Stop start - make your mind up?

Stop start technology is common amongst the hybrid vehicles, but is now appearing in more and more mainstream vehicles. However, is this a feature worth looking out for on your next car or will it leave you stalled at the traffic lights?

Simply put, a start-stop system does what it says and automatically shuts down and restarts a vehicle’s engine. This reduces the amount of time the engine spends idling, thereby improving fuel economy. This is most advantageous for vehicles which spend significant amounts of time waiting at traffic lights or frequently come to a stop in traffic jams – so that’s essentially urban trips.

Does it really make a difference?
Actually yes! Tests have shown that for non-hybrid vehicles, fuel economy gains from this technology are typically in the range of 5% to 10%. The good news is that many manufacturers are busily adding this technology to their vehicles and the additional costs aren’t that mad over non stop start vehicles. Equally, it’s unobtrusive technology with the car automatically switching itself off when the car is stationary and then switching back on when you either lift off the clutch/brake or engage gear, depending on the system and transmission of the car. Most importantly, unlike some of the early versions fitted to vehicles in the 1970s and 1980s, modern stop start works.