Sorry for not posting last night.

I've looked up Rheingold and couldn't find anything relevant.

What ard suggested may work however if the problem is with the lock itself you may be SOL. And removing the wheel well is a royal PITA.

My suggestion was to remove the center plastic under the car and using a long hook (perhaps made out a coat hanger) go up and trigger the lock.

Yeah, my thought too... just that the location of the cable in relation to the coolant reservoir would make a lot of sense. (I literally just popped the hood last week, so it was working fairly recently--but who knows? Maybe something else busted that day.)