CARTALK\If engine doesn't stall, no warm-up needed.

Byline: Tom and Ray Magliozzi 

Dear Tom and Ray: We have a marital dispute and need your help in settling it. My wife and I have a running disagreement over whether it's better to let the car idle for a few minutes after starting it in cold weather or to begin operating it immediately. My wife has spent several years in northern climates, including Minneapolis. She contends that the car will stall unless it is allowed to warm up. I (who have never lived outside the confines of the sunny South) contend that the best thing to do is to get moving as soon as possible. Who is correct?

- Marshall and Lana

Ray: What a convivial confluence of connubial conditions. You're both correct!

Tom: In places like Minneapolis, where the label on your long underwear freezes in the winter, it makes sense to let the car idle for a minute or two. In sub-freezing temperatures, an engine may stall unless it's given an opportunity to run briefly before you impose a load on it.

Ray: But in more southern climates (like Iowa, for example) warming up the car may not be necessary. And, in fact, all you're doing when you warm it up under those conditions is wasting gasoline and creating pollution.

Tom: So how do you know when your car needs to be warmed up? The car will tell you. If it stalls, it needs to be warmed up.

Ray: If you can drive away without stalling, then no warm-up is required. And, in fact, the best way to fully "warm up" the engine is by driving the car gently for five to 10 minutes.

Tom: Most cars, in above-freezing temperatures, shouldn't need any time to warm up. So, if it's above 32 degrees F and your car stalls when you try to drive away, you may have some other problem, and it's probably worth getting the car checked out.

Ray: And by the way, Marshall and Lana, congratulations! Yours is the first marriage this week we haven't broken up.

Dear Tom and Ray: I recently bought a 1980 Chrysler LeBaron with 98,000 miles on it, even though my last car blew up at 98,000. I bought it because I've heard nothing but good things about the slant six engine that Chrysler used in the '60s and '70s. My brother's slant six has over 200,000 miles on it, and another guy we know has almost 400,000 miles on his. None of these motors uses over a quart of oil between oil changes. Is there something about the slant six that makes it such a good motor?

- Tim

Ray: Yes. The ugliness of its surroundings.

Tom: The slant six was used in cars such as the Dodge Dart, the Plymouth Valiant and Volare, the Dodge Aspen and the Chrysler LeBaron - as a group, cars so homely looking that only the most practical, boring, pocket-protector-wearing, conservative people ever would buy them. And how do conservative people drive? Conservatively!

Ray: And driving conservatively and gently is exactly how you get 200,000 miles out of an engine.

Tom: And all these years, we thought Chrysler was hobbled by a lack of styling flair. We thought they were making ugly cars because they didn't know how to make pretty ones. But now we realize this was a part of the plan.

Ray: They figured, let's let the "lead foots" and "peel-out experts" get drawn to the Camaros and Mustangs and burn out those engines in 70,000 miles. We'll attract the "feather-foots," and "every-1,000-mile-oil-changers," and our engines - though just as lousy - will last twice as long. It was brilliant!