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February 6th, 2009
02:35 pm

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Like to leave your car running to warm up?
Looking through the Dayton City Police website today, I was unsurprised to learn here that over 20% of motor vehicles stolen in Dayton are stolen with the keys in the ignition.

If you *must* warm up your car, have a second set of keys so you can lock your car while it's warming up. . .

(11 comments | Leave a comment)

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From:jrittenhouse
Date:February 6th, 2009 07:59 pm (UTC)
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That's just unbelievably dumb.
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From:encorecrazay
Date:February 6th, 2009 08:06 pm (UTC)
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That's a statistic that's reported across the nation. I saw it when reviewing data for APD. I reported a number of City and Cap Metro (Bus) employees for leaving their keys in their vehicles.
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From:dd_b
Date:February 6th, 2009 08:12 pm (UTC)
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And of course it's resource-hungry. And I hear not that good for the car; better to warm the exhaust system up more quickly through actually driving.
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From:sorcycat
Date:February 6th, 2009 08:22 pm (UTC)
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Or a remote car starter.
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From:jadesfire55
Date:February 6th, 2009 09:20 pm (UTC)
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I'm not sure my car will actually lock with the keys in it. Not the driver's door, anyway. I have a second set of keys; I'll have to test that.
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From:jenintheclouds
Date:February 7th, 2009 04:00 pm (UTC)
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I know mine won't. You can lock it from within if it is running, but not from outside.

And, I have to disagree...it's not always about comfort. I've had ice on my car that wouldn't come off with just scraping.
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From:jeffreyab
Date:February 6th, 2009 09:55 pm (UTC)
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Funny that people in Dayton feel the need to warm up their cars, I have stopped doing it and don't really miss except for getting windows clear.

I stopped to save gas and the engine, idling is not good for it.
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From:cos
Date:February 7th, 2009 01:21 am (UTC)
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There's no point to warming up the car, except perhaps a little bit of comfort from having the heater work right when you get in rather than after a couple of minutes of driving. Is that worth wasting the gas, though? In theory you're already dressed for the temperature of wherever the car is parked, in order to get to the car in the first place.
From:maruad
Date:February 7th, 2009 08:04 pm (UTC)
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Since frostshields have gone out of fashion I find that it helps to run the car for 2-4 minutes before entering otherwise at -40 the windows frost up very badly (especially with a full car) and you end up sitting still till they clear and not a lot is saved for the amount of comfort invovled. I do this with my remote car starter. If I am in a hurry and by myself I will just start it and drive off without letting it warm as I can always open the window to let the windows clear more quickly.

Then again I suspect the climate of Dayton would seem darn near sub-tropic compared to what I am used to living with.

I do agree that running the engine just for comfort doesn't make a great deal of sense unless infants or the elderly are involved.
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From:cos
Date:February 8th, 2009 12:46 am (UTC)
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If you live somewhere where it gets to be -40, you're in a "special" situation with plenty of other exceptions not to be assumed in discussion where such locations are not specified :)
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From:grndexter
Date:February 7th, 2009 01:26 pm (UTC)
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In many jurisdictions it's actually ILLEGAL to leave a running car unattended. I never "warm-up" my car either. You get in, start it, give it about a minute to a minute and a half to get the oil circulating, and go! Warms up much faster - and the driving gives you something to do so you're not thinking about how FREAKING COLD you are. ;-D
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