Gasoline prices

The average price of a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline in central Ohio:

— The Associated Press

$2.34 $2.30 $2.21

We have just purchased a new 2017 Jeep Cherokee. We love it. But it has one irritating ‘’feature” that is quite annoying: The engine cuts off at every stop — presumably to save fuel — and then restarts when I take my foot off the brake. How can this be good for the longevity of the starting components: battery, starter, solenoid, flywheel, etc.? When the engine stops, the air conditioner and radio keep running, further draining the battery. There is a button on the dash to cancel out this feature, but it must be re-engaged after every start. Is there a way to program this to default to the alwaysoff position rather than the always-on? Thanks. — Bill

Not that I know of, Bill. Automatic stop-start is on lots of new cars now. It increases your mileage by a few percent because your engine isn’t idling when you’re sitting at a traffic light. It also eliminates pollution from cars sitting idle at traffic lights, which is great for cities.

But it’s still a relatively new feature, and some manufacturers seem to do it better than others. We test drive cars all the time, and on some the stop and the restart are barely perceptible — if you were paying attention, you’d notice it, but it wouldn’t bother you. Then there are other cars that restart with a mild earthquake of a shudder, and that quickly gets annoying enough that we’ll turn off the feature.

I’m not sure what factors make some cars entirely acceptable and others not.