I have a new golf as a rent a car and it has the auto engine off when you stop. After being stressed at the thought of driving a left hand drive car in Paris traffic this feature raised the stress level even further.

Takes some getting used to as well as the dozens of interlocks before you can drive off. In my next life I don't want to come back as a golf sterter motor....

very interesting! I saw a euro tv program about Ford experimenting with engine cut out when stopping on their commercials as there stats in the UK showed the very large chunk of their time driving through the cbd etc on their normal errands involved waiting in traffic. Figured they could conserve fuel and reduce emissions by simply switching it off when the car stops, followed by another kick start motor (in this case, i didn't think it was their starter motor but a secondary) to turn on when you hit the gas.

Does it take quite a bit of time to the motor to kick off and go? could imagine if every car turned off at the lights, getting the whole lot started to go when it goes green would probably end up going orange sooner than they could all pass through lol.

Didn't realise they were still making Golf Ecomatics??

That started off in the 90s with Mk3s.
I did have one of those crazy old square black things you put in the VCR with a documentry about them from the early 90s.

You can turn the ecomatic feautre off, mainly for engine braking down big hills and such.

Never really took off, I can imagine even being diesel the short lifespans the engines would get constantly stopping and starting.

The only current Golf model with the Ecomatic auto-cutoff is the BlueMotion.

http://news.drive.com.au/drive/green-motoring/first-drive-volkswagen-golf-blu...

The technology gives the BlueMotion a fuel consumption figure of just 3.8 L/100 km, better than the Toyota Prius. The technology is quite mature now, and well worked out even for the Ecomatic in the 1990s. Here is how it works:

http://www.deylan.co.uk/golf/ecomatic/index.htm 

I read that during the geneva motor show, one of the head staff at vw said that with the new golf VII, ALL models will come with the stop start technology as standard, as well as a bunch of other fuel/energy saving features.

Subaru is advertising the same thing for their new impreza coming out.

Yes, VW will also be introducing automatic cylinder cut-off - the Polo will be able to automatically shut down two of its four cylinders.

http://news.drive.com.au/drive/motor-news/volkswagens-twocylinder-polo-201203...

It was a late model only had 12000ks on it.
If you applied a lot of break pressure the engine stopped and as soon as you released the brake the engine restarted and off you went. Light pressure on the brake and it wouldn't stop. I found it annoying.

The only real drawback was if you were on a hill by the time you released the brake, the engine started and the car moved forward (auto by the way) you did roll back. The other thing was the amount of interlocks to start and stop the car.

Give me a beetle any day all though the fuel economy was great 900+ kms to a tank did 1013kms in 3 1/2 days. Not to mention the 130kmh speed limits.

Aren't You supposed to be riding those special push bikes in Paris?