How much does it cost to turn on the ignition of your car?

SexyGreyFox · 22 Oct 2009 at 21:16

When I first passed my test in 1975 there was a Top Gear type program on the TV that said it cost £1 to turn on the ignition of a car.
This took into account the wear & tear of a violent start compared to an engine ticking over.
I've always lived with this £1 turning on fact and never turn off my ignition when I don't need to.
However, 34 years have passed by and there must be a new cost to turning on a car.
Any idea how much or have none of you ever thought about it?

Wicksta · 22 Oct 2009 at 21:20

£3.64

arknor · 22 Oct 2009 at 21:22

buy an old banger for 100 quid , turn it on and off 101 times and your in profit

James_N · 22 Oct 2009 at 21:23

arknor said:
buy an old banger for 100 quid , turn it on and off 101 times and your in profit

God im massively in profit then

my car only cost £100 and ive had it nearly 4 years!

Simon · 23 Oct 2009 at 00:34

Absolute rubbish

Jonnycoupe · 23 Oct 2009 at 01:03

My car must be screwed cost wise. It must stop and start 25 times a day.

Ricochet J · 23 Oct 2009 at 01:04

On a similar note, how long must an engine idle for to consume all the fuel in the tank?

BigglesPiP · 23 Oct 2009 at 01:20

The cost of recovering the energy used to start the engine isn't the only factor.

How long does it take to recharge the battery? How often could you turn it off and on before you can't start it, and make the stop start traffic jam even worse with your breakdown.

G-MAN2004 · 23 Oct 2009 at 01:52

arknor said:
buy an old banger for 100 quid , turn it on and off 101 times and your in profit

Yeah, if turning it on and off gives you £1 each time..

ShakenNstirred · 23 Oct 2009 at 01:55

to be honest who really cares lol

MikeHunt79 · 23 Oct 2009 at 02:48

I'd say it costs around 5p

Rossmac · 23 Oct 2009 at 02:57

Well I have always thought that turning the car over wasted more resources than just ticking over for a while, so I would be more inclined to do the latter than just turn it off and on again.

osc89er · 23 Oct 2009 at 06:48

An old statistic from an ad campaign:

6 minutes at idle uses the same fuel as driving a mile.

SexyGreyFox · 23 Oct 2009 at 07:58

Simon said:
Absolute rubbish

So you think it costs nothing to turn your car on?

I was an Engineering Apprentice at the time and it made complete sense to me that turning things on would cost money through wear & tear.

dalin80 · 23 Oct 2009 at 08:10

well its true that starting a car is pretty harsh on many of the internals but i cant even guess as to how anyone could try to work out how much it costs.

extra fuel for starting (is engine cold or not?)
wear on starter motor
strain on battery
initial strain on cambelt/chain
wear on key
+a billionty other things.

just not worth thinking about, hell how much an engine overheats a few seconds after you switch it off courtesy of heat soak is a day course all by itself.

atpbx · 23 Oct 2009 at 08:16

dmpoole said:
So you think it costs nothing to turn your car on?

I was an Engineering Apprentice at the time and it made complete sense to me that turning things on would cost money through wear & tear.

In 1975, even if you could quantify an actual cost per start, it wouldnt of cost £1 of fuel + wear and tear.

A direct cost conversion of that figure is £7.66 via the inflation calculator.

Anyone here know what the average wage was in 1975?
*edit £3753*.

Hmm, apparently that works out as an equivalent yearly wage today of £28,747.

Quick example of this (as inflation is negligible for the period in question) my fiesta is 12 years old, say it starts up twice a day, (there and back) for 12 years (4745) x £7.66 = £36346.7

I have the original purchase documents, and all a full service history with receipts, and even taking into account fuel, that figure is way off, even taking the purchase price into consideration.

utajoker · 23 Oct 2009 at 08:46

i read on RAC i think when everyone was trying to save petrol etc that if your going to be stopped for more than 3 minutes turn it off, if not idle will use less petrol overall.

Simon · 23 Oct 2009 at 09:24

dmpoole said:
So you think it costs nothing to turn your car on?

I was an Engineering Apprentice at the time and it made complete sense to me that turning things on would cost money through wear & tear.

Why do you think many OEMs have introduced stop start in a bid to reduce emissions?

It saves fuel

Sure it may put more wear on the starter, this could mean it last for 200k miles rather than 500k. Hardly worth worrying about. Its impossible to predict how much it costs without knowing how long the starter will last and how many engine starts are required through it's lifetime.

Once the engine is at temperature, there is no real issue with engine wear in terms of the engine being turned on and off.

lukechad · 23 Oct 2009 at 10:57

Ricochet J said:
On a similar note, how long must an engine idle for to consume all the fuel in the tank?

Mines a 52l tank, which is 11.44 gallons.

Trip computer says at idle its using 0.1 gal/h, so thats 114.4 hrs. thats 4.7 days.... maybe not lol

Sukh · 23 Oct 2009 at 11:09

Simon said:
Why do you think many OEMs have introduced stop start in a bid to reduce emissions?

To get the car in a lower BIK band and more fleet managers to buy them