Patent ID: 7418957

Claim:
A vehicle control apparatus for a vehicle, which includes an engine having at least one exhaust gas sensor associated with an exhaust passage of the engine for sensing a property of an exhaust gas, and a heater for heating the exhaust gas sensor, wherein the engine is selectively controlled to stop automatically when a predetermined operation condition is satisfied, the vehicle control apparatus comprising: an environmental condition sensing mechanism that senses, when an engine is automatically stopped, at least one environmental condition, the at least one environmental condition including at least one of an atmospheric temperature and an atmospheric pressure; and a controller, wherein the controller includes: a condensation occurrence temperature estimation mechanism that estimates a condensation occurrence temperature based on the at least one environmental condition and based on a parameter related to a gas that is selectively exhausted to an exhaust passage until the engine stops rotation after a fuel supply of the engine is cut off; and a heating control mechanism that selectively heats an exhaust gas sensor to a desired activation temperature with a heater if a temperature of the exhaust passage is higher than or equal to the condensation occurrence temperature when the engine is automatically stopped, and selectively performs, if the exhaust passage temperature is lower than the condensation occurrence temperature when the engine is automatically stopped, one of lowering heating performance of the heater and stopping the heating performed by the heater.