Because if they start/stop isn't seamless it sucks donkey ***** to drive in traffic. I had an Opel as a rental once that had this. It took a good 4-5 seconds to start the car every time it stopped. Now, drive a 5 speed in bumper to bumper European traffic with that kind of delay. It's beyond horrible! Plus the heat and A/C didn't work very well with the engine off. I very quickly figured out how to stop the engine from shutting off.

 

Nobody here has start/stop with a manual - only autos.

 

So, we're going to compare an Opel from who knows how long ago to a '15 Ford F150? That's light saying light bulbs today suck because the first ones were dim.

 

The Opel was from two years ago and is currently on sale is it was when I drove it. In stop and go traffic it sucked. Stop, motor turns off, push the clutch in and wait for the engine to start, roll forward half a car length and the engine shuts off again, rinse and repeat. Until there's a small break in traffic and you try to go for it but you're stuck waiting on the engine to start and miss the chance, back to the waiting game.

In a small town where people let you go it's not a problem. But in tight traffic where if you don't make a hole you sit forever it is. When I hit the skinny pedal I want to go right then not in a few seconds later.

 

Improvements have been made, and it is nearly instantaneous. You won't have that issue with the F150...

 

There is no delay, and it won't turn off if you are using the heat or air conditioning...

 

Like I said, we don't have any stop/start manual transmissions here. It's a whole different story with an automatic, it's almost not noticeable.

 

I haven't driven an auto with start/stop but what would make it different compared to a manual? Both types have to have the engine running for the vehicle to move. From my experience it was the delay in getting the engine started that was the drawback.

 

The Fusion has had it for over a year now. That's what you should look at. On BOF they say there is no delay on takeoff. Ford says restarting is seamless.

 

Hi.

Can you elaborate?

To my mind, it will require a learning curve and some user expectaion adjustments.

There is no way that engaging a starter, getting the rotating assembly up to speed, disengaging the starter, performing the sanity-check to ensure the thing is indeed running and is gonna stay that way, and then engaging the tranny again is gonna be anywhere near as 'instantaneous' as having the dang thing already running in the first place. Folks ARE gonna notice - and they ain't gonna like it. The end of the Stoplight Drags Era

I reckon - if this is a user-defeatable feature - that it is the fist thing that's gonna be defeated, lol. Hence rendering the advantages moot. Folks seem to really like their chilly A/C in 100 degree gridlock fer some strange reason (or is it a 'lactric A/C system?)

Having said that - can't wait to try it


MGD

 

I'm not sure how much I can elaborate other than to say that there have been enhancements in this technology in recent years. I think the numbers I have heard is something like 2 tenths of a second to restart the truck from the time you take your foot off the brake. It doesn't wait until you touch the gas to start it.

And yes, you can defeat it, and it will self-defeat based on the operating conditions...temp of the engine, outside temp, heat, a/c, towing a trailer, in 4x4, etc.

 

Hi.

As always, thankee fer sharing what you can. I can appreciate the constraints.

Regards;

MGD

 

The cars I've driven with the start/stop at work haven't been that troublesome and I don't drive in heavy traffic too often, so I didn't consider that, but I can imagine because driving any manual in traffic is a huge PITA

 

Two of my three vehicles have a man pedal so it really doesn't bother me for the most part as long as the clutch pedal isn't too terribly hard. I had the Opel Corsa in France which has some fairly aggressive drivers and it's every man for himself. I checked the Opel website and they also claim a near seamless integration but I can attest this is not the case as I certainly noticed the time it took the engine to start. The website says that when you put the car in neutral and take your foot off the clutch the start-stop engages, pushing the clutch in and putting it into gear restarts the engine. Normally, in this case I would immediately start coming up with the clutch to go but there was a delay before the engine came back to life. I was the first person to rent the car so it couldn't have been worn out because it only had 8km on the odometer when I picked it up.

The integration in the F-150 might be better but for now it is not something I want to put up with.

FYI: the same trip I had a Ford Fiesta (also the first person to rent) and knocked of 50+ MPGs driving across Paris in moderate traffic. I was very impressed with that car. However, the next person to rent it might not be since I changed every menu and setting possible to the US English units and language.

 

Still 10 year behind Europe in the diesel stakes. Shame.