To plead with you to turn your car engine off when you wait for your dc to come out of school?

[hugoagogo]

And I will tell you why:

The smell
The waste
The enviroment
Air pollution

Even in this weather you will stay warm for a few minutes.

Hulababy

If the car is not warmed up enough, then it's going to be even more inefficient to leave it idling, and much more likely to cause damage to your engine. Replacing a battery is much cheaper than reconditioning/replacing fuel injectors (£60 compared circa £1000).

Not much sympathy for the "oh, but it might hurt my car" brigade.

I thought that hugo, everyone worrying about breaking their cars. Not the environment.

fair point, but when its this chuffing cold, no, are you sitting there with your heating off?

Car warms up on journey. Unless your sitting in the car for 20 minutes waiting then the car will still stay warm enough. Its hardly artic conditions!

There is no way it takes ten minutes to get the power used starting the car back into the battery.

sometimes i am there for unto 40 minutes if baby asleep. its not worth going home getting her out in cold and waking her, then doing it all again to go back.
it has been that cold where the deck are you living?

Its hardly artic conditions!

Unless you drive a lorry.

I don't leave mine on! We don't have a system where parents sit in their car outside a school. I get out and walk and meet DD.
Mind, at drama I do sometimes sit and wait int he car - and tbh. some nights, yes - I leave my engine on. It's cold outside and I keep warm. But it's for a few minutes max, not loads of people about, in a car park, and it's my petrol I am wasting. If it was warmer outside I'd switch off - but it is below 0 some nights when I have waited for 2-3 mins. I'm nesh! And I don't drive in a big coat.

Sparkling - I assume either way, but even so - some may still be in car as going elsewhere after.

mrskeithrichards

"There is no way it takes ten minutes to get the power used starting the car back into the battery."

One to two minutes of normal driving. It would only take ten minutes in a theoretical worst case scenario.

I think I am just glad I don't do it any more by the sound of all this. DS1 gets the coach and DS2 goes by bike. DS2 (10) survives a ten minute cycle ride in the cold.

You sit in the car with the engine on for 40 minutes? seriously?

I'm in Edinburgh, it's barely hit freezing, that's not that cold! I can't believe you sit in the car for 40 minutes.

I am like an old lady with driving gloves!

no i never said had engine one for that amount of time, just enough intermittently to maintain heat.

40 minutes texts, MN, uni book, daydreaming ...even judgeying the school gate mums outfits!

On the days you walk, and presumably stand in the playground, how do you keep warm? Portable petrol powered heater?
(General point, not aimed at anyone)

Needathickerskin: I wear lots of layers, including a fleece-lined hat, and I try to keep moving. I do start to feel the cold if I stand still for too long.

straight in and out, I'm moving

Thickerskin, to answer your question in my situation, on the days I walk I don't work. Which in my life, tends to mean that I am standing in the playground feeling cold, but I've either just been walking around enough earlier to have felt warm, or I've come from a warm and toasty house. So a small amount of cold is ok for a little while.

I hate standing in cold playgrounds, I'm just one of those people that doesn't like cold.

This goes back to the 'Brits need to do winter better'. The venue I volunteer at at least once a year, but often more is above 7,000ft elevation. The average low is about -10 and on the side of a mountain comes with wind chill. The average high is about 3 degrees and can get quite a bit colder than the average low. I often have to stand in this for several hours holding a clipboard and while the extremities (nose and cheeks mostly) get a little red, you really don't get cold if you dress right, even while standing around.

If you really do have a problem you should invest in those microwaveable or boilable hand warmers. I have some disposible ones in my bag for emergencies, but they haven't been used.

'There is no such thing as the wrong weather, just the wrong clothing' or something like that anyway.

So people leave their engines on, asting fuel and smogging up the place to stay warm?

How on earth would they ever cope without a car sand actually walking and standing aorund in the cold while waiting for their offspring?

They probably cope all the time Funky, but sometimes, on some days, they don't have to. It's hardly the greatest of social crimes.

I bet it's the same people that have patio heaters!