I watched that and found it very strange.

I had to look at the actual vid on their site. VERY weak/incomplete advice. With normal maintenance, oil-changes, using good fuels, etc...warming a car is a NON-ISSUE. A co-worker has 300,000mi+ on his Chrysler. Guess what?! He warms it frequently in winter...;-)

Faron

Faron, I hear you. With my older Forester and 5-speed I couldn't shift until the car warmed up a few minutes. My newer Outback is an automatic and it does seem to warm up quicker, but still!

Plus getting the heated seats nice and toasty takes a few minutes, too.

One caveat on warming up: a lady around the corner was heading out of town over the holidays and left her car running to warm up while she ran inside briefly. Her car got stolen with literally everything--suitcases, purse, cell phone, etc. inside. It was morning around 7:30 so either someone was watching or someone drove by and seized the opportunity. I don't think she's gotten anything back. The car was a unique color and they still haven't found it.

Every winter there are news stories here warning people not to warm up their car unattended as they are easy targets for thieves.

Faron, where my sister lives in Alaska, everyone has to plug their car in during the winter to make sure they will start. They outlets are in the parking lots of the grocery store, hospital, etc.

We don't worry too much about thievery here. Besides, we usually use the remote-starters (factory ones...& the AstroStart types). The doors are locked, & no key in car when it's running. So...it's just about impossible to get away. No key = no going anywhere for a thief!!

Yep...VERY familiar with the "block-heater" routine!

Many Astrostart systems have a capability to start your car by itself, & run for x amount of minutes every hour. This is handy for overnight workers when the car is outside, or in a ramp.

Faron

I was taught to warm it up. I recently learned from my mechanic that no, no, no, don't do that. Best to drive it to warm it up. He said you could drive slowly. I am drawing a blank on his reasoning.

Somewhere sometime I read to drive 35mph for 1 mile before you actually drive regular. I presume to get the oil flowing. I do that in every temperature. When it's -20 I warm it up before I even think of going anywhere. I'm in the country and have an attached garage. I leave the door open but I don't back out.

Faron, your coworker with 300K miles is driving a car with different technology than what's used today. Apart from this BI source, the current going rate is that it's not necessary to warm up your car. If you want to do so, go ahead. But it's not bad for your car to be started in cold weather, immediately put into drive, and driven.

Yes, please research beyond Savannah Guthrie and the Today show!

ETA to add "beyond." Don't rely on a morning show snippet for information. There's plenty out there from reliable sources if you want to know whether to warm up your car or not.

Yep...I KNOW it won't "harm" an engine to drive it slowly very soon after starting!

HOWEVER...things just don't operate very well unless they're warmed-up some! Steering can be sluggish, & braking improves a little. Besides...foggy windows are a hazard too!

Also...when I'm talking "warming time", I mean like 5 or so minutes, not 20. I disagree on the "engine harm" views. Many things people do (or DON'T do....) are harder on an engine than periodic warming could EVER do! That's why I mentioned proper maintenance, etc.

95% of the time, I use "Top-Tier" class fuels (this DOESN'T mean "premium" octane only), with the least Ethanol I can find. Preferably, it's Shells V-Power Premium with NO Ethanol. Once a month, I put some Seafoam into our gas tanks, and ALWAYS use a little of it in my small engines.

Faron

My chauffeur warms the car before every trip.

Brushworks, :-) :-) :-)

DH had that remote start on a couple of trucks...talk about wasteful! He would start the truck. Then his phone would ring, and he would need to look up something for whomever called. That would lead to another phone call.

He warmed it in the winter, cooled it in the summer. The hour meters on those trucks were probably RIDICULOUS!

it is against the law to leave an unattended vehicle running in KY....within reason. It is against the law in Houston, too, but I don't know about the state of Texas.