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Originally Posted by CaptainObvious
I test drove a HCHII last weekend and I liked it. I have a tendancy to get ticked off easily, and I saw a complaint about autostop on edmunds reviews.
If I stop at a light in heavy traffic and then everyone slowly creeps forward, does the engine have to restart for me to move 10' forward? Will it stop again?
Does autostop get annoying if you *almost* stop at stop signs and for right hand turns at lights?
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In order...
- Yes. The engine will restart when you take your foot off the brake, whether you intend to move 10' or 1" (or not at all). If you can't reconcile this amicably, you may want to explore a Toyota or Ford hybrid, instead.
There's only one exception to this rule with IMA, and it's if you're on a downward slope...and then you must keep your foot on the brake, with light pressure, without coming to a full stop. Takes practice, and most people aren't constantly travelling downhill for 100% of their commute (I do have a couple of grades in my everyday rush hour commute that allow this, however, and I use it where I can).
- Yes, twice more, without regard to the speed you attain while creeping up. If you reach 8mph during one of those two 'creeps', you'll gain another three autostops in your line of traffic. Thus, in a longer line of traffic, increase your buffer so that you can maintain AS. You'll pick this up quickly, and the people behind you realize that they can't really go anywhere even if you're taking an extra second or so to start moving forward.
The HCH-2 and it's IMA battery will allow you AS capability for a long time if you're stuck in traffic (with my Accord Hybrid, I'd lose one 'bar' off the 6-bar meter for every 4 'continuous' AS I made, and lose it outright at 2/6 bars...so the increased AS capability of the HCH-2 is a blessing for me).
In these cases, AS becomes invaluable (to demonstrate, just sit in traffic for a light with the engine running, and watch your averaging display tick off 0.1mpg from your hard-earned average every 10 seconds. Once you see that in action, you'll probably start shutting off the engine manually if you miss an autostop at a stoplight (it can be finicky, depending on how you modulate the brake pedal, if the engine / ambient temp is cold, etc).
It's also better to just turn the key to 'off' for very long stops (ie; waiting for trains, etc), rather than sit there with your foot on the brake, letting your IMA battery slowly run down.
Note that the second and third AS' differ from the first one. The first one shuts down the engine while you're at about 6mph, as long as you keep your foot on the brake. The subsequent AS' won't occur until about 2 seconds after the car has come to rest. The logic is that you might not *really* be stopping, so IMA tries to make sure. After awhile, you'll learn to use this to your advantage - ie; when you can see you won't be stopped but for a second or two, you'll actually try and defeat AS.
- AS *can* get annoying if you're encountering stop signs every block (ie; you're in a busy urban area). Same if you were turning right at every intersection, I guess. To be honest, I don't notice it much - except when I drive into the urban centers of Chicago. Then I notice it, and sometimes defeat it through (non-) use of brake or dropping the gearshift into 'S' while I'm in that 'in-between' mode. Kick it back into 'D' when you start moving forward, though, or you'll notice the engine revving more than usual (because you're forcing 'low gear' range on the CVT).
Since I'm generally coasting up to a stop, I see things in 'big picture' terms, and think of the fuel cut / regen I encountered for those many seconds while coasting up to the stop. The AS then becomes 'gravy' for those short stops, as it were. Just think of it like that, and it's not so annoying. As you become more practiced, any EV-modes / glides that you can tack on to extend those events just make you forget all about those 'wasteful' autostops that happen to all of us on occasion.
After awhile, you look at the overall fuel efficiency of this car, and you tend to overlook 'missed' or 'wasteful' autostops. I don't think about them any longer, to be honest (except for the longer stops I describe above). Doing so is just a waste of *my* energy (I get frustrated easily sometimes as well, so I empathize).
Driving is an inexact process. Too many variables involved in order to be able to *always* obtain 100% efficiency. So don't sweat it - just enjoy the car and it's capabilities as well as you can. With practice, your capabilities will improve and make up for the few 'shortcomings' of the car.
