Kenzie’s Korner: Enough with the engine warm-up (02:12)

Motoring TV recently received an email from a viewer asking about engine warm-up and, more specifically, how long they should do it.

And we couldn’t think of a better person to tackle the subject than Mr. Jim Kenzie.

“If you’re idling your car,” Jim says, “you’re not only wasting gasoline, obviously—you’re getting zero miles per gallon—but you’re also polluting the atmosphere (and the emissions) you’re creating isn’t even being turned into transportation; your catalytic converter isn’t warming up properly so it’s not even functioning correctly; and you’re probably even washing oil off the cylinder walls with the extra gasoline that you’ve got in a cold-running car, so you’re probably creating additional engine damage, too.”

Phew.

If that’s not enough to get you to quit the engine warm-up charade, Jim also has this to say.

“Be Canadian, be tough,” he says. “Get a pair of gloves, get in the car and drive.”

And don’t even get him started on remote starters.

This segment appeared on Episode 14 of Motoring 2016.