EPA chief Lee Zeldin to kill car feature
‘everyone hates’
New York Post,
by
Josh Christenson
Original Article
Posted By: mc squared,
5/14/2025 9:48:09 AM
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin hinted Monday that he’s preparing to roll back one car feature that every driver “hates.”
“Start/stop technology: where your car dies at every red light so companies get a climate participation trophy,” Zeldin tweeted Monday in a post that has since racked up more than 8 million views.
“EPA approved it, and everyone hates it, so we’re fixing it.”
The feature kills internal combustion engines at red lights and has been touted by proponents for being able to conserve fuel and cut down on pollution.
Critics have questioned whether the feature can wear down the car’s battery or engine more quickly.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
cor-vet 5/14/2025 9:59:58 AM (No. 1949626)
Since the brilliant engineers keep finding better ways to hide the starters, this makes sense. When you need an engine tear-down to replace a starter that's sometimes hidden internally in the engine, repeated use of that starter and its subsequent breakdown two days after the warranty expires, makes this a really good thing!
20 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
JunkYardDog 5/14/2025 10:13:31 AM (No. 1949641)
THANK GOD! I absolutely hate that stupid Karen-esque kill-engine feature. How does that not overtax the starter, or the battery? Whoever thought of this is a virtue-signalling interfering busybody. How about he concentrates on expanding nuclear power, making our nation's electricity grid x10000 more robust, and bring down the price of electric cars drastically?
26 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
anniebc 5/14/2025 10:13:37 AM (No. 1949642)
I can turn the feature on and off in my vehicle. Silly me, I thought it was helping, but it's off for good now. Thanks posters for the heads up.
18 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
commonsence 5/14/2025 10:20:19 AM (No. 1949649)
They also make the flywheel wear out much faster, an expensive repair.
20 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
red1066 5/14/2025 10:24:30 AM (No. 1949655)
First thing I do after starting the car is turn off this idiot feature. How anyone thought having your engine stop and start every time the car stops moving was good for the engine is beyond me.
33 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
DVC 5/14/2025 10:33:59 AM (No. 1949671)
Fortunately the one car that has this "feature" has a defeat button on the console.
11 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
DVC 5/14/2025 10:37:41 AM (No. 1949673)
Re #6, clarification, the one car that I own that has this "feature".....
And, yes, this wears out the starter much more rapidly. There is no technical doubt that a tiny bit of gasoline is saved by not having the engine idling. Probably eventually cost more in starter repairs than you'll ever save in fuel use. And of course, the CO2 Nazis imagine saving the planet when cars are not idling.
16 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Red Ghost 5/14/2025 10:42:51 AM (No. 1949683)
OMG I am so happy about this, I can't see straight.
I didn't know about this "feature" and two years ago we rented a car in Florida. I was stopped at a light and all of a sudden the engine dies. I almost died from a heart attack. I knew it was a rental car so anything can happen. Of course, the car had not died, and the next time it happened at the next light, I KNEW EXACTLY what it was. Some horse happy environmental crap. It is so dangerous trying to make a left turn while the car is stopped waiting for traffic and then there is a one to two second lag. Deadly. Or trying to merge onto a major highway when the car is stopped and know you need that power and don't have it. Deadly. I always wonder just how many accidents have been caused by this insanity.
Thank you President Trump and should have been Governor, Lee Zeldin!!!
23 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 5/14/2025 10:43:05 AM (No. 1949684)
We don't have that start/stop problem. My truck is a 2007 diesel model and I don't have to add that DEF fluid either like the late-model diesel-powered trucks require. Our car is a 2013 Honda CR-V that purrs like a kitten when it comes to a stop.
13 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
cor-vet 5/14/2025 10:46:48 AM (No. 1949691)
The same people that love the start/stop feature will idle their way through every drive-thru line because they're too lazy to park and walk into a business, be it a bank or a fast food place!
9 people like this.
I became familiar with this "feature" by renting cars in Europe long before I bought a car in the US that included it. I asked the dealer if the default setting for the button that controlled this function could be changed from "on" to "off" and of course that was not permitted by federal regulation, I assume. How about the powers that be reverse this regulation so that millions of owners of current cars don't have to wait forever to benefit from this most common-sense idea? Like most folks, I try to disarm the feature each time I start the engine, but sometimes I forget, and it is not only annoying but potentially dangerous to have that unavoidable hesitation that results from this intrusive feature.
12 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
DVC 5/14/2025 11:10:11 AM (No. 1949710)
We also learned of this "feature" from renting European cars over the last few decades. The worst was a BMW that we couldn't figure out for days how do defeat the damned autostart for several days, and additionally, the gear pattern was HORRIBLE.
It was a five speed manual, which I love in general, but even this VERY experienced driver who owns and has owned many high performance, foreign manual transmission cars, could NOT reliably engage first gear at a stop light more than 50% of the time. The other 50% the damned thing was in reverse.
NO significant difference between the location of first and reverse, usually there is a clear, spring loaded gate to get reverse. I was reduced to engaging "first" at each stop light and then gingerly letting out the clutch as an experiment before the light changed, to discover which gear I had this time. HATED that car in traffic, but it was delightful to drive otherwise.
5 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
BarryNo 5/14/2025 11:22:54 AM (No. 1949715)
I'd never even hear of this piece of garbage. Of course its going to put strain on batteries. it will waste gas. It will endanger lives - because if you are sitting their trying to restart your car you are a sitting duck for all sorts of bad things. I'm in my sixties, and I have had five cases in my life where such technology would have killed me. In one egregious case, I was stopped at a red light when I noticed a fully loaded car carrier coming up behind me - too fast to stop. I jerked over into the turn lane, just in time for the car carrier blew through the red light at around 60 miles and hour (local limit was 45). Called the police, but they never found him. (they couldn't be bothered) If Id been fiddling with the engine, I'd have been D.E.A.D.
6 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
mc squared 5/14/2025 11:30:32 AM (No. 1949722)
I'm hoping for some enterprising kid to discover a way to disable this 'feature' permanently. Of course everything is computer controlled so it may be difficult. You know a dealer wouldn't violate EPA rules and do it with their computers.
3 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Mizz Fixxit 5/14/2025 11:33:42 AM (No. 1949726)
Push button car starters are a hazard, especially for the hard of hearing or anyone who gets distracted. I know two people, both past 70, who failed to turn off their car after parking in a retail lot. If that can happen on errands, the same mistake can occur in the garage at home, which can obviously be very dangerous. With steering column ignitions, if your keys are in your pocket or on the kitchen counter, you are assured the car engine is shut off.
5 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
kono 5/14/2025 11:55:28 AM (No. 1949735)
For decades we were told that the worst emissions evils happened on startup and acceleration from stop. Suddenly the minuscule savings in fuel outweighed the evil belch of emissions. Did any of those obsessed with environmental effects of human life ever factor the added trace of fuel waste and emissions from towing cars whose starters or fuel systems fail on the restart?
3 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
coldoc 5/14/2025 11:55:50 AM (No. 1949736)
GM's afm related engine failure is costing Americans millions of dollars. Having the front of the GM duramax's engine driven by a 1/4 inch pin instead of a key is almost criminally stupid. Dont get me started on egr systems. My best ride is a 1998 diesel dodge 1 ton- you can yank the electric completely off and still drive it home. My 1996 jeep 4.0 still runs like a new car with 199,000 miles. I am not impressed with the "progress" of the modern cars. I remember in the 70's if a car made it to 100k it was worn out. Looks like history is repeating itself.
2 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
WV.Hillbilly 5/14/2025 12:09:49 PM (No. 1949748)
Now fix the gas cans,
5 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
hershey 5/14/2025 12:14:28 PM (No. 1949753)
Jeez people, If you don't want to use it, there is a button on the dash to turn it off...
2 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
FLCracker 5/14/2025 12:19:10 PM (No. 1949759)
#10, I'd hit the "Like" button on your comment 10 more times, if I could.
2 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
hershey 5/14/2025 12:21:08 PM (No. 1949761)
Hard of hearing I am...as far as the stop/start just turn it off with the dash control...as far as turning off, I've on occasion left it running in the garage, but in park..(does kill the mice)...now i make it a habit to check the console and make sure the 'push brake to start' message is showing before I exit the car...
2 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
3XALADY 5/14/2025 1:14:18 PM (No. 1949779)
I have a 2020 Lincoln Nautilus, didn't know about that feature, didn't notice on the test drive, and almost had that heart attack when it happened the first times. How do you turn it off on the console?
2 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
TrueBlueWfan 5/14/2025 1:57:41 PM (No. 1949804)
#22, in the car I have, there is a button with a green capital letter A with a counterclockwise circular arrow around it.
2 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
Hermoine 5/14/2025 2:38:04 PM (No. 1949821)
This, THIS, is the kind of stuff I VOTED FOR!!!!
1 person likes this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 5/14/2025 3:05:55 PM (No. 1949832)
I am no engineer, but it seems like a restart at every stop would negate any small emissions savings.
0 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
seamusm 5/14/2025 3:28:51 PM (No. 1949838)
A little too damn late, Lee. I just had to replace an 'extra heavy duty' starter on an F150 with only 140,00 miles at a cost of $900. THEN I had to buy a $75 device to disable the 'feature'. The number of times my car didn't just stop but actually stalled has been mind-boggling - to put it kindly. Learning that it was never fully proven in the first place to actually save gas has ticked me off something fierce.
0 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
JackBurton 5/14/2025 3:59:20 PM (No. 1949854)
I have a 2020 Ford Escape that has the feature. I can enable or disable it, as I can a number of other features in the car. Initially, I would hit the gas too hard when starting it up after it turned off the engine at a stop light... but now I operate it smoothly. I like the feature.
I am surprised to hear that it's bad for the car. We have some completely awful long lights here in Michigan and I have no doubt that the feature saves gas. I guess I'll ask my mechanic if I should shut it off.
0 people like this.
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Comments:
EPA says stop-start saves 4-5%. Not highway driving when you don't stop. In heavy driving it only wears out other expensive parts, but the EPA isn't paying the repairs.
The seat belt chimes in my car reminds me to shut the system off each time.