Stuttering on startup

Hi everyone, first post here. If this topic has been covered extensively, my apologies. I tried searching for my predicament and couldn't find anything.

I have a 2010 Pontiac G3, purchased new. Whenever the car starts, it stutters a bit before finally catching. You only have to hit the key the once and it'll do it on its own. It has done this right off the lot and it doesn't matter if the car has sat overnight, been running all day, 40 below or 40 above, same thing. We've had the car back to the dealership for various service items over the past couple years and any time we mention this, they say its normal. I've been near other G3s/Waves/Aveos/Swift+s/etc when they start and I've noticed that some do the same thing and some don't. What's going on here?

Mine has always done this. Its no big deal really.

Maybe not, but its one of those things that you would expect a new car to not do.... oh well.

It is a lot easier to fix these things when there broken. So my advice is be patient ;)

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Originally Posted by xyz

It is a lot easier to fix these things when there broken. So my advice is be patient ;)

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I'm gonna be honest, this is some of the worst advice I've ever heard. So say I've got a worn timing belt, I should wait till it breaks and shatters my pistons? No. Preventative maintenance keeps you from spending the big bucks when you don't have an engine that will explode if you look at it wrong. Plus the fact that taking a second to start is generally not a sign of any major problems. But if it was, wouldn't you want that fixed so your car doesn't leave you stranded?

Maybe I'm just used to old-school tech, I don't know. My work truck does the same thing on startup; they both have drive-by-wire. Do all vehicles with this setup behave similarly?

They can say it's "normal", but I wouldn't like it very much either :(. Back in the good old days of carburation, we used to have to pump gas in before or during cranking - too much and you flooded it, not enough and it wouldn't start (I even drove dinosaurs that had manual chokes). On really cold days, some of them would stumble for 4-5 minutes before starting. And the thrill when it finally did start - it was a wonderful game to play!
But returning back to 2012, we're not supposed to touch the gas pedal anymore, because the ECM/PCU/ZZTOP, has it all figured out. But just for giggles, have you tried hitting the gas one or more times before starting? Maybe the brain isn't quite as smart as it should be.

We've tried pumping the gas before but it never really did anything. Even tried switching the key to on and listening for the fuel pump but you can barely hear it in these cars.

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Originally Posted by Pickles

Mine has always done this. Its no big deal really.

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Mine has also always done it from new, it seems to be the norm so I don't there is anything to fix.

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Originally Posted by avguy

(I even drove dinosaurs that had manual chokes)

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How do you choke a dinosaur?


I think the issue is the start circuit, warm up circuit (fast idle) and the run circuit switching back and forth. Starting the car is like the special teams in football. Once the ball is in possession they get of the field, then if the engine is cold the run circuit will try to idle the car, but if it can not maintain proper air/fuel ratio and control knocking, it will pass the ball off to the warm up loop which is a higher idle map with different knocking requirements, until the o2 sensor warms up (about 2-3 minutes sometimes faster). Then they go back to running..