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Posted on 05/26/2025 6:45:29 AM PDT by dennisw
(NewsNation) — The EPA administrator has promised to end a contentious feature in many automobiles: the automatic start-stop feature that temporarily shuts down engines at red light stops.
Lee Zeldin says the start-stop function, which automakers began installing to reduce emissions in return for federal incentives, annoys most motorists, who consider it “the single worst feature in their motor vehicle.”
“They want it eliminated,” Zeldin told Blake Burman on “The Hill” Thursday.
Democrats say EPA illegally canceled hundreds of grants aimed at boosting ‘environmental justice’ To that end, he said the EPA will seek to revoke its approval of credits that were granted in exchange for the technology’s installation.
The Obama administration originally incentivized start-stop more than a decade ago to improve fuel efficiency. By 2022, an estimated 65% of vehicles in the United States had the feature.
Zeldin suggested the function wouldn’t be so annoying if owners had the option of disabling it wholesale rather than having to do so during each individual trip.
“If it saves a little bit in gas, what is it doing to my starter? What is it doing to my engine? Is it safe?” he said.
The former Republican congressman from New York talked exclusively with NewsNation Thursday after appearing before lawmakers this week to discuss budget and grant cuts his agency is seeking to make. The EPA’s fiscal 2026 budget would be cut by more than half as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize government.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
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I can’t imagine the constant starts are good for the engine. But I doubt car manufacturers will get rid of the feature, even if the EPA doesn’t mandate it - states like CA may require it, and they never know when a Democrat will take the WH and reimpose the requirement. That’s one problem with Democrat edicts - you never know when they might come back and reinstate them, so for stability many companies will just keep complying with the requirements even if they’re no longer requirements.
I CANNOT IMAGINE THE PREMATURE BATTERY REPLACEMENT THIS CAUSES.
YES!
” “the single worst feature in their motor vehicle.”
ABSOLUTLY!
The government doesn’t need to eliminate it. They simply need to stop incentivizing its inclusion. It will then go away on its own.
Every time I rent a car I want to turn it off. But then I realized I’m only renting it. The long term wear and tear is not my problem...so I don’t care...
So you lose your air conditioning when stopped at a light ?
Cycle must be hell on compressor
Whenever you complicate some mechanical operation or component with something like this, you increase the risk of a failure. That’s the way I see it.
I can’t imagine the constant starts are good for the engine.
UPS apparently finds that their “Package Cars” can take it.
My truck has any easy to reach switch to turn the feature off.
Heh. I didn’t even think about that. It’s not been an issue for me because I kept taking my foot off the brake before the light turned, causing it to start back up. 🤣
No if the car needs to stay on for the ac it will. At least my car.
Starting is the biggest surge on your battery. I make sure all my users...radio, wipers, heater, etc are all off.
How can this damned thing know that you’re at a “red light stop”? How can it know that you aren’t stopped in an intersection trying to make a left turn but waiting for the way to be clear?
If allowed, the government will seize as much control over our lives as it possibly can. Just wait until there are “self driving” cars. It will seize control over them any way it can.
Turning off the motor, which slows or stops the AC, in Texas… Glad my truck has a button to disable this ‘feature’.
If I’ve saved $25 or even $10 in gas over the last two years I’d be shocked. I get it, on a larger scale a of tens of thousands of cars it likely reduces fuel consumption and/or saves baby seals or makes the Indian guy in the commercials cry less. But I honestly and very sincerely I DGAS.
As a retired auto technician, I have often thought the auto industry should have hired a few less engineers & a few more technicians. This automatic stop-start thing sounded stupid from day one. Sure it might save a little gas, but what other possibilities for problems? You could stay home & save gas, too. There are some other design features that would do well not to have been put in production as well. Maybe some of these were pushed onto engineering by sales?
Back when I ordered my Ford exploder, they did not have the chips for this option and could not get them.
They gave me 50 bucks off to delete this option.
I could not sign the paper fast enough...
And starter motors.
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