It’s Illegal To Warm Up Your Vehicle In Colorado

While Grand Junction is known for mild winters, it can still get really cold here overnight. In fact, single-digit lows are fairly common in January. After a few frozen mornings, you might want to go out, start your car, and run back inside. In Colorado, this is not a good idea.

Anti-idling or "Puffer" laws and unattended vehicle ordinances make it illegal to leave a car running and unattended with the keys in the ignition (often to prevent auto theft). Now, there are exceptions...

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Warming Up Your Car in Colorado

Frost Covered Window

Read More: Look: 5 of the Coldest Days in Western Colorado History

Colorado Revised Statute 42-4-1206, sometimes called the 'puffer law,' prevents residents from warming up their cars unattended. If your vehicle's engine is idling for more than five minutes in a sixty-minute window, that's puffing.

Making it against the law to leave your unlocked vehicle running while unattended has also helped reduce vehicle theft in a major way.

Read More: What Are Some of the Laws Colorado Drivers Constantly Break?

Puffing Can Be Expensive

Police Officer issues a ticket

The state-wide puffer law generally prevents the need for additional local restrictions. An officer who spots a puffing vehicle in a Grand Junction neighborhood could write you a ticket for $50, more if you keep it up. As a person who gets up early for the workday, I see more than a few cars running with nobody in them in my neighborhood. Be careful y’all.

Read More: New Colorado Law Bans Holding A Phone While Driving

Exceptions and Remotes

Colorado can be a very cold state. You really cannot warm up your car in the morning? Well, there is a remote start. This option is included on several cars in 2025 but it can be added for a fee. Since the vehicle remains locked, this method of warming up your car is allowed throughout the state.

Depending on where you live the law may or may not apply if your car is on a private driveway.

Person uses a remote car start