The Myth Behind Warming up Your Car Before Driving it

It's January and that means colder weather! An arctic blast of very cold air is expected to embrace the Ark-La-Tex starting tonight. Temperatures are expected to plummet into the lower teens this evening with daytime highs over the next few days just slightly above freezing. One of the things I think people hate most is having to get up out of a warm bed and into the cold weather to warm up the car. The Washington Post just did a story about if warming up your car actually does any good. The answer was a surprisingly NO! There are no benefits to the car itself other than you trying to warm the inside up and defrost the windshield. In fact, as for the car, you burn gas while letting it sit there and run. It used to be back in the day when most cars had carburetors it was a good thing to start the engine and let it idle so the car would run well. But as the 1990s rolled around, most cars now are fuel injected and compensate for temperature changes. And more cars today have remote starters where you can start the car from inside the house without having to get out into the cold.

A test did show though that if it is zero degrees outside that starting your car and letting it idle for five minutes will increase your total fuel consumption by 7 percent to 14 percent.

I personally don't care if it wastes fuel, I hate getting into a cold car unless I have no choice. Thankfully, I have seat warmers in mine just in case.

(The Washington Post)