Wouldn't It Be Nice To Have A Switch To Disable The Ice For A Few

[silvercorvette]

I was thinking of this the other day when I had to move my car around. Turning on the engine for a minute or two without letting it warm up can be harmful to the engine. I think it would be nice to have a button to push that would disable the ice for maybe 3 or 5 minutes. It would come in handy if you had to move the car to get a lawn mower out, or maybe if your car was blocking another car in the drive way and you want to move it so the other car can get out.. It isn't a matter of the pennies it cost to start the ice, I just don't like to start up the engine without letting it warm up. With a normal engine there was no way around it but a hybrid could be moved without turning on the ice so why not offer this feature in the hybrids?

[wwest]

I was thinking of this the other day when I had to move my car around. Turning on the engine for a minute or two without letting it warm up can be harmful to the engine. I think it would be nice to have a button to push that would disable the ice for maybe 3 or 5 minutes. It would come in handy if you had to move the car to get a lawn mower out, or maybe if your car was blocking another car in the drive way and you want to move it so the other car can get out.. It isn't a matter of the pennies it cost to start the ice, I just don't like to start up the engine without letting it warm up. With a normal engine there was no way around it but a hybrid could be moved without turning on the ice so why not offer this feature in the hybrids?

It might be even nicer to have a way to disable the "electrics" entirely when on the freeway driving along at a reasonably constant speed.

[silvercorvette]

I was thinking of this the other day when I had to move my car around. Turning on the engine for a minute or two without letting it warm up can be harmful to the engine. I think it would be nice to have a button to push that would disable the ice for maybe 3 or 5 minutes. It would come in handy if you had to move the car to get a lawn mower out, or maybe if your car was blocking another car in the drive way and you want to move it so the other car can get out.. It isn't a matter of the pennies it cost to start the ice, I just don't like to start up the engine without letting it warm up. With a normal engine there was no way around it but a hybrid could be moved without turning on the ice so why not offer this feature in the hybrids?

It might be even nicer to have a way to disable the "electrics" entirely when on the freeway driving along at a reasonably constant speed.

I am not sure what you mean by disable the electrics. A lot of the hybrid's accessories are run by the electric system. The Power steering is run via an electric pump and air conditioner is also run by the electrics. The car had to be designed that way because when the ICE engine shuts off at a traffic light or on a downgrade the engine would turn off and no power would be provided to the A/C or the power steering. So if the electrics where turned off there would be no A/C or power steering. So I don't understand how these problems of providing constant A/C and P/S could be solved with the electrics turned off, so how would it be a benefit to be able to turn off the electrics?

I thought of so other stuff. Being able to turn off the ICE (maybe the switch could be on some kind of timer to prevent the battery from running down), if a someone in the family worked a late shift they could start the car and drive down the street without waking up the family. And if the garage is attached to the house the ICE won't dump it's exhaust into the garage so the fumes won't work their way into the living area of the house. You could also turn off the ICE in a enclosed parking garage while you search for a space to spare yourself and others from smelling the exhaust fumes.

There are probably a lot more uses for an ICE disable switch and probably the the longer you own the car the more situations will come up where you will find a use for it.