Hi everyone! I'm very pleased to find this excellent website.

We bought an HCH/CVT '04 about a week ago and so far we love it.

Something that we're noticing now that we didn't notice during the test drives is a momentary groaning/grinding noise on the driver side--maybe under the driver. It only seems to occur when the car is moving again after a complete stop--and I think only after the gas engine has shut off but not every time after it has shut off. The sound is loud enough that passengers have commented on it, but it doesn't seem to have any effect on the performance of the car.

Is this a normal sound? Has anyone else experienced it? I finally called the dealer's service center today to ask about it. I was told that the sound is the starter starting up the gas engine. That sounded reasonable at first but after I thought about it a bit I wasn't so sure. This sound occurs after the car is moving. Doesn't the gas engine start as soon as the accelerator pedal is depressed?

Does anyone have another explanation for the noise?

Thanks in advance,

-Dave