Vehicles with auto smart/stop

[Randy Jennings]

We just purchased my wife a new Chrysler Pacfica mini-van this weekend and it has a feature we didn't know it had and we can't stand. When you come to a stop it turns off the engine and restarts it when you release the breaks. It hesitates and shakes when restarting and more than once it died when restarting and had to manually be restarted. You can disable this, but you have to do that every time you start the vehicle (it has no memory). I did some research, and it turns out this feature (often called ESS) is in more and more vehicles across many different makers and almost all makers have plans to put it in all their models to improve gas mileage. Needless to say this isn't a desirable feature for chasers since one of the golden rules in chasing is don't turn off your engine so you don't have to worry about it restarting. I don't plan on chasing in my wife's mini-van (although it has very large windows that are very easy to see out of), but I figured I would post this word of warning here for other chasers to be aware of.

 

[Jamie G Cox]

Thanks for the heads up. I plan on purchasing a new vehicle soon, but it will probably be an older model that won't have it. I would be pretty furious if I bought a new car and didn't find out about that horrible feature until I got it home.

 

[Jeff Duda]

I doubt that will be that big of a problem unless your chase strategy includes sitting in the path of a tornado and waiting until the last possible second to move.

I don't know too mch about the feature - I once was a passenger in a test drive in a Chevrolet that had it and I didn't notice any problems with it. The quality of the feature could vary across engine types and even in-sample, so maybe your wife's car has a faulty or poorly-functioning unit.

Personally, I almost always turn off my car when I stop while chasing to save gas. I only leave it running if I'm stopping for a few minutes or less. And if I realize I've been stopped for more than a minute or two I'll shut off the engine.

 

[rdale]

I've rented a variety of different cars that have the feature and not once noticed a problem. I like it for a variety of reasons... 1) Quieter when you're stopped 2) I got 48mpg in my trek across Florida.

 

[Drew Terril]

When I was on Active Duty in 08-09, the battalion I was with had I think an 06 Silverado Hybrid that I ended up driving on a fairly regular basis for my duties. Did that same thing and I never once felt like I had issues getting going from a stop. I would imagine that things are light years better now that the technology is better. The hiccup is probably specific to that model or an overall issue that Chrysler inexplicably hasn't been able to figure out like everyone else has (like their transmissions).

I'm with @Jeff Duda though, if you're cutting it so close that something like that is the difference between making it and not making it, adjustments in chase strategy should probably be considered.

 

[Randy Jennings]

I do turn off my engine when chasing, just not at stop signs, red lights, when pulling off the road to roll down the window to take a pic or 2 and pull back on the road, etc. Personally I want to control when the engine gets turned off. The biggest thing that bugs me is the hesitation when you try to go with this feature. It is nerve racking in city traffic (when you can't always wait for a large opening to pull out), and I suspect it would be nerve racking trying to pull out in heavy chaser traffic. While it restarts fine now, I'm curious to see how it is a 5 or 10 years. Even if you are safe from a storm when you stop briefly in the right flank and it turns the engine off, what happens if the starter goes out and that storm makes a right turn?

My point isn't to say that no chaser should have a vehicle with this feature. My point is to inform chasers that this feature exists and is becoming more common so they can make their own decision. On my wife's vehicle it just said "ESS" next to the engine model info. Given that we never stopped long enough on any of the test drives for it to turn off the engine, we had no idea what that "ESS" was.

 

[Tim Bejster]

I have this feature on my impala. I've had no issues with it whatsoever. It's smooth and immediately restarts as soon as I begin lifting my foot off the brake. It might be a computer malfunction or hardware issue on your vehicle. Maybe get it looked at. I imagine I'll have the same amount of luck of it not restarting as if my car was to stall out as I needed to use my escape route. Anything can happen at any given moment regardless of your vehicle features. Sometimes bad things happen at the most inconvenient times and they're out of your control. One reason to always make sure your vehicle is running in tip top shape before a chase day otherwise, don't go or take a chance.

 

[Haleigh Knowlton]

I don't know too mch about the feature - I once was a passenger in a test drive in a Chevrolet that had it and I didn't notice any problems with it. The quality of the feature could vary across engine types and even in-sample, so maybe your wife's car has a faulty or poorly-functioning unit.

While these vehicles are newer it probably won't be much of an actual problem and more towards an annoyance. As these vehicles age though I can easily foresee this feature becoming an actual problem. Older starters tend to not start up quite as easily, taking a couple attempts at times. Out of the factory it may be fine, but as it ages it'll develop more faults and become more and more unreliable. The hesitation will become larger and more often. Just another potential failure point as the vehicle ages.

 

[J Guthery]

It won't be a problem until the starter begins it's death spiral or the battery gets weak. Bad design in my book. Right up there with auto braking when you find out just how much it sucks in the winter.