A BBC article recently reported that some drivers in the UK spent on average 74 hours stuck in traffic in 2017. That’s over 3 days! Below, you can see which areas of the UK spent the longest stuck in traffic.

Let’s take the worst place – London. If we say that a small family hatchback uses around 0.1 gallons an hour at standstill, in 74 hours that is 7.4 gallons wasted, that’s around 33.6 litres!

In December 2017, the UK average cost of unleaded petrol was 120.8 pence per litre, so that makes it around £40.58 of fuel completely wasted in a year.

This doesn’t seem like much, but it is estimated that by 2030, British drivers will spend, on average, 18 working days a year in traffic, whereas Londoners will spend as many as 40 working days! When you convert that into money that could be as much as £500 wasted each year.

Even worse, if you drive a car that’s a bit thirstier, you could be burning away more than £1000 each year. Because of this, we are starting to see more cars featuring stop/start technology.

What is stop/start?

Basically, stop/start shuts down the engine whilst the vehicle is stationary.

In manual cars, this also happens when the car is in neutral. When the driver is ready to set off, it will start again usually after the clutch has been pressed.

In automatic motors the system is a lot easier to use. It activates when the car is stationary and the driver puts their foot on the brake. When the accelerator is pressed (in some models when the foot comes off the brake), the engine fires up again.

The start/stop concept has been played with ever since the 1960’s, and was actually first seen in production cars around the 1980’s.

It wasn’t until about 2008 when BMW starting putting stop/start technology in their own cars and the Mini range that it really took off. Now, you can find stop/start in a wide range of vehicles, and even some performance cars!

Why doesn’t stop/start work on my car?

It’s pretty obvious that stop/start technology is ideal if you want to save fuel if you’re likely to be travelling in a lot of traffic.

But the system will only work when certain conditions are met, such as the engine being at running temperature. So, if you’re only using a car to nip to the shops and back, then you might find that the system will hardly work!

These are the conditions to get your start/stop technology to work:

• The stop/start system is not manually de-activated
• The bonnet is fully closed
• The engine is at running temperature
• The driver’s door is closed and the driver’s seat belt is fastened
• The battery is sufficiently charged and in good condition
• The engine coolant temperature is not too high
• The engine exhaust temperature is not too high, e.g. after driving with high engine load
• The ambient temperature is not too low
• The defrost selection does not inhibit a start/stop (including heated windscreens)
• The climate control system does not inhibit a start/stop
• The brake vacuum is sufficient
• The self-cleaning function of the diesel particulate filter is not active
• The vehicle has moved since the last start/stop

Start/stop worries

One of the things that people get worried about with start/stop is that the car won’t start up again.

To quash this rumour and set your mind at ease – the reality is that the car’s computer will know if it won’t be able to start again, and it won’t activate it if that is the case.

All will turn themselves back on if it feels like it needs to. For example if you are at a set of lights and are using the air-con, radio and more and it needs to charge up.

All cars that have start/stop technology have a button that can turn it off it you want, and if you can’t find it or aren’t sure what it looks like then have a quick look in your owner’s manual. But be aware that some cars activate start/stop when you start up the engine, even if you have manually deactivated it before.

If you want to know more about start/stop, then take a look around your local CarShop showroom and our team will be happy to help!