OK, I've always been told that it takes more gas to restart the engine than it takes to let it idle if you're just waiting for 'a few minutes' but no one has ever been able to tell me what that amount of time is.

So, question is: Say wife has to run into the gas station, just to grab a coffee. If you expect her to take 2 minutes, would you use less gas idling, or turning off and restarting?

Anyone know the an approximate 'break even time' between idling and shutdown/restart?

Just something goofy I've wondered about <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />