Turning car off at stoplights

[PeterB]

My Prius does this as well. And it's not a problem, because: 1) Some of the stoplights here are ridiculously long, you could literally be sitting there 1-2 minutes; 2) It discourages "jackrabbit" starts, which improves fuel mileage as well.

[S. Pupp]

Volkswagens with this feature have high capacity deep discharge batteries and a more powerful starter. It’s a myth that you use more gas to start a car than run it in the age of fuel injection.

Unless your car is built with stop-start in mind, you may be putting your battery at risk, and risk getting stuck at a traffic light from a dead battery.

[Buzz]

I remember gas powered golf carts that did that back in the 1960's, so the actual tech has gotta be pretty mature by now.
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[N-OS X-tasy!]

PeterB wrote:
My Prius does this as well. And it's not a problem, because: 1) Some of the stoplights here are ridiculously long, you could literally be sitting there 1-2 minutes

1-2 minutes for a stoplight is NOT “ridiculously long.”

[Lew Zealand]

Our Tucson Hybrid does this but then also keeps the engine off when people inevitably creep forward, because the electric motor can handle all that. The gas engine cars will turn the engine back on and keep it on for The Creep. The hybrid's electric motor will even handle cruising at 40mph on a flat road and turn off the gas engine for fuel economy, at least 'till the battery runs out but we live in dense suburbs so there' zero risk of that.

Getting 35MPG in town vs 14 with the old Odyssey is a nice upgrade, especially with $5 gas.

[DavidS]

Lew Zealand wrote:
Getting 35MPG in town vs 14 with the old Odyssey is a nice upgrade, especially with $5 gas.

I’m getting 30 MPG on my new Sienna Hybrid. I also upgraded from an Odyssey.

[deckeda]

M A V I C wrote:
... 90% I'm stopping at stop signs so only stopped for a second or two before proceeding or moving forward. ...

I've been in modern Hondas that allow you to turn off the stop/start feature.

[deckeda]

This isn't something people do with old cars that lack the tech. I doubt the people the OP saw on the street in Japan were shutting down their cars. They don't even drive old cars there; the government incentivizes them to stay modern in various ways.

[PeterB]

N-OS X-tasy! wrote:
[quote=PeterB]
My Prius does this as well. And it's not a problem, because: 1) Some of the stoplights here are ridiculously long, you could literally be sitting there 1-2 minutes

1-2 minutes for a stoplight is NOT “ridiculously long.”
It may not actually be 1-2 minutes, I've never timed it. It FEELS very long. There, are you happy?

[Forrest]

If you are stopped for 1-2 minutes at a traffic light, you are getting Zero mpg. Turning the gas engine off/on is much more efficient. My Rav4 hybrid with AWD gets 34 mpg.