[revintup]

Reminds me of my hostel days in TN. During peak summer we used to freeze a 2L soft drink bottle with plain water and keep it in front of a table fan besides our bed. It does the job for sure.

An Air conditioner or even a cooler would have done a better job but then that comes at a cost.

If a manufacturer can employ a cost effective solution to a major problem then why not?

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Viju

I have never driven any of the Indian cars with idle-stop system (Mahindra Scorpio for example), and therefore, have no idea how good / bad the jerk felt in the cabin is.

Among the many cars that we've tested with the start / stop system is the 328i. BMW couldn't achieve a seamless experience, thus I'm wondering if Maruti could:

Originally Posted by moralfibre

Unfortunately, the engine start / stop sequence is far from seamless. When the engine restarts, it does so with a prominent shudder. After a while, this just gets plain annoying in traffic. We preferred to keep the start / stop system switched off. Wonder how many BMW owners will spend 35 lakhs on the car, and then prefer to save a few drops of fuel with this feature. The other annoying bit is that the feature needs to be turned off every time you drive the car.

[ANewExperience]

Looks like Fuel economy comes with a lot of price -
1. implementing the start -stop technology,
2. implementing eco-cool feature for AC(in some versions where Eco-cool was not implemented, the engine itself is turned on to retain the temperature and then the engine is turned off)
3. It takes a toll on BATTERIES - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Start-stop_system#Concerns

[mvadg]

I am hoping Maruti's tech is something like the i-stop system:

Idling stop systems generally use the starter motor to restart the engine. The i-stop system, however, uses a "combustion start method" to restart the engine. It injects fuel directly into a cylinder of the stopped engine and ignites it to force the piston down. Because the combustion start method requires the pistons to be halted in the optimum position when the engine is stopped, this system requires technology capable of accurately detecting and controlling piston positions.
The starter motor is operated to assist engine restarting, but using mainly combustion power for restarting requires less time and reduces power consumption.
This unique technology achieves an engine restart time of 0.35 seconds, the best in its class

High time our manufacturers "tropicalize" our cars, heat reflective glass and paint, ac compressor relocated to the back, maybe even absorption/adsorption cooling using waste heat from the engine... :-<

[VeluM]

Originally Posted by Motard_Blr

This is similar to my Samsung fridge which has a blue substance in a container in the freezer that slowly absorbs heat and melts during a power failure. This helps keep foods frozen much longer than in a normal freezer.

Have it in mine too. Saved the pack of sausages a few times!

Originally Posted by GTO

Must say that eco-cool tech is pretty....well, cool. One of the two major disadvantages of a start/stop system is losing the air-conditioner when the engine switches off. Imagine sitting in the sweltering heat!

Originally Posted by GTO

Among the many cars that we've tested with the start / stop system is the 328i. BMW couldn't achieve a seamless experience, thus I'm wondering if Maruti could:

I recently went on a round trip from Bangalore to Chennai, then Pondicherry before returning to Bangalore in a Zoom XUV500. This was a W6, and while there is quite a long list of things that were wrong with that car (I got it at 736kms, almost brand new), the one thing I did like was the Start/Stop feature.

I didn't need to save fuel, but generally thought it a waste to idle the vehicle unnecessarily. It is very useful in city, especially at traffic lights. I also found that there is some intelligence built in - apparently it has a delay between Start and Stop, so it doesn't shut down in stop-start traffic conditions (after an initial start, of course).

The AC did switch off along with the car though, so I deactivated the feature when driving around in Chennai

I read recently of a breakthrough where the simple alignment of some material via electric impulse can be used as the "condensor" or heat/exchange element, while consuming very little power. It is also significantly less complex, eliminates the compressor and hence removes a significant mechanical load from the engine.

Maruti's setup sounds to me like a very good, low cost alternative until newer technologies that do not rely on gas/compressors become more efficient and affordable. It will be less efficient when the engine is running as the AC will need to keep the gel cold along with the interiors.

[Cartman]

Lovely bit of news. It takes a Maruti to get the masses to get used to a new set of features or technology. First the AMT (ya ya I know Tata had it first) and now this. Wonderful!

Particularly interested in the Eco-Cool - wonder if it can be retro-fitted. Would love to see how this functions. Anything that keeps me cool and saves me money at the same time is a big welcome!

The Start-Stop tech is particularly annoying in BMWs; people are known to code cars so that the cars do not switch themselves off. To think about it, even the Aventador comes with a Start-Stop function.

Cheers!
Cartman

[sumeethaldankar]

Instead of stopping and starting the engine wouldn't it be better to just run it on 1 or 2 cylinders or something like that. I believe this is done on some large v8 engine cars where 2 or more cylinders are switched off during idling.

[Motard_Blr]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

Instead of stopping and starting the engine wouldn't it be better to just run it on 1 or 2 cylinders or something like that. I believe this is done on some large v8 engine cars where 2 or more cylinders are switched off during idling.

When you have only 3 cylinders, switching off ignition in one during idling will cause bad vibrations. Ever been in a misfiring M800 or Omni? It also sounds terrible!

But a 4 cylinder engine could in theory cut-out 2 cylinders but I don't know whether this is feasible at idling, again, due to vibrations.

Starting and stopping an engine frequently to save fuel has only marginal fuel savings but significant cost increases. In the Indian context, one spends more time creeping in traffic than waiting at traffic signals, so I'm not convinced that an Idling-Stop system will be effective.

Ultimately, the only way to judge the effectiveness of a Idling-Stop system is to see how much money it would save us and how long it would take to payback the additional cost.