Until you have walked in someone else's shoes, don't condemn. I used an off-airport lot here in Pittsburgh when I traveled alot 25 years ago. I got off the shuttle paid the bill and my car was parked under a canopy with all the snow cleared off, the car running with the heater, headlights on, door open and trunk open. This was during a heavy snowfall and still had to drive home in a blinding storm at 11:30 pm. I could of kissed all the employees, but this was standard operating procedure for this outfit. It was worth every cent of my employers money and priced LESS the the airport lot.
Believe me, the transmission is starting to heat also. Thats one of the things I mentioned before. When I get in start and go, its like it does not want to go on a grade. Well it has 115K miles on it.
With mine, you have to put the key in the ignition and turn it on. If you turn on any big draw electrical item (like headlights) before you do that, even stepping on the brakes, it will cause the car to shut off.
With gasoline price at records levels and the earth temperature rising because of burning carbon fuels WHY would you want to let your car idle for 15 minutes. Your car is at it's least efficient when idling at low temperatures. Just get in the car and drive and the heater will be working in short order. Good grief!!!
In fourty some years of driving, I've never started my car to let it warm up and until 19 years ago I lived in Connecticut. I start it and go.....saves gas and I don't hurt the environment.
Norm Mugford
I choose Polesoft Lockspam to fight spam, and you?
So many reasons to not idle the car at warmup. The greatest wear occurs when the engine just idles when cold. The engine is running richer for longer, increasing wear, increasing pollution and shortening the life of the cayalytic converter. The catalytic converter takes longer to heat up and the car puts out more emissions.
There must be some reason the owners manual in most cars cautions against extended idling while warming up.
A simple soluti> In fourty some years of driving, I've never started my car
Might run longer, but much less wear than stepping on the gas, and much less air flowing through the converter. I thinks its universaly agreed that the oil should warm up before serious torque is applied.
I think you would have to run a serious test in order to make sense of all these factors. Just thinking what they are is no good.
One of the nicest features of a remote start, its kinda nice to have a little bit of security when walking toward your vehicle late at night in a seculed parking garage and you see some shady characters approaching. The sound of a car starting is a good deterant.
There is a phenomenon here where you get ice over. A layer of ice completely engolfs your vehicle. You can't get in, turn the locks, or wind the windows. Boy that remote start sure is nice.
Not sure what serious torque is. But the owners manual for every car I've owned indicates that you should begin driving as soon as possible, but drive gently until the car warms up.
Well, yes there are lots of good deterrents...blackjack, large dog, gun, starting car, etc.
"But you don't have to feel guilty about cranking up your car's AC. According to Edmunds.com, the air conditioning compressor does pull power from the engine wasting some gas, but the effect is minimal in modern cars. On the other hand, driving with your windows down at high speeds can create an aerodynamic drag."
That's the "conventional wisdom" but keep in mind, most cars today are using much lighter multigrade oils (5W-30) than back in the day when everyone just used straight 30-weights. They don't need to "warm up" to flow properly.
Funny, I'd have thought the car companies would be all about wasting fuel. :P
Not so much true anymore... once again, with newer cars, computer-controlled fuel systems mitigate that. Back in the carb days, yes, you had to warm up - engines didn't burn fuel well when colder, so the choke on your car closed and locked the idle on high to get a lot more gas through until the engine warmed up enough for proper combustion, with no real way to control it to actually match conditions - the choke worked the same whether it was +30 or -30. With computer-controlled fuel injection, all engine conditions are monitored constantly, including sampling the exhaust to determine how well the fuel was burning, and fuel mixture is constantly adjusted accordingly, allowing it to be optimized even under poor combustion conditions.
The need to allow the engine to "warm up" for proper operation simply doesn't exist on newer cars.
Yeah, remember reading a study about this some years ago... they actually used a highway-patrol division, IIRC, as a case study, since the cops spent a lot of time at highway speeds: they compared fuel use by those who used the A/C with the windows up, vs. those who drove with the windows down and no A/C, and found overall that the A/C used FAR less "extra" gas than the drag created by highway driving with the windows open.
Obviously the more highway driving you do, the more pronounced the difference; if all you're doing is city commuting, you'd probably find little or no difference, or find that the A/C used more gas...
Poor guy just want's to be warm when he gets in his car at the airport, not a mini series on global warming, environmental damage or the right or wrong way to warm up a modern engine
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