Gas Mileage - Idling Cold vs Driving Cold

[Brian R.]

Originally Posted by jdmccright

With engine management computers and fuel injection, vehicles no longer need to be "warmed up" prior to driving away. All you need to do is start the car, put it in gear and drive away...albeit a little slower and gentler. The car warms up best and fastest when being driven, not idling in your garage or driveway. This way, you aren't burning gas going nowhere...causing your lower mileage.

I know jdmccright is voicing standard wisdom on this issue and he's (and others are) probably correct. However, I wonder if driving a modern car when it's cold would waste more gas (in open-loop mode and stiff from cold) than idling it for a minute since idling takes very little gas to turn the engine. Anyone have any opinions or knowledge to share?

[fourwd1]

If you're talking 1 or 2 minutes of warm up time, I don't think it's worth worrying about either way.
If you're talking 5-10 mins, it's still not an issue as far as I'm concerned, I'd rather get into a warm car when it's below freezing outside instead of freezing my nads off waiting for it to warm up.

[OzzyO]

I guess I'm kinda like 4wheel on this one I prefer to let my runner warm up before I go any where. Maybe I'm from the old school but I prefer to let the engine get well lubed and warm before I get into gear.
Also keeping the nads warm is kind of impt at my age

OzzyO

[G.A.S.]

I am from the old school and I say warm-er-up......
I know with all the modern, upgraded, fuel injected, individual coils, map sensored technoligy A car should run hot or cold from start up to warm up to shut down, but what about the oil, engine block itself.
There is no way I would get into my newer blazer, start it in 15deg. weather, drop er in gear and go.
I dont care if your the man that built the car telling me I can do this.
It Needs to be run for at the least 2-3 min for the block to start to warm up and the oil to warm and flow more freely.
This is just my opinion.
But,......... I would like to see the inside of my engine and your engine at the same millage if we both did it our way.
Think of it this way.
Metal expands when getting warmer right.
P.S.
I bought a remote starter to help keep them nads warm. No walking to the z twice.