I just had two rental vehicles in Europe with very aggressive start/stop tech that actually impaired my driving. Both vehicles were practically new.
The first one was a Fiat Tipo 5spd with around 16k miles on it. I put around 450 miles on it and during that time it somehow failed to restart properly making me look like I stalled the vehicle. The first time it happened I actually thought I did stall it and when I tried to restart with the key nothing happened, but then it started on its own. The other few times I paid more attention and noticed the Auto stop/start light was illuminated on the dash. Very weird and could be dangerous.
The other rental was a Renault Trafic van with a DCT. It had around 1600 miles when I picked it up and I put roughly 700 miles on it. This one would shut the engine off immediately after coming to a stop. This made turning left on the small streets quite challenging as it would not restart the engine and go into drive fast enough. I often saw posts where people say the system is way faster than your foot, but in this particular vehicle, it was way too slow.
Maybe for American roads where every intersection has either the traffic light or an all way stop, these systems perform well, but for me, driving on the European roads, these two examples were a hindrance and could put me in danger IMO.
The first one was a Fiat Tipo 5spd with around 16k miles on it. I put around 450 miles on it and during that time it somehow failed to restart properly making me look like I stalled the vehicle. The first time it happened I actually thought I did stall it and when I tried to restart with the key nothing happened, but then it started on its own. The other few times I paid more attention and noticed the Auto stop/start light was illuminated on the dash. Very weird and could be dangerous.
The other rental was a Renault Trafic van with a DCT. It had around 1600 miles when I picked it up and I put roughly 700 miles on it. This one would shut the engine off immediately after coming to a stop. This made turning left on the small streets quite challenging as it would not restart the engine and go into drive fast enough. I often saw posts where people say the system is way faster than your foot, but in this particular vehicle, it was way too slow.
Maybe for American roads where every intersection has either the traffic light or an all way stop, these systems perform well, but for me, driving on the European roads, these two examples were a hindrance and could put me in danger IMO.
