Report neighbours, idling cars on drive

[Ginglymostomatidae]

Our neighbour has 2 prius cars. Instead of taking then for a drive, he'll turn the car on, and let it idle on the drive for around 15 mins each car. Its always at anti social hours and it wakes us everytime.

This morning he done this at 4.20am and I've been awake ever since and I'm exhausted.

He's done this at 2.45am on a Sunday morning before, and nearly always on a weekday. He WFH.

Would you report? And where?

@lieselotte mag.toyota.co.uk/coronavirus-toyota-hybrid-car-maintenance/

Just because no-one has told you does not mean that it is not Toyota's recommendation.

2am, 4am not normal to be running your car for no reason. 6am at a push if its icy and he needs to get to work, which does not seem the case here at all.

You seem to have a fairly good relationship? You say hi on the way out etc. Maybe you can just ask him not to run the car before 7am as its been waking you up recently and you are studying as well as working and its making you very tired. Any decent person would take this on board and agree to it. There is no need whatsoever for him to start the car at 2am and not drive anywhere.

If he refuses and just says he can do what he wants, when I'd consider asking the council what you can do, as its certainly antisocial to be deliberating waking your neighbours in the early hours and refusing to stop when asked politely.

No way in the world he needs to idle for 15 minutes. It's probably petrol engine, doesn't need warming up this long. I think you could speak to council. It's something else to defrost car in this weather (which is only few days a year) and doing it for 3 years every night.

OK, let's recap the facts here, as various posts are getting carried away down. Kind alleys:

1. He has two Prius cars
2. If not regularly driven, Toyota's advice is to idle them "at least once a week" to charge the small battery that runs the electrics.
3. Neighbour does this in the early hours of the morning. OP says "He's done this at 2.45am on a Sunday morning before, and nearly always on a weekday." It's not clear from this whether he is doing it every day.
4. This is not related to de-icing or cold as he does it all year.
5. When asked, neighbour said he "had to do it because of the engine". OP does not appear to have asked what exactly he meant by this vague statement, nor did she ask why he is not driving the cars regularly, why he needs to do it in the early hours and if he is sure he has to do it so often.
6. The problem is exacerbated by the position of neighbour's drive to OP's bedroom. Not clear that neighbour knows this regularly wakes her.
7. Not clear why OP can't get back to sleep after being woken for 15 mins at 4 am.

OP, it's crystal clear from the above that you need to go back and have a conversation with him, be specific about the extent to which it is disturbing you, insist on clear answers and ask him how he proposes to reduce the impact on you. You've allowed yourself to be fobbed off, and it's likely he doesn't realise quite how badly you are affected.

Blind alleys.

Im glad some one said this I was going to say the same, If they are prius Hybrid.

They have a small auxiliary battery for starting the car and electrics and a large battery pack in the rear for thew self charging hybrid.

If you do not do alot of milage each week you must put the car into Park for 1 hr per week and it keeps both batterys topped up and charged with the petrol part of the engine.

There is a genuine reason to run them to keep them topped up as per manufacturers instructions, as such this complied with the law idieling for a legitimate reason.

My Mum runs her car on the drive for 10 minutes every night to keep the battery ticking over. She's been doing it the last four years. She rarely forgets. She only drives 100 miles a year (according to her MOT cert) but she is 87.

I also leave my car running when its particuarly icy on our driveway but with the spare keys locking the car from the outside.

If it’s right next to your bedroom in a bungalow, make sure there isn’t an air brick in your wall near it. When we were kids, our neighbour nearly killed my brothers by running his car with the exhaust up against the air brick in the wall by their bedroom.

A Prius is a hybrid so it needs the engine running to defrost/ deice. If it’s anything like my Toyota Auris the windscreen will have frozen over inside. I have to run my engine for about ten minutes to clear the windscreen inside. You can’t take it for a drive when you can’t see out of the windscreen. YABU

But she said it's been going on for 3 years... Not just currently, which would be understandable.

I'm a HCP it takes me 40 minutes to drive to one hospital. I have to be there for handover at 7:15 and I don't want to have to speed. So I take my time. I normally will start defrosting the car at 6am to make sure I have time. Not everyone operates on a 9-5 schedule and if my neighbour said anything I'd laugh at them. I'm not going to drive unsafely because it upsets them.

There are so many very confused people on this thread!

Seems strange to do it in the early hours but I wouldn't be arsed to report this. I sometimes have DS in an idling car to keep him asleep

🤷

A Prius idling is quieter than an ice scraper

if hes not going anywhere then its ridiculous he could do it at midday or anytime-just being a knob over it

yabu for not reading the ops posts

the man doesnt go anywhere!

Does the handbook also say it must be carried out in the middle of the night?

Well OP did say in original post why doesn’t he take it for a drive so I was responding that at this time of year he couldn’t. However the updates (drip feed) do indicate he is being unreasonable.
people are correct that the Toyota hybrids do need to be used regularly as the batteries go flat quicker than other cars but he shouldn’t be doing it at 4am.
however, why does he have two cars? Are there other people in the house who go out in the cars?

The noise is one thing that they might be able to do something b about if it’s deemed a nuisance, but the council have no powers to prevent someone idling a car on their own property even if it causing unnecessary pollution. And I wouldn’t be comfortable giving councils new powers!!

They would as it’s nuisance noise in the middle of the night! I wasn’t saying the council has powers to stop the unnecessary pollution but it’s still unnecessary pollution if it happens on the road or driveway. Although there are rules about wood burners so I don’t see why idling on a driveway gets a free pass. The neighbour should just drive the car somewhere, do something productive with that pollution at least.

Can you not speak to him and explain that you understand that he needs to do this as part of his vehicle maintenance, and that you also realise that he's an early riser, but that it's waking you up and you can't then get back to sleep and could he therefore do it later in the day, say after 9am and that you'd be very grateful.
Seems a very straightforward conversation to have with a neighbour.

I’m amazed you can hear an idling Prius inside to be honest. It’s going to be really quiet, it’s not a 30 year old tractor!

Could you I ask him to do it at a more reasonable time if day?

My other neighbours car noises are fine, we also make noise, as we also leave early.
There is a difference between that, and sitting on your drive, once a week, letting each of your cars run for 15 mins one after the after, at varying times between 2.45am and 5.30am, usually weekdays, but sometimes on a Sunday.

Sometimes I get back to sleep. Sometimes I can't get back to sleep. Like today.

I did tell him it wakes us, and his response was he has to do it, because of the engine (better explained by PP). I try to keep good relationships, because I love where I live. I'll knock again and say it again, and try to get him to change. However, he does know this, because I explained it before. It feels like he's purposely choosing to do it then, because that's when it suits him.

Goodness, how scary.
Thank you, I'll double check this, and I'm glad everyone was OK.