I have a 96' accord and whenever I try to lock all four doors from my drivers door via the power locks button it will only lock the other 3 doors. The only way I've been able to lock the drivers door is by getting out, closing the door, and locking it by key which is a nuisance considering the key holes are stubborn and I live in Wisconsin and its negative -25 F haha.

Please tell me the car wasnt designed like this, and if not what might be broken?

 

On my '97, I have to hold the driver's door handle OPEN and push down on the door lock switch (or the little **** doohicky) to lock all the doors. Or, as you noted, I can use the key.

I had to read the manual to figure this out. None of my other cars behave this way.

 

This is correct performance. It is designed to prevent locking your keys in the car accidentally. You can only override by holding up on the handle as you close the door.

good luck

 

I've encountered a few cars where you needed to use the exterior door handle trick to lock the door for the driver's side, however, if you used the passenger door lock, all four doors would lock with no issue. Don't know if that holds true for the Accord of this generation or not.

 

To lock the driver's door, pull the outside or inside door handle and push the lock tab down. Release the handle then close the door. You don't have to lock it with the key.