Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

sda

driver100 said:

imidazol97 said:

ab348 said:

The ATS has auto heated seats. I assume it uses the ambient temp sensor as its guide. When you start it on cool/cold days the seat heaters automatically come on. I think the heated steering wheel does the same.

Same for my Malibu. Based on outside temp the seats are warmed up and the heated rear window is activated. If warm the AC is turned on when the car is remote started.

I guess only GM owners need extreme nanny devices

I haven't tried it but the remote start works the same in the Passat

ab348

driver100 said:

I guess only GM owners need extreme nanny devices

Are you saying that your Benz does not do that for you? I’m shocked and appalled.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

snakeweasel said:

driver100 said:

isellhondas said:

roadburner said:

isellhondas said:

roadburner said:

Rooney the Wonder Dog has dispatched at least six raccoons to that great garbage can in the sky.

What kind of a dog? A lot of dogs are smart enough not take on a raccoon. A cornered raccoon can inflect a lot of damage! They are quick and they are MEAN! Sounds like this dog is up to the task! Does it kill cats too?

He's a "Border Collie/Shepherd mix" according to the Kentucky Humane Society, where we adopted him. He has never shown the slightest bit of aggression to a human, but everything else(save our one cat) is a potential target. One night he killed a raccoon and left it on the side porch then went on to whack a groundhog and leave it on the front porch. He's also killed numerous snakes and chased off a coyote. One day he caught a woodpecker- don't ask me how. I managed to get it away from him and it flew off- apparently unhurt.


And here is proof that he-reluctantly-tolerates our cat:

Sounds like a great dog!

You must have really slow email service....that was from 3 days ago.

Maybe he, unlike us, has a life and cant get here as often,

...................or, some take longer to process the information

Yeah, I'll get back to you on that with a response in a few days.

Michaell

Question - do any of you use a Chromebook? If so, what do you think about it?

oldfarmer50

isellhondas said:

suydam said:

We have been getting delivery from at least one local restaurant a week since this whole thing began. I really want those restaurants to be there when it’s over and we can go out again.

I learned yesterday that 140 businesses have left Seattle and will not be reopening. The cruise industry used to brings tons of money into Seattle but now they are gone for now anyway. Making matters worse, the recent riots brought a lot of adverse attention. No longer the sparkling, vibrant city it once was. Sad to watch the decline.

Yes.

Michaell

oldfarmer50 said:

isellhondas said:

suydam said:

We have been getting delivery from at least one local restaurant a week since this whole thing began. I really want those restaurants to be there when it’s over and we can go out again.

I learned yesterday that 140 businesses have left Seattle and will not be reopening. The cruise industry used to brings tons of money into Seattle but now they are gone for now anyway. Making matters worse, the recent riots brought a lot of adverse attention. No longer the sparkling, vibrant city it once was. Sad to watch the decline.

Yes.

Now that many companies are moving to a permanent WFH environment, I can see thousands of employees moving to smaller and less expensive locations over the next several years.

For the longest time, my wife would only live somewhere that had a Target. With the advent of Amazon Prime, that’s no longer a necessity.

stickguy

Michaell said:

Question - do any of you use a Chromebook? If so, what do you think about it?

I'm curious too. I was considering one too when I eventually replace my laptop. And was thinking about it for my father. since I am tired of being long distance tech support every time he screws something up on his windows laptop. And that is probably the simplest thing to give him.

tjc78

Michaell said:

Question - do any of you use a Chromebook? If so, what do you think about it?

My son has one for school. Seems fine for browsing, etc. For that purpose they are a nice value.

garrison16

Michael and Stick, we have a Chromebook for several years It has been great

stickguy

makes sense for me. I mostly surf and do email, with a modest amount of office docs (a few lease comparison spreadsheets, and a bunch of word docs!) So I need some storage capacity, but not a huge amount. I think it is all on onedrive already, so if it connects to that, not worried about it.

abacomike

I have the remote start but I’ve never used it before. It comes with Mercedes-Me-Connect through my iPhone. I would imagine that I might use it if the temperature goes below 40 degrees F. My AC is turned off due to the cool weather we’re having so the heater would warm the interior of the car.

stickguy

I can 100% guarantee that if I had a car with remote start, I would never use it. Not a chance.

though with all the cars I have had, none of them had that particular feature.

roadburner

isellhondas said:

suydam said:

We have been getting delivery from at least one local restaurant a week since this whole thing began. I really want those restaurants to be there when it’s over and we can go out again.

I learned yesterday that 140 businesses have left Seattle and will not be reopening. The cruise industry used to brings tons of money into Seattle but now they are gone for now anyway. Making matters worse, the recent riots brought a lot of adverse attention. No longer the sparkling, vibrant city it once was. Sad to watch the decline.

Welcome to my world; as I've said, Louisville is now the Beirut of the Bluegrass- thanks to Mayor McBikelane and our equally inept Governor.

roadburner

I've been enjoying driving my analog vehicles- the Club Sport and Wrangler. No nannies or filters to dilute the driving experience. Wearers need not apply...
In other news, I think my wife and I did a good job raising our son; he texted me today asking what Tag Heuer I'd recommend- and he's about decided he's going with a CPO M240i. He's following in my footsteps and staying single through his 20s- and reaping the financial benefits.

fintail

Get back to me when transplants stop flooding in, and real estate prices stop resembling German inflation curves in 1923. Also, I hope that's not KOMO news - there's an underlying agenda there.

It might not be a decline of Seattle, but a malaise of society in general.

isellhondas said:

I learned yesterday that 140 businesses have left Seattle and will not be reopening. The cruise industry used to brings tons of money into Seattle but now they are gone for now anyway. Making matters worse, the recent riots brought a lot of adverse attention. No longer the sparkling, vibrant city it once was. Sad to watch the decline.

imidazol97

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

I guess only GM owners need extreme nanny devices

Are you saying that your Benz does not do that for you? I’m shocked and appalled.

It's my understanding from the manual that regardless of the settings on the automatic temp unit, the car will respond to the sensors and the science, using AC or heat to prep the cabin of the vehicle during the two remote state cycles enabled.

So if @abacomike has his MB parked having used the AC the day before to cool the cabin, the next morning when he uses remote start, the car will sense that the environs temp is 40 deg F and will use the heat, the seat heaters, the rear window defroster, the steering wheel warmer, the side mirror warmers and the defroster along with communicating with the mothership in Stutgart to make the vehicle comfy when @abacomike inserts his key.

I'm surprised @driver100 hasn't used this feature when driving his vehicle in cold Canada or hot summer Canada.
It's nice to start the car from inside a store and let the AC or the heat prep the car while I'm checking out.
Starting it at home when the car is inside the garage which doesn't go below 45 or 50 deg F most days of the winter, isn't real practical, but has been done. Usually I'll just take the Cobalt if there's snow or ice on short trips.

driver100

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

I guess only GM owners need extreme nanny devices

Are you saying that your Benz does not do that for you? I’m shocked and appalled.

The last time I checked MB and IIRC BMW didn't offer remote start......they didn't consider it to be safe. It is possible my car does have it, I never checked and I wouldn't use it very often. The car is always in the garage overnight..........and there aren't that many times pre-starting it would be useful. It kind of bothers me a bit to, a car idling for a long time probably isn't great for it, especially when cold.....I think manuals tell you to start the car and start driving to get it up to operating temperature as soon as possible.

driver100

imidazol97 said:

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

I guess only GM owners need extreme nanny devices

Are you saying that your Benz does not do that for you? I’m shocked and appalled.

I'm surprised @driver100 hasn't used this feature when driving his vehicle in cold Canada or hot summer Canada.
It's nice to start the car from inside a store and let the AC or the heat prep the car while I'm checking out.
Starting it at home when the car is inside the garage which doesn't go below 45 or 50 deg F most days of the winter, isn't real practical, but has been done. Usually I'll just take the Cobalt if there's snow or ice on short trips.

True, the garage is seldom below 40F, and you don't want to start the car if it is in the garage. I don't know if it has remote start....and if I need a phone to start it that is out....my phone is a basic $3 a month pay as you go....I only make about 5 calls a month....probably 10 minutes a month total to say I'll be a few minutes late getting home.

explorerx4

@driver100,
You drive some 3rd world stuff if they don't have factory remote start.

Sandman6472

No offense taken about the "lazy mailman"!!! I was a 'city carrier" in Boca Raton but where we live just south of Boca, our carrier is a "rural carrier". Basically the same but they have some different rules than we did. Now, our mail lady is a bit lazy and frequently leaves mail for the folks on the next street north of us but neglects to either read the last name or name of street. Now that's one thing I prided myself on...I did my work with no laziness and if the address was a bit off, I'd go the extra mile to find the right number or street name/number. It really wasn't that difficult but for some others, guessing it was.
I was hired by Enterprise by an email but had a sort face to face with my boss who said I was hired right then & there as long as my driving record was in order. It was, thankfully. Good company to work for and puts Hertz to shame!!! Very happy I jumped ship when I did, pre-chapter 11. Nicer co-workers and much better management to go along with it. I actually enjoy going into work!

fintail

Yup, it's with the "Mercedes Me Connect" app. I've only used it once, just to test it out. The app is good for remote locking your doors.

driver100 said:

True, the garage is seldom below 40F, and you don't want to start the car if it is in the garage. I don't know if it has remote start....and if I need a phone to start it that is out....my phone is a basic $3 a month pay as you go....I only make about 5 calls a month....probably 10 minutes a month total to say I'll be a few minutes late getting home.

jmonroe1

driver100 said:

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

I guess only GM owners need extreme nanny devices

Are you saying that your Benz does not do that for you? I’m shocked and appalled.

The last time I checked MB and IIRC BMW didn't offer remote start......they didn't consider it to be safe. It is possible my car does have it, I never checked and I wouldn't use it very often. The car is always in the garage overnight..........and there aren't that many times pre-starting it would be useful. It kind of bothers me a bit to, a car idling for a long time probably isn't great for it, especially when cold.....I think manuals tell you to start the car and start driving to get it up to operating temperature as soon as possible.

I’m surprised we haven’t heard of cars with the remote start feature, parked in the family garage, self starting and asphyxiating several family members. That has to be anti-Murphyism at its best.

jmonroe

cdnpinhead

I guess it's just me, but all I care about in cold weather (down to 40 below, in Edmonton) is whether the car will start. If it does, I'm golden. In a few minutes the heater will begin to work, and then it's off to the races.

When I lived in Edmonton I had a block heater that needed to be plugged in to a 117 volt outlet, but they are plentiful up there. Either way, I never felt the need for heated seats or steering wheels. It only took a few miles to get the tires to quit bumping out their flat spots, and the ice fog in the roundabouts wasn't that hard to deal with either.

Listening to the FL people is amusing, but the rest of you lot add to the show.

roadburner

jmonroe1 said:

driver100 said:

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

I guess only GM owners need extreme nanny devices

Are you saying that your Benz does not do that for you? I’m shocked and appalled.

The last time I checked MB and IIRC BMW didn't offer remote start......they didn't consider it to be safe. It is possible my car does have it, I never checked and I wouldn't use it very often. The car is always in the garage overnight..........and there aren't that many times pre-starting it would be useful. It kind of bothers me a bit to, a car idling for a long time probably isn't great for it, especially when cold.....I think manuals tell you to start the car and start driving to get it up to operating temperature as soon as possible.

I’m surprised we haven’t heard of cars with the remote start feature, parked in the family garage, self starting and asphyxiating several family members. That has to be anti-Murphyism at its best.

jmonroe

What made BMW NA gun shy about remote start is a case from several years ago where one of their dealers installed an aftermarket remote start on a new BMW. A young child found the key fob and trigged the remote start of the garaged car- with the result that the entire family died of CO poisoning. Thanks to American product liability law BMW NA was held responsible.
When I was working at BMW a remote start kit was made available for the G05 X5 and G30 5 Series. It was an involved install and few customers opted for it. A couple of years later a BCM update killed the feature on cars that it had been installed on. I'm glad that I wasn't around to deal with those customers. A factory installed remote start is now available on some models.

As for heated seats, I know that newer Challengers and Chargers with heated seats allow you to set the temperature at which the seat heating activates; ditto for most BMWs from the G30-on.

tjc78

jmonroe1 said:

driver100 said:

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

I guess only GM owners need extreme nanny devices

Are you saying that your Benz does not do that for you? I’m shocked and appalled.

The last time I checked MB and IIRC BMW didn't offer remote start......they didn't consider it to be safe. It is possible my car does have it, I never checked and I wouldn't use it very often. The car is always in the garage overnight..........and there aren't that many times pre-starting it would be useful. It kind of bothers me a bit to, a car idling for a long time probably isn't great for it, especially when cold.....I think manuals tell you to start the car and start driving to get it up to operating temperature as soon as possible.

I’m surprised we haven’t heard of cars with the remote start feature, parked in the family garage, self starting and asphyxiating several family members. That has to be anti-Murphyism at its best.

jmonroe

They only run for 10 or 15 minutes before shutting off.

I’ll hardly ever use RS any longer either with the garage.

We do use it as we are leaving the beach. It’s nice to come back to a cool car after dragging all the gear back.

driver100

explorerx4 said:

@driver100,
You drive some 3rd world stuff if they don't have factory remote start.

The car probably has remote start, but my 3rd world phone doesn't. Honestly, I can live without it.

snakeweasel

Michaell said:

oldfarmer50 said:

isellhondas said:

suydam said:

We have been getting delivery from at least one local restaurant a week since this whole thing began. I really want those restaurants to be there when it’s over and we can go out again.

I learned yesterday that 140 businesses have left Seattle and will not be reopening. The cruise industry used to brings tons of money into Seattle but now they are gone for now anyway. Making matters worse, the recent riots brought a lot of adverse attention. No longer the sparkling, vibrant city it once was. Sad to watch the decline.

Yes.

Now that many companies are moving to a permanent WFH environment, I can see thousands of employees moving to smaller and less expensive locations over the next several years.

For the longest time, my wife would only live somewhere that had a Target. With the advent of Amazon Prime, that’s no longer a necessity.

At work we have been discussing the possibility of doing WFH on a part time basis, maybe split evenly between home and work. Especially in the winter when we have bad weather.

snakeweasel

driver100 said:

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

I guess only GM owners need extreme nanny devices

Are you saying that your Benz does not do that for you? I’m shocked and appalled.

The last time I checked MB and IIRC BMW didn't offer remote start......they didn't consider it to be safe. It is possible my car does have it, I never checked and I wouldn't use it very often. The car is always in the garage overnight..........and there aren't that many times pre-starting it would be useful. It kind of bothers me a bit to, a car idling for a long time probably isn't great for it, especially when cold.....I think manuals tell you to start the car and start driving to get it up to operating temperature as soon as possible.

Modern cars do not need to be warmed up before driving, even in the coldest temperatures a cold engine could be driven with under 30 seconds of running. Yes running cold will wear an engine faster than when it's warmed up and driving a car will warm it up faster. So letting your car warm up at worse will add additional wear and tear on your car and at best just wastes gas. Just don't use unnecessary hard acceleration until its warmed up.

Now the one thing I like on the BMW is that you can have the car start the vents and vent in outside air for up to 15 minutes. That's nice on hot sunny days when your car has been sitting in the sun.

explorerx4

@driver100,
Our vehicles have remote start that is not connected to a phone(uses the fob), although phone connectivity is available too.

snakeweasel

Sandman6472 said:

No offense taken about the "lazy mailman"!!! I was a 'city carrier" in Boca Raton but where we live just south of Boca, our carrier is a "rural carrier". Basically the same but they have some different rules than we did. Now, our mail lady is a bit lazy and frequently leaves mail for the folks on the next street north of us but neglects to either read the last name or name of street. Now that's one thing I prided myself on...I did my work with no laziness and if the address was a bit off, I'd go the extra mile to find the right number or street name/number. It really wasn't that difficult but for some others, guessing it was.
I was hired by Enterprise by an email but had a sort face to face with my boss who said I was hired right then & there as long as my driving record was in order. It was, thankfully. Good company to work for and puts Hertz to shame!!! Very happy I jumped ship when I did, pre-chapter 11. Nicer co-workers and much better management to go along with it. I actually enjoy going into work!

My sister was a rural route carrier out in Colorado (the flat half of the state), Rural carriers are usually contractors and are considered self employed. As such they had to supply their own vehicles and got a pretty generous mileage reimbursement. In the past Subaru imported right hand drive wagons to sell to rural carriers and for the longest time my sister had those cars. It was fun to be a passenger in her car.

nyccarguy

roadburner said:

jmonroe1 said:

driver100 said:

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

I guess only GM owners need extreme nanny devices

Are you saying that your Benz does not do that for you? I’m shocked and appalled.

The last time I checked MB and IIRC BMW didn't offer remote start......they didn't consider it to be safe. It is possible my car does have it, I never checked and I wouldn't use it very often. The car is always in the garage overnight..........and there aren't that many times pre-starting it would be useful. It kind of bothers me a bit to, a car idling for a long time probably isn't great for it, especially when cold.....I think manuals tell you to start the car and start driving to get it up to operating temperature as soon as possible.

I’m surprised we haven’t heard of cars with the remote start feature, parked in the family garage, self starting and asphyxiating several family members. That has to be anti-Murphyism at its best.

jmonroe

What made BMW NA gun shy about remote start is a case from several years ago where one of their dealers installed an aftermarket remote start on a new BMW. A young child found the key fob and trigged the remote start of the garaged car- with the result that the entire family died of CO poisoning. Thanks to American product liability law BMW NA was held responsible.
When I was working at BMW a remote start kit was made available for the G05 X5 and G30 5 Series. It was an involved install and few customers opted for it. A couple of years later a BCM update killed the feature on cars that it had been installed on. I'm glad that I wasn't around to deal with those customers. A factory installed remote start is now available on some models.

As for heated seats, I know that newer Challengers and Chargers with heated seats allow you to set the temperature at which the seat heating activates; ditto for most BMWs from the G30-on.

If you really want to have a howling good time on a Friday night (who doesn't?), google images or videos of manual transmission cars with remote start crashes.

imidazol97

I feel like twitter having to do fact checks on the remote start "information" here. LOL

The GM remote start is on the key fob as one of the buttons. It requires the doors have been locked and the button held for 2 seconds or more to initiate the remote start. And it's on the GM app with different names for different
vehicles, if you subscribe to the app after the initial 3 years or so.

The remote start only runs for 10 minutes. That's not enough for today's clean engines to kill people.
BMW with a non-company remote start may not have had the time limit on the engine run time.
Remote start GM may be cancelled by pressing the RS button. If the time on the initial RS expires, it may only be reinitiated one time. Total of 20 minutes.

That 20 minutes can be great when it's been snowing (for the FL folks, that's the cold stuff that falls instead of rain when the temp is below 32 deg F) and your car is outside. Because that will melt snow on windows part of the time.

I open the garage door a foot or so allowing convection airflow to vent the garage: in at the bottom, out at the top above the garage door under the top beam.

Nothing is nicer than leaving the garage and not getting hit with a blast of 15 deg F air because the engine was just started and coolant temp ir only 80 deg F. and can't warm the incoming air. My comfort and my bride's comfort are not insulted if the car has run for several minutes in the vented garage because the coolant is 120 or higher by that time.

And RS won't work if the hood is not latched or if any of most service engine codes is set. That can be very annoying if a simple code for purge valve or gas cap leak is set which doesn't affect the engine, but the RS won't work till cleared.

imidazol97

https://shop.tracfone.com/shop/en/tracfonestore/clearance-sale/tf-lg-rebel-4-reconditioned



Tracfone, 9.99 US. Accepts installation of apps from playstore. Phone number and current minutes and service time and data can be transferred form existing TF.

omarman

nyccarguy said:

roadburner said:

jmonroe1 said:

driver100 said:

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

I guess only GM owners need extreme nanny devices

Are you saying that your Benz does not do that for you? I’m shocked and appalled.

The last time I checked MB and IIRC BMW didn't offer remote start......they didn't consider it to be safe. It is possible my car does have it, I never checked and I wouldn't use it very often. The car is always in the garage overnight..........and there aren't that many times pre-starting it would be useful. It kind of bothers me a bit to, a car idling for a long time probably isn't great for it, especially when cold.....I think manuals tell you to start the car and start driving to get it up to operating temperature as soon as possible.

I’m surprised we haven’t heard of cars with the remote start feature, parked in the family garage, self starting and asphyxiating several family members. That has to be anti-Murphyism at its best.

jmonroe

What made BMW NA gun shy about remote start is a case from several years ago where one of their dealers installed an aftermarket remote start on a new BMW. A young child found the key fob and trigged the remote start of the garaged car- with the result that the entire family died of CO poisoning. Thanks to American product liability law BMW NA was held responsible.
When I was working at BMW a remote start kit was made available for the G05 X5 and G30 5 Series. It was an involved install and few customers opted for it. A couple of years later a BCM update killed the feature on cars that it had been installed on. I'm glad that I wasn't around to deal with those customers. A factory installed remote start is now available on some models.

As for heated seats, I know that newer Challengers and Chargers with heated seats allow you to set the temperature at which the seat heating activates; ditto for most BMWs from the G30-on.

If you really want to have a howling good time on a Friday night (who doesn't?), google images or videos of manual transmission cars with remote start crashes.

That sounds like fun but I searched "driving around with eddie murphy" and got this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMHl7yz93ho
"Don't go over there Eddie. Don't go near the cage."

ab348

cdnpinhead said:

I guess it's just me, but all I care about in cold weather (down to 40 below, in Edmonton) is whether the car will start. If it does, I'm golden. In a few minutes the heater will begin to work, and then it's off to the races.

When I lived in Edmonton I had a block heater that needed to be plugged in to a 117 volt outlet, but they are plentiful up there. Either way, I never felt the need for heated seats or steering wheels. It only took a few miles to get the tires to quit bumping out their flat spots, and the ice fog in the roundabouts wasn't that hard to deal with either.

Listening to the FL people is amusing, but the rest of you lot add to the show.

I have little experience with Alberta winter temps but back in the mid-90s business took me out to Regina for a few days in January and naturally I arrived in the middle of a cold snap with overnight temps close to -40 degrees. You really didn't want to go outside for anything. Even the walk from the cab at the curb to the front doors of the hotel was a challenge. That was my first experience seeing parking lots downtown that had electrical outlets at the end of each parking space to allow drivers to connect their block heaters. I guess people there get used to it but it was just one more thing that made me hate winter even more.

Michaell

Many years ago, the company I worked for was asked to perform some training for Manitoba Hydro. A co-worker and I drew the short straw and were asked to travel to Winnipeg in February to deliver. My co-worker went first, and reported that temps were around -30 the whole week.

A couple weeks later, it was my turn. I got lucky; the city was experiencing a bit of a heat wave and the temps were between 0 and -5 (Celsius) during my visit. The customer did not want to incur the cost of a rental car, so I was driven to and from the training site each day, and I was left to explore downtown during the evenings after work.

tjc78

GM got remote start from the get go in the early 2000s. A quick two button command on the key fob and it was running, either heat or AC would come on depending on the ambient temp.

In later years the App came on board which allowed you start the car with your phone. I still liked the fob activation. If I was loading up groceries or whatever I’d start the car with the fob, settle the kids and then load.

The app on the phone isn’t as convenient. You have to unlock your phone, find the app, click start and then enter a pin. Not worth the hassle.

Our Volvos only have RS with the app, so realistically the only time I’ll ever use it is in the situation I explained above.

First world problems for sure.....

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

I can 100% guarantee that if I had a car with remote start, I would never use it. Not a chance.

though with all the cars I have had, none of them had that particular feature.

I know that at least one of my cars has remote start but I’ve never used it and since it’s the one that sits in the garage I have no motivation to learn how to work it. My other car might have it but again, no interest. The day I have to warm up my car for anything more than loosening ice on the windshield, I’ll stay home.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

imidazol97 said:

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

I guess only GM owners need extreme nanny devices

Are you saying that your Benz does not do that for you? I’m shocked and appalled.

I'm surprised @driver100 hasn't used this feature when driving his vehicle in cold Canada or hot summer Canada.
It's nice to start the car from inside a store and let the AC or the heat prep the car while I'm checking out.
Starting it at home when the car is inside the garage which doesn't go below 45 or 50 deg F most days of the winter, isn't real practical, but has been done. Usually I'll just take the Cobalt if there's snow or ice on short trips.

True, the garage is seldom below 40F, and you don't want to start the car if it is in the garage. I don't know if it has remote start....and if I need a phone to start it that is out....my phone is a basic $3 a month pay as you go....I only make about 5 calls a month....probably 10 minutes a month total to say I'll be a few minutes late getting home.

Ha ha, welcome to the dark ages. 😃

roadburner

imidazol97 said:

I feel like twitter having to do fact checks on the remote start "information" here. LOL

The GM remote start is on the key fob as one of the buttons. It requires the doors have been locked and the button held for 2 seconds or more to initiate the remote start. And it's on the GM app with different names for different
vehicles, if you subscribe to the app after the initial 3 years or so.

The remote start only runs for 10 minutes. That's not enough for today's clean engines to kill people.
BMW with a non-company remote start may not have had the time limit on the engine run time.
Remote start GM may be cancelled by pressing the RS button. If the time on the initial RS expires, it may only be reinitiated one time. Total of 20 minutes.

That 20 minutes can be great when it's been snowing (for the FL folks, that's the cold stuff that falls instead of rain when the temp is below 32 deg F) and your car is outside. Because that will melt snow on windows part of the time.

I open the garage door a foot or so allowing convection airflow to vent the garage: in at the bottom, out at the top above the garage door under the top beam.

Nothing is nicer than leaving the garage and not getting hit with a blast of 15 deg F air because the engine was just started and coolant temp ir only 80 deg F. and can't warm the incoming air. My comfort and my bride's comfort are not insulted if the car has run for several minutes in the vented garage because the coolant is 120 or higher by that time.

And RS won't work if the hood is not latched or if any of most service engine codes is set. That can be very annoying if a simple code for purge valve or gas cap leak is set which doesn't affect the engine, but the RS won't work till cleared.

The real Darwin award winners are the people who park their car in the garage and forget to turn it off...
It actually happens.

tjc78

Years ago a friend of my stepdads bought his wife a new Mazda 929 (remember those?). It ran so quiet to what she was used to, she left it idling all night in front of the house. Luckily it wasn’t in a garage.

oldfarmer50

roadburner said:

jmonroe1 said:

driver100 said:

ab348 said:

driver100 said:

I guess only GM owners need extreme nanny devices

Are you saying that your Benz does not do that for you? I’m shocked and appalled.

The last time I checked MB and IIRC BMW didn't offer remote start......they didn't consider it to be safe. It is possible my car does have it, I never checked and I wouldn't use it very often. The car is always in the garage overnight..........and there aren't that many times pre-starting it would be useful. It kind of bothers me a bit to, a car idling for a long time probably isn't great for it, especially when cold.....I think manuals tell you to start the car and start driving to get it up to operating temperature as soon as possible.

I’m surprised we haven’t heard of cars with the remote start feature, parked in the family garage, self starting and asphyxiating several family members. That has to be anti-Murphyism at its best.

jmonroe

What made BMW NA gun shy about remote start is a case from several years ago where one of their dealers installed an aftermarket remote start on a new BMW. A young child found the key fob and trigged the remote start of the garaged car- with the result that the entire family died of CO poisoning. Thanks to American product liability law BMW NA was held responsible.
When I was working at BMW a remote start kit was made available for the G05 X5 and G30 5 Series. It was an involved install and few customers opted for it. A couple of years later a BCM update killed the feature on cars that it had been installed on. I'm glad that I wasn't around to deal with those customers. A factory installed remote start is now available on some models.

As for heated seats, I know that newer Challengers and Chargers with heated seats allow you to set the temperature at which the seat heating activates; ditto for most BMWs from the G30-on.

That sounds similar to how some enterprising lawyer almost destroyed car leasing in NY when he managed to make GM responsible for the actions of someone who leased a car and then went out and killed some people in an accident. Bizarre but this state is run for the benefit of tort lawyers.

snakeweasel

imidazol97 said:

I feel like twitter having to do fact checks on the remote start "information" here. LOL

The GM remote start is on the key fob as one of the buttons. It requires the doors have been locked and the button held for 2 seconds or more to initiate the remote start. And it's on the GM app with different names for different
vehicles, if you subscribe to the app after the initial 3 years or so.

The remote start only runs for 10 minutes. That's not enough for today's clean engines to kill people.
BMW with a non-company remote start may not have had the time limit on the engine run time.
Remote start GM may be cancelled by pressing the RS button. If the time on the initial RS expires, it may only be reinitiated one time. Total of 20 minutes.

10 minutes is enough to cause a serious medical issue if not death if someone is in the garage with the door closed for an extended period of time. However most garages are not as sealed as a house is and most of the CO produced should escape to the outside.

imidazol97 said:

That 20 minutes can be great when it's been snowing (for the FL folks, that's the cold stuff that falls instead of rain when the temp is below 32 deg F) and your car is outside. Because that will melt snow on windows part of the time.

I open the garage door a foot or so allowing convection airflow to vent the garage: in at the bottom, out at the top above the garage door under the top beam.

Nothing is nicer than leaving the garage and not getting hit with a blast of 15 deg F air because the engine was just started and coolant temp ir only 80 deg F. and can't warm the incoming air. My comfort and my bride's comfort are not insulted if the car has run for several minutes in the vented garage because the coolant is 120 or higher by that time.

And RS won't work if the hood is not latched or if any of most service engine codes is set. That can be very annoying if a simple code for purge valve or gas cap leak is set which doesn't affect the engine, but the RS won't work till cleared.

If the code goes off and the car won't run how do you get it to a place that can clear it?

snakeweasel

Michaell said:

Many years ago, the company I worked for was asked to perform some training for Manitoba Hydro. A co-worker and I drew the short straw and were asked to travel to Winnipeg in February to deliver. My co-worker went first, and reported that temps were around -30 the whole week.

A couple weeks later, it was my turn. I got lucky; the city was experiencing a bit of a heat wave and the temps were between 0 and -5 (Celsius) during my visit. The customer did not want to incur the cost of a rental car, so I was driven to and from the training site each day, and I was left to explore downtown during the evenings after work.

Come on, that's not that cold.

snakeweasel

Regarding remote starts, be aware that depending on state and location letting a car idle of more than a short time (dependent on location) is illegal. Yeah getting a ticket for it is very rare but does happen.

explorerx4

One time, I couldn't get into my truck because the doors were frozen.
Remote started it and ran it for about 10 minutes and was able to open the door.

snakeweasel

explorerx4 said:

One time, I couldn't get into my truck because the doors were frozen.
Remote started it and ran it for about 10 minutes and was able to open the door.

I had a Mustang a long time ago where that happened. It happened to be a hatch back so I was able to open the back and craw in through there. Took less than a minute.

tjc78

My 89 Grand Marquis always had frozen locks. I couldn’t lock it in the winter if we had bad weather coming.

ab348

explorerx4 said:

One time, I couldn't get into my truck because the doors were frozen.
Remote started it and ran it for about 10 minutes and was able to open the door.

Not uncommon even here for freezing rain or rain followed by plummeting temps to freeze up everything - door locks, door handles, door-to-body interface. That's always a fun morning.

ab348

oldfarmer50 said:

That sounds similar to how some enterprising lawyer almost destroyed car leasing in NY when he managed to make GM responsible for the actions of someone who leased a car and then went out and killed some people in an accident. Bizarre but this state is run for the benefit of tort lawyers.

You might be thinking of the case of Tilden Rent-a-Car. Tilden was a Canadian rental company and quite successful up here even with competition from Hertz and Avis. One of their cars was indeed in a terrible crash in NY and a number of people were killed. A lawsuit was filed and Tilden was found to be responsible somehow. They ended up having to sell the operation to National Rent a Car.