Donald Trump declares war on ‘world's worst car feature'

News.com.au

22-05-2025

In a move that might even please (some of) his most ardent critics, Donald Trump is aiming to get rid of one of the most despised aspects of modern vehicles.
The hated featured was introduced by the Obama Administration, which will no doubt give the 47th US President more enjoyment in dumping it, before spreading to Europe and Australia and infecting even the most modern vehicles.
Lee Zeldin, Trump's recently appointed Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency has set his sights on the loathed automatic stop-start feature in cars.
'Start/stop technology: where your car dies at every red light so companies get a climate participation trophy. EPA approved it, and everyone hates it, so we're fixing it,' Zeldin wrote on X, in announcing the move.
'(We will) revoke the 2012 Obama EPA approval of what many refer to as the single stupidest feature in vehicles: auto start/stop.'
The start/stop technology automatically turns off an engine when a car comes to a stop and is idling, at say a traffic light. The engine is then restarted with a touch of the accelerator.
At the time of the introduction of the feature, which was incentivised in the form of tax credits for car makers, it was claimed the move would cut fuel use and costs and emissions.
However the data on whether it actually achieves that or not is rather inconclusive.
The stop/start feature has also been criticised as a way through which car makers can exaggerate how much, or little, fuel the car uses.
According to the New York Post, 65 per cent of vehicles had the technology included in new models in the US in 2023. As many as 30 million vehicles on roads in the US have the feature.
European carmakers eagerly adopted the feature in their cars and it has since been introduced in even the most recent hybrid models.
WORST. FEATURE. EVER
Aussies drivers are not immune to the sudden shutdown of their engines either. Ford Toyota, Mazda and Subaru are four car giants who sell cars with the tech in the Australian market including the all conquering RAV4 and Rangers models and the HiLux.
'When we hear from American drivers, they tell us this is the single worst feature in their vehicle, they want it eliminated,' Zeldin told cable channel News Nation.
'A lot of US drivers have grown so frustrated when they have this experience, When you are stopping at a red light or you are maybe in an area when your car is constantly turning on and off.
'Maybe it saves a big of gas, [but] what is it doing to my starter, [motor]? What is it doing to the engine?
'So in cars today you have the ability to turn features on and off. While I am driving, why don't you give me the option to opt out so I don't have to turn it off every time?'
Some cars have the option to turn off the feature each time the car is started however many don't.
According to the EPA, the stop/start tech can improve fuel economy by around four to five per cent but that is dependent on driving conditions.
There is little information available on the detrimental effect the device has on engines.
To what extent some carmakers use the tech to 'game' emissions claims is also unknown. However in May last year, the Australian Automobile Association claimed in its real-world fuel and emissions tests that: 'in our latest batch of results, there is a 44 per cent spread in the gap between the tested cars' fuel consumption lab results and their on-road performance.'
GET RID OF IT!
Either way users on X were emphatic in their reaction to the move – that it can't happen fast enough.
'Can you send whoever was responsible for this to a prison in El Salvador?' one person wrote.
'Good! Get rid of it!' wrote another.
While another replied: 'Yes!! I can verify, as a car salesman, nearly everybody hates it. From personal testing, for most it doesn't save much anyway. 900 miles in a month, 0.02 gal saved. Also, it's unsafe (e.g. stalling out briefly in the centre lane as you're about to make a left turn.)'
Zedlin won't have been surprised by those responses.
'Is it possible that every single one of your watchers hates it? No,' he asked on News Nation.
'Is it quite possible that most people watching are saying yes nodding their heads in agreement? I think so.'
Zeldin aims to jettison the federal incentives that helped to encourage car makers to introduce and keep the stop/start engine feature in millions and millions of US cars, by withdrawing the approval for tax credits.
Auto stop-star devices are not compulsory in the US, Europe or Australia.
However the engine turning off during testing allows car makers to meet the stringent emissions regulations including the New Vehicle Emissions Standards that came into effect into Australia in January.
It remains to be seen what Trump's and Zeldin's move will have on cars sold in Australia, although like most manufacturing issues it would likely have a flow-on effect. Car makers would be unlikely to make the feature just for the smaller Aussie car market.