing, so I did some researching. For a modern car with the engine off, the air is replaced in the cabin every one hundred hours or so, but with the volume in the car, one person will only survive for maybe ten hours before they fall unconscious, so the tiny amount of air coming through the seals wouldn't be enough. Older era cars were very leaky by comparison, but modern cars are designed to be as airtight as possible (there are even ways manufacturers test for air tightness) with the only worthwhile source of fresh air being the front vent. When the car is off the vents automatically seal shut. This is designed in to keep things like mice out of the vent when the car is not in use and it's a modern car thing.

I can't help but wonder, would it have been panicky or would it have felt more like falling asleep? What type of thoughts would be running through his head? How long could he have been awake for in there? He was found lying down in the rear set of the car.

Before I heard of this I loved cars but now I can't look at them in the same way again because I keep remembering this. I almost feel..idk, disgust? I don't know why, there's just something really disturbing and unsettling about a comfy car turning into a sealed death trap that slowly killed someone over the course of several hours. The car wouldn't let him out nor would it let him open up the vent so he could get some air. Not carbon monoxide, cold, or heat, but...literally running out of air. The thing with power locks, power windows..the only (significant) source of air closing up once the car is off. Just seems so freaking unnerving. I'm wondering if this is normal.