this post was submitted on 30 May 2025
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United States | News & Politics
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4-5% is massive for such a cheap feature to implement, and it should be a no-brainer standard feature. Sure, allow the owner to disable it if they choose, but I actually like it. My car is climate-control conscious and turns the engine on if the cabin gets too warm. My car also has a manual transmission, and the auto-start turns the engine on as soon as I start pushing the clutch in. I find it super unobtrusive in my case. Don't know how annoying it is in an automatic.
It depends on the implementation. Subaru's is janky. It will shutoff soon as you pull into a parking spot and restart soon as you put into park, when you want it to just stay off.
Was there ever enough data to get the offset for increases to starter replacements or the cost for heavier duty starters (that would be replaced at the same intervals in similar models without auto-stop/start?
Us older drivers are conditioned to think something is wrong when the engine dies without the driver's intervention. I'd rather not have the mild panic attack every stoplight, so I kept my old vehicles going until I eventually switched to electric. If i had to daily drive my mom's Ford Escape, I'd probably need medication.
If you can used to driving electric, I’m confident you could get used to a vehicle with start-stop.
I was used to driving electric before I bought my Bolt. From power wheels as a kid to electric pallet jacks and forklifts in jobs, I had plenty of experience with them and the sounds and feels they make. With ice vehicles, not feeling the normal rumble and vibrations convey the need to stop and figure out what is wrong before I or the vehicle breaks itself further.
Besides I never bought the whole premise of auto-stop/start because of extra wear and tear that comes with it on the starter. As someone who manages a fleet of vehicles, I know from experience that replacing a starter in the field wipes out any cost saved on fuel idling at stop lights.
5% fuel savings on an average vehicle driven an average number of miles at an average gasoline cost is $120 per year.
A new starter for a Ford escape runs around $150. Depending on where it is when it breaks down in the field, AAA membership can range from $55/year towing up to 3 miles and as much as $114/year for one 200 mile tow. That 200 mile tow wouldn't even be able to make it from Miami to Daytona. For the fleet I have and the distances we cover, it makes more sense to keep a tow truck guy on payroll. Personally, I'd rather eat the $6-65 in cost and know that I'm not intentionally imposing more wear and tear on a critical part of a car's operation. The ultimate solution though is switch to electric, which is why I skipped all that nonsense from the 2010s and on ice vehicles. I'll make what I have run forever before buying into an intentionally inferior design.
As far as stress goes, breaking down locally is one thing. Breaking down hours from home base is a much bigger deal both logistically for business vehicles and mentally for personal vehicles.
The mechanics of starters for auto stop-start models are beefier. They rated for several times the cycles of a traditional starter. So realistically they will last just as long as a standard starter. Now, the question why manufacturers cheap out and not install the beefier starters as standard...
Probably why the OEM starter for a Ford Escape is $330. 1 replacement wipes out nearly 3 years of savings. Either way, I'd love to see numbers on failure rates for vehicles with and without and calculate with the cost of replacement for starters (parts, labor, and downtime) and see where the break even would be.
So the cost of a tow or mobile mechanic + cost of a replacement starter + cost from alternate transport or loss of wages would take years to make up for, each.