Ideal Bite

When I lived in Wyoming, I pretty much had to let my car warm up a little unless I wanted to lose all feeling in my hands (no garage). BUT I work for a regional government that houses the local carpool/vanpool program and they run a no-idle campaign with local schools every fall.

You quoted 10 seconds as a maximum time to idle. I've read that this is the amount of fuel used by starting a car from off. True? Or, what is the source of your recommendation?

I was wondering about sources here too as I've heard from multiple sources (including a scientist for whatever cred. that lends) that idling for up to 5 minutes uses less fuel than turning your car off & on again (emissions were not discussed) & I've been hearing my brother (a mechanic) give our mom heck for years about not letting her car warm up (a little - like 1 min. not 10) citing that the minute or so of letting the oil & other lubricants get warm & moving saves wear on her engine (or something like that)& she lives in Fla. so it's clearly not a matter of outside degrees.

A word of advice, starting and shutting your car off numerous times, for short periods of time is extremely hard on your starter and battery. If you have the money to replace these items then by all means keep doing this. Also, warming your car for a few minutes is ok. It gets the oil and fluids moving in the engine. You should never just start your car/truck and just drive away. But you do not have to sit for 10-15 minutes and wait for the heater to blow warm air.

I agree- would be nice to see the sources on this one. Not that I doubt you guys, just there are a lot of differing opinions on this and if I am going to start telling people "hey, don't idle..." they are going to request more source info than "ideal bite says". :)

I truly love you guys and your off-beat sense of humor, but I have to tell you that I was turned off on this tip by the presentation of mocking someone to make your point (Ryan Seacrest). I don't know much about the guy, and perhaps he's worthy of mocking, but it's something I think is not quite up to the standards of your generally creative, intelligent and witty humor. We're about creating a better world here, not just environmentally, but interpersonally. Just a thought. Other than that, you guys are awesome. Thanks for all you do!

Jason - Are you an engineer? What is your source of these claims?

Click and Clack from NPR's Cartalk say the newer cars do not require ANY warm-up time, and that the point at which it becomes more efficient to turn your car off and restart it rather than idle is 30 seconds.

I've heard that idling for any more than 10 seconds uses more gas than starting it up again.

I have to thank you for this tip! It irks me to no end to see these massive living room sized SUVs idling at convenience stores and I just hope someone will come along and steal them. I took action this morning and urged my school district with its 250+ schools to participate in the EPA's "Clean School Bus" program. I did the math and found that if each school had 30 buses, they would save $5.5 million and almost 18,000 tons of CO2 equivalent to taking over 111,000 mid size cars off the road for 12 months. I also urged them to post signs for parents picking up their kids letting them know that "This is a no-idle zone. We ask that you please turn your car off while waiting." I gave them the EPA link to learn more. If anyone would like a copy of my exact email so that they can copy it to send to their school district, email me at susanjanvrin@gmail.com Now, let's see. Thanks!!