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Originally Posted by niky
What I think is clever with Mazda's system is the way it stops the engine with a single cylinder primed to fire. The restarts are eerily seamless for a car without a hybrid assist/starter motor. If all motors could do that, imagine how much we'd save from not having to "crank" the motor in the morning!
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It's clever, but it wouldn't last overnight as the engine cools off.
My car also re-starts rather easily, and within the time it takes to get the clutch pedal to the floor, but that's probably due to it being only 1L
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Still... short stints in traffic... thirty minutes or so (assuming you have a clear run to charge up before you get stuck), the difference is big.
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The max. charge is always limited to what the battery will hold.
Even without AC or radio on, it's still limited to what the manufacturer put in as excess battery capacity - which is also costing mileage (weight, recharging).
A few stop/starts too soon after one another, and the engine stays on as the battery's reserve capacity gets too low.
When coasting down, it's not using regenerative braking either.
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If you're sitting in gridlock from the time you turn the engine on till the time you park, not so much.
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Stop/start is rather tedious in that kind of situation.
By the time it shuts down , it often has to restart again .
One'd be better off trying to keep rolling, even coasting engine on.