Engine Start/Stop Vehicles
- Thread starter BlueOvalFitter
- Start date
The point being is any new tech drives guys bonkers on here with "what ifs"..................
I guess it depends on the tech. I'd rather not be an early adopter and do the testing for the mfg. at my expense, so I take a wait and see approach. I waited on stop/start, have several friends that have it and hate it, and I'm not feeling the love. So I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.
Edit: I see you live in Utah, I have a feeling your commute is a lot different than mine. Maybe if I lived there I'd feel a little better about stop/start.
Will stop start turn out to be a good thing or be a failure? Dunno, time will tell.
When seat belts started to become more common, I remember people saying, "Don't need 'em. I have the dash to protect me."
There are generally many failed efforts before stumbling onto a success. That's the price of progress.
When seat belts started to become more common, I remember people saying, "Don't need 'em. I have the dash to protect me."
There are generally many failed efforts before stumbling onto a success. That's the price of progress.
I do as well. I also remember when AM-FM radio was a big selling point. Before it was just AM.
Automatic chokes could be finicky. One could start their car up and have the engine screaming in the driveway. Attempts to kick down the choke were fruitless. Then you put the car into gear (automatic) and hear that metallic clunk. Let your foot off the brake and you were going fast already.
I remember those days, fortunately they were adjustable, to a point, and if all else failed for a few $$ they could be converted to a manual choke. LOL Those were the days. I remember when a dual master cylinder came into play, and disk brakes. Those were two of the best safety improvements of the time, and instant hits with many.
btw, who is controlling the diesel guys?
I see it often. Saw one today. they leave their trucks running while going to store or to the post office or to get a sub sandwich ...
we waste so much in general and then nickel and dime in other areas.
I see it often. Saw one today. they leave their trucks running while going to store or to the post office or to get a sub sandwich ...
we waste so much in general and then nickel and dime in other areas.
Not afraid of new and better tech in the least I probably have seen more new tech in the 50 years I have been doing this than most people have had hot dinners. Notice I said better tech not just new. Things like ABS, air bags, FI, electronic ignition, modern lubricants and oils, radial tires, disk brakes, EPDM rubber hose and body seals, base coat paint, independent suspension especially in the rear, etc, etc, are all better tech.
Shutting the engine off every time the vehicle is stopped is just a PITA and an open invite for issues to crop up and leave you stranded, IMO its pure garbage and a deal breaker in every way if it cannot be turned off.
A dealer friend and I were trying out the new Ford C Max (Euro version) some years ago with this crap, he was going to give it to his daughter for a demo but when we had to push the POS through a congested intersection after sitting in a 2km jam for an hour that thought went away quick.
Granted it was an early version but good god it was a brand new car, it really saved fuel with us two monkeys pushing it.
I know it should have seen the battery voltage was too low and disabled the system but it didn't for some reason.
Early adopter? It's been around 20 years now.
Yeah and look at the real early ones, the Lupo and A2 which sucked so bad the resale dropped like a 2 ton rock vs a normal one.
Not familiar with those, but the two dozen 2000 and up Honda Insights I've sold have done pretty well for me.
Trav, I imagine you are familiar with the SS functionality in the Lexus RX. I have driven the RX350 F Sport (gas only) and found the start instant as soon as my foot left the brake. This was an extended test drive, not ownership.
Our car is the RX450h, which is hybrid of course. This makes stop start even more seamless.
What is your opinion of the RX cars and the Lexus stop start functionality? They seem pretty trouble free in my experience.
For the size and heft of the RX, the mileage is pretty good.
I don't know much about German (and European) cars, but wasn't VW an early start stop adopter in the 1960's?
I hear tell petrol is pretty pricey there...
So this had me curious... according to my truck, I have 8,225 miles on it, and 42 hours of idle time. That’s a fair bit more than I was expecting. A stop start system wouldn’t save a whole lot of money, but averaged out over an entire fleet I can see why they’re implementing it.
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And I think it still sucks. As I said reading this thread I'm in good company, many seem to agree. I bought a few new cars in the past 20 years, US models and not one had it.
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OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Yep, and of course there are examples of things that didn't stick around or have had failed comebacks. Things like seatbelts on tracks that auto-tightened, steering columns that slid off to the side out of the way, 4-wheel steering, flip-up headlights...etc. Some stuff just proved to be too limited in utility while producing unnecessary complication.
There are some things like CVT's that many on here widely disdain, that are being implemented, in varying penetrations, in product lines from some OEM's while more gears are added to traditional automatics in others. Of course with the transition to hybrids and EV's that may not matter in the future and the same could be said for Start/Stop, which is kinda like a half-step in the direction of a hybrid while providing no where near the fuel economy benefit.
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That reminded me. I remember when AM radio was still big, and had tons of great music on it. If you wanted to hear rock ,it was on AM. FM was mostly easy listening, big band, etc. Then there was "AM stereo" in the early 80s. I don't think that stayed around too long.
IMHO Toyota is way ahead on many things, they make the only hybrid I would consider owning without reservation. What they did to lessen the DI issues by implementing a very simple modification of adding port injection in the mix at certain speeds is simplistic genius.
Technology exist that SS can be made reliable and a hybrid is the perfect platform.
The way some other manufacturers have implemented SS is terrible, the 3cyl Lupo and A2 were a nightmare, a real rickety piece of crap, Fiat had one also that was beyond bad (no surprise).
I was at a red light that was 2 lanes into one a guy in a newer GM pickup pulls along side and when the light went green it took more than a moment for his engine to get going and underway. The hybrid would already be in motion.
The earliest I can remember SS on a VW was one Golf model in the mid 90's and the Lupo 3L in the late 90's, with 40HP in eco mode it took over 20 seconds to 60 mph. Toyota messed around with it before that but I have no idea about it.
Yes fuel is expensive but so are my nerves driving such things, in a hybrid okay, a small diesel hybrid even better.
Thanks Trav. I like the way you pointed out that just becasue some exapmles of a functionality, such as stop start, are poor and perhaps dangerous, that does not make the entire functionality bad. Our RX hybrid works well; I can report the gas only version worked well during my test drive.
Given the quiet nature of the Lexus, you might not even know it was stop start.
Absolutely agree with the better vs new sentiment. This is often validly used in the same sentence, but not always.
Some cars have had stop/start issues, specifically sometimes not restarting. As far as I know it wasn't due to a flat battery though, more of a problem with the restart relay or the logic to engage it. My experience with customer cars stop/start issues has been the opposite, the car refusing to stop the engine when the customer was expecting it.
Luckily there's almost always a way to disable stop/start, disconnecting the battery sensor usually does it, and keeps the system off for hours after aswell. Disabled stop/start always gives some form of notice to the driver though, disconnecting the sensor isn't different.
