Start stop - Actually worthwhile, or pointless eco gimmick?

[Kozy]

Seeing as my 'trusty' old MX5 is having starter motor issues at the moment, this got me thinking about all the cars now fitted with stop start rubbish. If my car had it, I'd be stranded every other time I came to a set of lights, I would hate it and probably seek to disable it.

To the people that have this in their cars, is it actually worthwhile or is it simply another means to falsify the official MPG and CO2 figures? Do you like it or rather it wasn't there?

I just can't see that it saves any worthwhile amount of fuel, considering the energy which must then be returned to the battery in the form of additional engine load from the alternator...

Can these systems be switched off/disabled fairly easily if they start becoming problematic?

[Kozy]

Rawwr said:

I like it in my Fiesta. Works well. Unintrusive. No problem. Can't see why I'd deactivate it?

Further down the line, when the car gets older.

They don't start 'on the button' forever.

[Kozy]

paranoid airbag said:

Minus 10 points for "asking a question" when you've clearly already made up your mind. If what you want to say is "it's a pointless gimmick" come out and say it the defend your opinion. Or ask a question in a genuinely open-minded way.

Except I was asking a question? That question was, 'Is it a pointless gimmick or not?'. Having never owned one, I am not in a position to form an opinion on one, am I?

paranoid airbag said:

Anyways, new battery time if you're having trouble starting?

Tried, still pisses about. It's a dicky solenoid, if it won't start, repetitive flicking of the key at just the right frequency will get it to start. Not bothering me enough to actually get it fixed at the moment but it sure would if it happened at every set of traffic lights!