My Buick has the start\stop. Although it isn’t seamless, many new passengers were unaware of it when it operated. When starting from a stop it is fully restarted before my foot hits the gas from the brake. I’ve tried to beat it but can’t. So it works very well. That being said I hate it. Because I know that when the starter goes out, I’ll be spending more than I want for a new one. They are not only heavier duty, but they work differently than traditional. I can’t remember the details, but they somehow eliminate the need for the pinion gear to mesh with the flywheel at each start. When I was test driving other cars I did notice a remarkable difference in performance between certain vehicles. On one car, you didn’t have full power until you were about half way through a left turn. To me that was just plain dangerous. I had settled on buying a certain car until I asked how to disable the start\stop feature. They said you couldn’t. That was a deal breaker.
I never found the off button for the Jeep we rented. If the hood was open, it was disabled. Truly irritating.
But it isn’t just the irritation of the system, it is the potential repair cost of the starter and battery. I remember way back about 1987 when I needed a starter for my diesel. Cost me $300. Not sure what a standard starter went for but probably under $100 brand new. I have no clue how much it would be to replace a starter on one of these start/stop plus the mat battery.
Some vehicles don’t have the magic “auto-start off” button. Current models might have it but many from the 20 teens don’t. As for the life of the starter, my Corolla has 129k and had 58k when I bought it. AFAIK the starter is the original one.
Our 2021 RAV 4 (not the Prime) has this feature. You can disable it by using “sport mode”, which, in my opinion has much better shifts anyways.
Personally I don’t like sitting next to a F-150 (or any other vehicle with stop/start, such as my own…) listening to their engine doing no work, but burning fossil fuel, and polluting at the same time.
What the heck is wrong with stop/start? It is the single best tech improvement in cars since the air bag!
Heh heh, we had an extensive conversation on this several years ago and it included why it was developed to get points against mandatory mileage. It just had to sound good but not necessarily do much. Great if you like it. You should have the freedom to buy the feature.
It looks like the only disadvantages are that going from stopped to moving quickly can be a little bit delayed, the starter will wear out faster (or last much longer if the feature is disabled), and eventually you’ll have a battery that fails suddenly and you’ll be stuck in an intersection stalled.
Here is something that I’ve wondered. What happens if the idle speed is adjusted down to 250 RPM? Would it cause too much vibration? Would the creep forward of the automatic transmission not work correctly? What would happen? In a manual it could resume normal idle speed as soon as the clutch comes off the floor.
Going back to 1974, don’t know if it still applies, but the carbs were leaned out so much for emissions, that the idle had to be increased. Then to compensate for the dieseling that resulted, my Olds had a little solenoid on the carb that would close the throttle when the key was turned off. Got a feeling their ain’t nothing anymore that would idle at 250.
That’s interesting. Wasn’t that 2 years before catalytic converters became mandatory?
Not a clue when they came out. My next one was a diesel with no cat. I do remember the test pipes that some used and people being warned not to park on leaves or other combustibles before they started putting shields on them.
More likely to be stranded at home on a Monday morning after the failing battery has been sitting for two days. When battery voltage/condition is low, auto start/stop is inactive.
Years ago, Dodge SUVs and trucks with the 4.7 Liter engine were designed to idle at 500 RPMs to save fuel, a year later there was a software update to increase the idle speed to prevent stalling when making abrupt turns. Idling slow doesn’t save much fuel and leads to rough idle complaints.
Of course “your mileage may vary…” Had this start/stop feature on my early model hybrid since 2006, I rarely if ever notice it, never a problem at startup. Not a truck, no clutch, but a CVT, another great invention – the Continuously Variable Transmission. Hybrids get their good MPG by means of a whole suite of improvements: aerodynamic styling, start/stop, battery power at low speeds, regenerative braking, CVTs, etc. I notice that in the 15 years since purchase, a number of other vehicles have adopted some and most of these features. Especially useful in my next vehicle (—if this one will ever die!), an all Electric.
I wonder if we’ll ever see the day when the vehicle maker lets the user turn this feature on or off or adjust it themselves.
Probably not. Auto manufacturers don’t want you messing with the software. However, I imagine you could set the idle speed at whatever rpm you want with a custom tuner. Have seen folks bump the idle speed up 100 rpm or so for a smoother idle when making other adjustments.
hmmm … I wonder how many times US politicians in the 1990’s, early 2000’s were cautioned over and over again about the potential problems of outsourcing too much USA-developed technology? What’s that adage? ‘You made the bed; so don’t complain you now have to lay in it.’
I have to agree though w/some of the posters above, instead of a $50 savings, I’d pay Ford an extra $50 to not have to deal w/that auto-start feature … lol …
+1
And, it was a truly bipartisan effort, even though each party now wants to blame the other.
As per The Economic Policy Institute:
NAFTA’s birth was bi-partisan—conceived by Ronald Reagan, negotiated by George H.W. Bush, and pushed through the US Congress by Bill Clinton in alliance with Congressional Republicans and corporate lobbyists.
Clinton and his collaborators promised that the deal would bring “good-paying American jobs,” a rising trade surplus with Mexico, and a dramatic reduction in illegal immigration. Instead, NAFTA directly cost the United States. a net loss of 700,000 jobs. The surplus with Mexico turned into a chronic deficit. And the economic dislocation in Mexico increased the the flow of undocumented workers into the United States.
Nevertheless, Clinton and his Republican successor, George W. Bush, then used the NAFTA template to design the World Trade Organization, more than a dozen bilateral trade treaties, and the deal that opened the American market to China—which alone has cost the United States another net 2.7 million jobs. The result has been 20 years of relentless outsourcing of jobs and technology.
Thank you for the history lesson but what has been made clear in the past ten years is there is a uni-party comprised of both and they vote in lock step for the benefit of their benefactors, not the general public. Not a dimes worth of difference in any of those you mention.
My 2020 Pacifica has a button to press to shut off the start/stop feature. Also I see under the hood what looks like an extra smaller battery next to the full sized one.