Posted on 05/12/2025 7:07:32 AM PDT by Red Badger
This is the most idiotic government regulation of the last decade (and that's saying something). The technology shuts off the engine every time the vehicle stops in traffic or at a red light/stop sign.
The average driver might save $1,000 over a decade of using the vehicle if they live in an urban area with frequent stops, but Enhanced Flooded Batteries and heavy-duty starters also cost more, meaning maintenance swallows up much or all of their savings.
(They also have to put up with the psychological torture of having their car turn off and on every five seconds.)
Here's YouTuber Scotty Vilmar explaining in his unique style why this tech is maddening. 👇
New vehicles are not "required" to have such systems, but Swamp bureaucrats created massive incentives for automakers to create something that customers actually hate, all in the name of saving the planet [read: padding their wallets]. Two agencies are primarily responsible for this stupidity in the U.S.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration oversees Corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards.
The Environmental Protection Agency oversees greenhouse gas regulations.
The logic for these regulations goes back to the scarcity scare of the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s. Even though we have more available oil than ever, back then, politicians were worried that the stupid peasants would use up all our oil reserves in a crisis, so they aimed to impose regulations on us.
If they imposed taxes and rules on the peasantry, however, the peasants would get angry.
Instead, our ruling elite decided to make it unprofitable not to follow generic rules established by faceless bureaucracies, weaponizing the system to create products that are less efficient and unwanted by customers so that government workers could justify their paychecks.
For example, in 2007, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act that tightened CAFE standards, with a target of 35 miles per gallon for the average fuel economy of passenger cars and light trucks by 2020. This forced automakers to figure out how to make vehicles that got that kind of mileage even if the market demand was not there.
A revolving door of such bills and regulations has made modern cars complex, expensive, buggy, and annoying: A living example of the absolute mess created by government intervention.
I have this on the car I purchased last year. It also came with a car starter that we use when its cold and when its very hot. I think one use of the car starter cancels out about 1 year of the savings of the auto-shut off.
I watched a video on what it take to make a regular car into a stop/start car.
It is mind boggling..
Must add at least $1,000 more to the price of the car....to save a few drops of gas...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTBN8Ic57Gg&t=3s
**Give me a 1969 Dodge Dart...**
This guy can help you get 30+ mpg with a v8 from that era:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4oYzQRZEdQQ
Basically an automatically controlled vacuum leak, when you don’t need the extra power.
For about a year (2015) I was commuting with my 90 chevy 1500 4x4 (TBI 350ci) which started running rough at stop signs and traffic lights. I was just too busy to check out what was wrong until it got to where it would die at those moments.
Turns out the throttle body was loose on the intake manifold and a couple of inches of the gasket was gone.
I was ocassionally checking mpg at fillups before and during this time and had noticed the mileage had climbed from around 14 to 18 or 19.
After replacing the gasket and tightening the bolts the mpg went back to 14.
Which is at the next exit ... and even you are able to do the arithmetic ... which is impossible with sequentially numbered exits.
I suppose that you haven't driven much of our Interstate Highway System. If you had, you would know that milepost exit numbers are used in most States already, and have been for decades.
Google Maps and Next Exit
Thank you for providing more evidence that too many Americans have become a bunch of incompetent tech-dependent drones incapable of actual thinking.
Running too lean will melt your pistons. (Don’t ask me how I know)
EPA ignores the fact that our Sun has cycles, flares, magnetic storms. The Sun is MILLION times bigger than our puny earth. Earth’s climate is dependent on Sun activity. Earth’s climate has been changing for 5 Billion years. Earth had ice ages followed by global warmings long before humans came into being.
Humans are so puny compared to the puny earth, astronauts in orbit at 1.5% of earth’s diameter height can not see any man made structures. Only thing they can see is city lights during night time.
To claim humans affect climate change is like saying a mosquito inside a Boeing 747 affects it’s speed.
My Jeep is equipped with the stop/start system. When I first test drove the car, I was not aware of it, and thought it had stalled out.
There can be a second or so delay in the restart, which can be concerning if you’re working with a small window to get into a an opening in traffic. Takes a bit of getting used to.
This technology basically drives you to not come to a full stop whenever possible, meaning people are always rolling through stop signs so they don’t have it killing the engine just for a second as they came to a full stop. Government really shouldn’t be pushing people into unsafe driving behavior.
That’s why the ‘carb cheater’ creator made his gadget: to keep temps where the pistons will not be harmed, while still achieving mpg gains.
In years past, when flying small planes, one of the things to monitor was cylinder head temps, which when under high power settings was primarily controlled by the fuel mixture control. Since there isn’t a lot of rpm fluctuation (no stop and go) when simply flying cross country, mixture changes are slight when at cruising altitude, compared to practicing takeoffs and landings.
I don’t remember what vehicle it was but someone was telling me the cost of having to replace a restart battery that some engineer genius decided to locate under the intake manifold plenum. What kills batteries? Heat and vibration. Let’s put it under the plenum where it gets a big dose of both! Brilliant!
It really felt stupid in my Porsche 911 Turbo S.
They had a switch to disable the “feature” and I still got 21 mpg around town.
Switch on gave about the same mpg.
It is a solution to a problem nobody has....................
Yes. That’s what really galls me about the whole climate scam and the ridiculous (and often meaningless) things government does to “save the earth.” The Start-Stop “feature” in cars is a prime example of pissing away money to chase zero benefits. Consumers pay $800 more, have higher maintenance costs, for WHAT? Saving $60 in gas over a few years?
But that pales to their attempts to kill fossil fuels and replace reliable power plants with the very dirty “green” renewable sources of electricity. Not to mention permanently destroying all the magnificent vistas across America.
The whole thing is utter insanity.
The automakers used the devices to claim better gas mileage in “city driving” - because, of course no gas is burned when the car is at a stop, so over the course of several miles they can claim “more miles per gallon of gas”.
This one logical move alone justfies the entire Trump re-election. Getting rid of idiotic mandatory stop/start engine tech is a greater accomplishment than anything the Democrats achieved in the past 50 years.
“Another idiotic government action is the one that has mandated the changing of EXIT NUMBERS on the highways! The new numbers will reflect the miles from the starting point.”
This makes no sense whatsoever. We are truly being ruled by idiots. I hope someone realizes how stupid this is and puts a stop to it before it goes into effect.
I have a 2020 Ford f150. Under the dash is a connector block with telephone type connector. Unplug it, auto start/stop is disabled.
There’s at least one company that makes a switch that installs under the dash or the hood depending on make and model. It maintains the last setting you chose for your start/stop feature.
It was $130 a few years ago for the one I needed. I didn’t spring for it because I live in a rural area and don’t do much heavy stop and go driving.
I don’t recall the name of the company that makes them.
I'm guessing that's the stunning red I've noticed on Mazdas the last couple of years. I've never liked red cars, but Mazda found the formula for an exceptionally eye-catching red. I've even thought of taking my Chrysler 300 to an auto body shop and telling them, "Paint it Mazda red."
When a car starts up when you are walking in front of it, it is impossible not to flinch.
Equally scary experience - many electric models start moving without making a sound.
That also stops my heart for a beat or two.
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