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> I'd always be thinking that one day, it's going to shut down at a stop sign and not start back up.
This is a fear that...people who have had old cars will never lose.
I think it's a very valid fear. Think about it this way: with the current trend of cars being in use longer and longer (the mean age of vehicles on the road in USA is itself ~8 years) the poorer guy who buys one of these in used condition is going to suffer. If some fancy electronics inside the car breaks, no big deal; but if it's becoming unreliable due to age, the last thing you want is a car that is programmed to automatically kill its engine at each red light/stop sign.
I think it's a very valid fear. Think about it this way: with the current trend of cars being in use longer and longer (the mean age of vehicles on the road in USA is itself ~8 years) the poorer guy who buys one of these in used condition is going to suffer. If some fancy electronics inside the car breaks, no big deal; but if it's becoming unreliable due to age, the last thing you want is a car that is programmed to automatically kill its engine at each red light/stop sign.
If that's a concern, then one should be concern about shift by wire as well. They too will eventually be the norm.
My friend just picked up a '12 328i automatic with Start/Stop a couple weeks ago and he let me take it for a test drive. Granted it was only for an hour but the start-up at long signals is hella annoying. There's a huge shudder, more so than when you first push the ignition. And then the S/S system kills the engine at odd times, like when slowly decelerating on a busy freeway offramp. There are times when you almost have to feather the accelerator to feed it more gas so that it doesn't shut off. Good thing you can actually turn it off. I heard in real world driving the S/S feature only saves 1 or 2 mpg.
My friend just picked up a '12 328i automatic with Start/Stop a couple weeks ago and he let me take it for a test drive. Granted it was only for an hour but the start-up at long signals is hella annoying. There's a huge shudder, more so than when you first push the ignition. And then the S/S system kills the engine at odd times, like when slowly decelerating on a busy freeway offramp. There are times when you almost have to feather the accelerator to feed it more gas so that it doesn't shut off. Good thing you can actually turn it off. I heard in real world driving the S/S feature only saves 1 or 2 mpg.
S/S does not kill the engine unless you come to a full stop.
Now I am going to have ot time some lights. I am surprised to hear lights last longer than 90 seconds. I cannot imagine sitting at one for minutes. Maybe I do and just do nto realize it, but i woudl think I would probably just go when traffic cleared in that case. I am not that patient.
> I'd always be thinking that one day, it's going to shut down at a stop sign and not start back up.
This is a fear that...people who have had old cars will never lose.
Pretty valid fear if one drives in stop/start conditions quite a bit.
What about when I'm in rush-hour traffic on an eight lane freeway? I don't think I want my car's engine to turn off when I'm idling on the freeway with a thousand other vehicles around me, it seems much more dangerous than useful. There's been some pretty nasty accidents on our interstates and freeways when a car has died or stalled out. I'd rather not be a statistic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by everwinter
For my drive to work I have 14 stoplights one way. In the winter my car doesn't auto stop when the engine is cold or defrost is on. I've noticed a huge difference in the mpg display when I compare winter days when auto stop kicks in for the majority of lights to when it does not. I know how to trick my car while coming to stop so that auto stop will not engage, but obviously I want it to engage every time & I get agitated when it doesn't. With the above comparison tt can be a difference of getting 47 mpg to 40 mpg for just one trip to work.
Am I the only one who gets annoyed when I'm stopped at long stoplights and my car is idling & wasting gas?
Yes, you are. My 2010 F-150 gets 15 mpg on the freeway and usually single digits in city or start/stop traffic. One mpg here or there really wouldn't even be noticeable.
This just seems like another annoying and useless feature that has a high likelihood of malfunctioning or breaking as well as wearing out components of your vehicle quickly. The gas savings generated by shutting off the engine will not be enough to pay the repair bill when the system breaks.
I hope to God that manufacturers don't intend to install this system into many vehicles, I for one, do NOT want it!
The technology is most widely used in Europe and is pretty much a universal requirement under their new emissions regs. Overall, the system is only worth about 1 MPG on the EPA loop, but that loop doesn't feature much in the way of stop-start driving. The manufacturers claim and people with the system report a gain in normal driving of 5%-10% depending on how many times you stop and how heavy traffic is.
Great to hear that the auto stop feature is pretty much universal in Europe! People are forgetting how much time people in the cities spend stopped at lights & that the majority of people live in cities. In America we use public transportation less (% wise) than Europe so we need it even more. I'd imagine that people with more than 3 stoplights would notice a significant gain in fuel efficiency. I know that I have with my car. I'm sure if you drive in the suburbs or rural environment you wouldn't be excited about this.
There is a TON of technology out there that can add to fuel mileage and safety. BUT.....it all adds to the cost of a vehicle.
You could take a subcompact and put all of the available fuel saving feature into it......easily get 80mpg. Bet again, who is going to buy a 40-50K subcompact???
I rented a Kia Rio in the UK, which was nothing like the crapbox we have in the US. It was a 1.4L Turbo Diesel and had the engine auto start/stop. It was a stick and it would only stop the engine when you were truly stopped and took your foot off the clutch when in neutral. It was very easy to use as you could control when it shut off. Also the re-start was amazingly quick. When you depressed the clutch to engage a gear it would automatically start the engine, by the time your foot was on the floor, you were ready to go. It was not intrusive at all.
I drove that car 870 miles and it returned 58MPG (Imperial Gallons) on that whole trip, which included a fair amount of city driving. 58 UK MPG is ~ 48US MPG. Pretty impressive.
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