Lord Muc, i tried the resistance with the boot. My cousin ended up pulling her daughter out of harms way in the end as it was so close, when I then checked the boot door…it didnt work on the first two goes and I was petrified that it was broken! I tried a third time and it seemed ok, I def prefer the manual style over electric even tho the ease of use is brilliant. ?
Lou – I have no knowledge of the Q3, but if the electric tailgate safety function works the same as the VW’s and BMW’s that I have had with it, the closing tailgate has to meet resistance before it will stop and then re-open slightly. In other words, it doesn’t stop before it hits something, it has to actually hit the obstruction before it reacts. It will apply some force to the obstruction first, before it reacts, otherwise it would be a pain trying to close it with a full boot. As someone else has said, the way to check if it works is to stand behind the car, press the close button and, as the tailgate is closing, grab the bottom of it as if you are trying to open it manually. You will need to do this quite firmly for the safety feature to activate.
I am in and out of the boot constantly with my wife’s wheelchair. The safety feature was a bit of a pain on the Tiguan as the boot was a very tight fit for the wheelchair and the tailgate would often not close without a manual shove to override the safety reverse, or moving the rear seats forward slightly. Thankfully the boot on our X1 is a bit bigger so the wheelchair fits with ease and the safety feature never activates, but I have tested it as described above to make sure that it works.