It's a feature on recent cars that most drivers love to hate -- that thing where your car shuts off at traffic lights, supposedly to save gas and fight pollution -- but what can we do about it?
Well, the Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, said Monday the agency will start looking into how it can modify the start-stop feature.
President Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Administration says it wants to "fix" the annoying feature.
"If there are people who actually like that feature -- and I haven't talked to one, but there's got to be somebody who does -- then it's probably okay, but otherwise starting the car becomes a two-step process," says Jerry Reynolds, host of the "Car Pro Show" heard Saturdays on 740 KTRH in Houston and on 1200 WOAI in San Antonio.
"It was very annoying, that was the first thing that hit me when I first tried it," he says, but think I found and I heard from listeners -- they say it doesn't affect the air conditioner when the car stops, but that is absolutely not true, it doesn't cool as well when the engine's not turning. Now, the air conditioner doesn't go off, but it sure doesn't cool as well," Reynolds says.
"And people in Texas, that's a big issue with them."
"And one thing I noticed, the bigger the engine, the rougher the restart was. So if you're driving a big V8 and it's got to start and stop and you can't disable it, then you're gonna really hate it because you're gonna feel it dramatically every time you stop the car."
Which brings up the point that there is indeed a button on the majority of vehicles that allows the driver turn off the annoying start-stop feature, but it has to be engaged every time the car is started -- forcing drivers to do the ol' Texas Two-Step.
"Starting your car becomes a two-step process, you hit the start button then you hit the disable on the start-stop system.
"But there are all kinds of after-market products out there that you can plug in the car, simply, takes about ten seconds, that will disable it, but it costs about 100-plus dollars to get it.
The car manufacturers, he says, "should offer that from the factory. If you want it on, fine, but if you want it off all the time, you should be able to have it off all the time."