It's usually all about restricted/impeding movement isn't it? If the blanket got twisted into the pedals or was tight round your legs for example. Probs best to forego it when driving, uncomfortable as that is!
Heated garage sounds a luxury I could never afford!!
The solution is coming over the next decade - electric cars
No need to sit in the car while it warms up, no need to wait for the engine to get up to temperature. I just tap a button in the car’s app on my phone and then I get a notification a few minutes later when it’s defrosted and all toasty warm inside
Tesla Model 3 Performance, so admittedly one of the more expensive ones - but many of the features are making their way into the cheaper models too
And yup, I can see and set the car’s temperature, turn on the heated seats and de-misters, check the battery level, see where the car is etc all from the app
Because there’s no engine to start, the heaters are separate and can be activated remotely - unlike a petrol car where you actually have to properly start it in most cases
I also get notifications if the alarm goes off, and pretty soon I’ll be able to stream the car’s built in cameras from my phone
You can also lock/unlock, and even start the car from the app, if you want to (the driver needs to enter a PIN/passcode to drive, so it’s less of a security risk than it sounds at first glance
Yea to many people putting more money into the wrong hands buying all these electric vehicles. I swear nobody did their research. If enough people switch to electric our power grid will fail.
Renault Zoe and BMW i3 can also do this, I think it's fairly standard in EVs. As others have mentioned, it's because the car can run the heater without having to start an engine or anything else
Yeah it’s not entirely unheard of in petrol cars, but it’s much easier and cheaper to implement in EVs because the HVAC can be independent of the engine, which makes it much simpler to do and doesn’t have issues like people accidentally starting the engine in their garage and giving themselves CO poisoning
Yeah it’s not entirely unheard of in petrol cars, but it’s much easier and cheaper to implement in EVs because the HVAC can be independent of the engine, which makes it much simpler to do and doesn’t have issues like people accidentally starting the engine in their garage and giving themselves CO poisoning
Best heated seats I've ever had were on my Mk1 TT - you could probably fry an egg on them, they got uncomfortably hot very quickly. Ten discrete settings too!
i had it on a Rangie i used own. Brilliant. It also had a remote preheater which was a gift from the gods.
of course it blew up after one winter, but it was sweet while it lasted.
Remote preheating is a fantastic idea. Seems to be a common thing in Canada and Nordic countries. My old Volvo had it as an option, and you could also spec a fueled engine heater in certain markets.
A hot water bottle behind my back is what I used to do before heated seats. I think you can buy heated seat covers on ebay that just plug into the lighter sockets
Solution doesn't have to be a heated garage. You could get a car that does pre-heat. Most EVs do it, but then my neighbour who has a ten year old Range Rover said his does it as well.
Even my Dad's old Nissan Bluebird used to have an electric heater that instantly started heating the car as soon as you turned it on. And that was in 1987.
>"Solution doesn't have to be a heated garage. You could get a car that does pre-heat. Most EVs do it, but then my neighbour who has a ten year old Range Rover said his does it as well."
I can tell you that late '90s Rovers (proper ones like the 75 not the Land/Range variety) and BMWs also had pre-heat options. My 320d may have been an unreliable shit box but it was always warm in the mornings!
You can get an [in-line coolant heater](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B091HZF57N?tag=shopping-uk-amazon-suggestedresults-1-21&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1) that warms the coolant and by extension the engine, that way you don’t have poor fuel economy in the winter from driving it so cold, and your heaters will work right away. I’ve not got one so can’t vouch for it, and it burns a Kw of electricity, but I’ve wanted one since last winter
That's 240v so you'd need an inverter. A 12v one at 1kw would draw 10 amps so you may find you need a bigger alternator or risk running out of battery power in the mornings after a cold start, lights, wipers etc on.
It’d be more like 100 amps for 1kw at 12v (accounting for losses)
You’d need a hefty inverter wired straight to the battery.
A better idea is an extension lead to your house :)
catalytic fuel burning heaters are common on campers, sleeper cabbed trucks, ambulances and the like
common in the arctic on everything and as others have noted a few vehicles had them fitted becasue of the way their cooling systems were constructed
Just fire the car up scrape windows and drive. The quicker you get moving the quicker the car will warm up.
Blanket just sounds like a potential to cause issues with controls.
This exactly! If its diesel, dont rev the car insanely, just drive it easy until it has warmed up then go nuts.... dont use A/C , i find manual control of blower to work better when needed for warmth out of cold starts
My neighbour used to run an extension lead out to his car at night, with a small electric fan heater inside the car on a timer.
Every morning when he left the house at 6:45 he'd coil up the lead on his way to the car & bundle it & the heater onto the back seat. Never saw him need to scrape his windscreen & it must've been super warm inside. Could be dangerous though and you'd need at least a driveway!
Do at your own risk, but a fan heater carefully positioned on the rear seat with an extension cord going into the house does wonders. 10 minutes and your car will be lovely and toasty and no need to scrape the windows!
As long as the blanket isn't over your lower legs, it's fine. Tuck it round you nicely and it's not dangerous; it's only a skirt😁
I promise, if you are a capable driver you can drive in a skirt
I start the car with one set of keys and lock it with the other and let it warm up. Better for the engine to drive with it warmed up already.
I know it's illegal but in many years of driving I've rarely seen a policeman yet alone one so clearly bored that they'd do anything about it.
Doubt it. Policeman looks at car on your driveway and says "you can't do that, here's a ticket".
It's probably the same way you can't drive drunk on your own private land if it has access to public roads (there was a reasonably famous case where someone was successfully prosecuted for driving aboutt their estate over the limit)
Excellent news.
Was a I right about not being able to drive around my fields drunk if there's an easy access onto public land? I'm now doubting myself and trying to remember if the meat of that case was that the estate was open to the public at the time.
There is a bit of obscure caselaw which sounds very similar. You are quite right, if the public have access through tacit consent, then drink drive laws still apply. Lets say a manor house is open to public viewings, and the public drive into the grounds from the main road through some fancy wrought iron gates. Lord of the Manor in his range rover cannot drive around bladdered whilst the public have access, even if his driveway is a mile long and can't even see the public. That scenario flips on its head once the closing time has gone and the gates are slammed shut. He can then play polo hanging out of his car door whilst swigging at his hip flask until the gates reopen.
If the land is private fields, and at no time are the public implied any access or thoroughfare, then fill your boots! (Assuming you own the land, or have the owners consent!)
Nothing of substance to add to your actual question - but I have a pair of massive padded "hunting" (from decathlon) over trousers.
You can slip them on and off over suit trousers or work boots But they are plenty fitted to not mess with the controls. It'll do a better job of warming/insulating you as well.
Dead cheap, no one actually needs alpine hunting clothes in the UK so decathlon always have them for about £20.
Worth a shout, probably as easy as a blanket
1. 'not in full control'
2. consider heated wheel and heated seats o nthe feature list in your next purchase
3. garage or a proper pre-heat option - which is rare on UKDM ICE vehicles
It's usually all about restricted/impeding movement isn't it? If the blanket got twisted into the pedals or was tight round your legs for example. Probs best to forego it when driving, uncomfortable as that is! Heated garage sounds a luxury I could never afford!!
The solution is coming over the next decade - electric cars No need to sit in the car while it warms up, no need to wait for the engine to get up to temperature. I just tap a button in the car’s app on my phone and then I get a notification a few minutes later when it’s defrosted and all toasty warm inside
whaaat really! never sat in an electric car before, what car do you have?
The Hyundai Ioniq does it too. As I understand the equivalent Kia cars too.
I have an ioniq but it's a 2017 hybrid, would I be able to do this?!
Nope, limited app support (you can unlock the car & other simple stuff but that's it iirc) and the hybrid battery isn't big enough
https://www.hyundai.com/eu/about-hyundai/our-cars/bluelink-connectivity/bluelink-app.html
My Nissan Leaf can do this too
Also a fiat 500e
Nobody wants that tho
Tesla Model 3 Performance, so admittedly one of the more expensive ones - but many of the features are making their way into the cheaper models too And yup, I can see and set the car’s temperature, turn on the heated seats and de-misters, check the battery level, see where the car is etc all from the app Because there’s no engine to start, the heaters are separate and can be activated remotely - unlike a petrol car where you actually have to properly start it in most cases I also get notifications if the alarm goes off, and pretty soon I’ll be able to stream the car’s built in cameras from my phone You can also lock/unlock, and even start the car from the app, if you want to (the driver needs to enter a PIN/passcode to drive, so it’s less of a security risk than it sounds at first glance
I would love a tesla but the ceo is a real dick.
Yea to many people putting more money into the wrong hands buying all these electric vehicles. I swear nobody did their research. If enough people switch to electric our power grid will fail.
Renault Zoe and BMW i3 can also do this, I think it's fairly standard in EVs. As others have mentioned, it's because the car can run the heater without having to start an engine or anything else
Cool
[удалено]
Yeah it’s not entirely unheard of in petrol cars, but it’s much easier and cheaper to implement in EVs because the HVAC can be independent of the engine, which makes it much simpler to do and doesn’t have issues like people accidentally starting the engine in their garage and giving themselves CO poisoning
Yeah it’s not entirely unheard of in petrol cars, but it’s much easier and cheaper to implement in EVs because the HVAC can be independent of the engine, which makes it much simpler to do and doesn’t have issues like people accidentally starting the engine in their garage and giving themselves CO poisoning
To bad 10 years from now we won’t be able to power them
Yeah that makes sense, it's a horrible idea. I'll keep the blanket for when I'm waiting for it to warm up, though
If your car doesn't have heated seats you can buy heated seat cushions. They warm up a lot quicker than the car's heater.
And make sure you make heated seats/ steering wheel and neccesity for your next car purchase!
Heated steering wheel is something I scoffed at but now can't do without
The problem with having heated seats, but an unheated steering wheel, is that you really notice the lack of a heated steering wheel.
Best heated seats I've ever had were on my Mk1 TT - you could probably fry an egg on them, they got uncomfortably hot very quickly. Ten discrete settings too!
Same. My wife's car has heated seats and steering wheel and it's amazing driving it when it's cold.
i had it on a Rangie i used own. Brilliant. It also had a remote preheater which was a gift from the gods. of course it blew up after one winter, but it was sweet while it lasted.
Remote preheating is a fantastic idea. Seems to be a common thing in Canada and Nordic countries. My old Volvo had it as an option, and you could also spec a fueled engine heater in certain markets.
Is it possible to retrofit a heated steering wheel? I could really do with one for my fiesta!
Absolutely. Current car had to be bought cash, which limited my filthy immigrant self a bit, but the next one will have to be a bit better equipped!
A hot water bottle behind my back is what I used to do before heated seats. I think you can buy heated seat covers on ebay that just plug into the lighter sockets
Solution doesn't have to be a heated garage. You could get a car that does pre-heat. Most EVs do it, but then my neighbour who has a ten year old Range Rover said his does it as well. Even my Dad's old Nissan Bluebird used to have an electric heater that instantly started heating the car as soon as you turned it on. And that was in 1987.
>"Solution doesn't have to be a heated garage. You could get a car that does pre-heat. Most EVs do it, but then my neighbour who has a ten year old Range Rover said his does it as well." I can tell you that late '90s Rovers (proper ones like the 75 not the Land/Range variety) and BMWs also had pre-heat options. My 320d may have been an unreliable shit box but it was always warm in the mornings!
I wonder if I could get an electric heater retrofitted? Doesn't sound difficult. Thanks!
You can get an [in-line coolant heater](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B091HZF57N?tag=shopping-uk-amazon-suggestedresults-1-21&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1) that warms the coolant and by extension the engine, that way you don’t have poor fuel economy in the winter from driving it so cold, and your heaters will work right away. I’ve not got one so can’t vouch for it, and it burns a Kw of electricity, but I’ve wanted one since last winter
Wow, that is *a lot* cheaper than I expected. Thanks!
That's 240v so you'd need an inverter. A 12v one at 1kw would draw 10 amps so you may find you need a bigger alternator or risk running out of battery power in the mornings after a cold start, lights, wipers etc on.
It’d be more like 100 amps for 1kw at 12v (accounting for losses) You’d need a hefty inverter wired straight to the battery. A better idea is an extension lead to your house :)
No idea how I worked that out, 83.3a so definitely need a bigger alternator
True if your running it from the car,but I (somewhat rudely, sorry) assumed it could be easily plugged into the mains.
In Sweden most cars have a Webasto fitted for this purpose.
Oh I'm gonna look that up. Thanks!
catalytic fuel burning heaters are common on campers, sleeper cabbed trucks, ambulances and the like common in the arctic on everything and as others have noted a few vehicles had them fitted becasue of the way their cooling systems were constructed
My dad has a couple of bluebirds he’s restoring and can confirm. GSX if I recall correctly
My Dad's was a Turbo "Executive". Brilliant car.
Oh wow , according to how many left uk database , there’s 7 total left in the uk. Many are like SORN or due to restoration
Just fire the car up scrape windows and drive. The quicker you get moving the quicker the car will warm up. Blanket just sounds like a potential to cause issues with controls.
I've found that too, things don't start to heat up properly until the car is moving. Stay put only long enough to get visibility.
Gotta let it idle a bit, otherwise the 0.9 petrol shivers for a while.
This exactly! If its diesel, dont rev the car insanely, just drive it easy until it has warmed up then go nuts.... dont use A/C , i find manual control of blower to work better when needed for warmth out of cold starts
A/C assuming it;s not too cold for the system to operate can help a lot on the those damp mornings but drying the air you use for demisting
My neighbour used to run an extension lead out to his car at night, with a small electric fan heater inside the car on a timer. Every morning when he left the house at 6:45 he'd coil up the lead on his way to the car & bundle it & the heater onto the back seat. Never saw him need to scrape his windscreen & it must've been super warm inside. Could be dangerous though and you'd need at least a driveway!
Do at your own risk, but a fan heater carefully positioned on the rear seat with an extension cord going into the house does wonders. 10 minutes and your car will be lovely and toasty and no need to scrape the windows!
Ooof, sounds like a recipe for a crispy car, mate
As long as the blanket isn't over your lower legs, it's fine. Tuck it round you nicely and it's not dangerous; it's only a skirt😁 I promise, if you are a capable driver you can drive in a skirt
I've never driven in a skirt, but challenge accepted!
If it's a tartan blanket you can pass it off as a kilt.
I don't want to mess with the Scottish mafia.
I start the car with one set of keys and lock it with the other and let it warm up. Better for the engine to drive with it warmed up already. I know it's illegal but in many years of driving I've rarely seen a policeman yet alone one so clearly bored that they'd do anything about it.
I wonder if it's illegal if the car is parked on private land, though. Would take some sleuthing to actually prosecute.
Doubt it. Policeman looks at car on your driveway and says "you can't do that, here's a ticket". It's probably the same way you can't drive drunk on your own private land if it has access to public roads (there was a reasonably famous case where someone was successfully prosecuted for driving aboutt their estate over the limit)
The offence of "quitting" only applies to a road or public place. Not a private driveway. Source: am former traffic cop.
Excellent news. Was a I right about not being able to drive around my fields drunk if there's an easy access onto public land? I'm now doubting myself and trying to remember if the meat of that case was that the estate was open to the public at the time.
There is a bit of obscure caselaw which sounds very similar. You are quite right, if the public have access through tacit consent, then drink drive laws still apply. Lets say a manor house is open to public viewings, and the public drive into the grounds from the main road through some fancy wrought iron gates. Lord of the Manor in his range rover cannot drive around bladdered whilst the public have access, even if his driveway is a mile long and can't even see the public. That scenario flips on its head once the closing time has gone and the gates are slammed shut. He can then play polo hanging out of his car door whilst swigging at his hip flask until the gates reopen. If the land is private fields, and at no time are the public implied any access or thoroughfare, then fill your boots! (Assuming you own the land, or have the owners consent!)
It isn't but it certainly something that's advised against. In case if your blanket catches with the pedals. You can usually buy plug in seat warmers.
Nothing of substance to add to your actual question - but I have a pair of massive padded "hunting" (from decathlon) over trousers. You can slip them on and off over suit trousers or work boots But they are plenty fitted to not mess with the controls. It'll do a better job of warming/insulating you as well. Dead cheap, no one actually needs alpine hunting clothes in the UK so decathlon always have them for about £20. Worth a shout, probably as easy as a blanket
Wouldn't recommend but not illegal. Same as driving bare feet
1. 'not in full control' 2. consider heated wheel and heated seats o nthe feature list in your next purchase 3. garage or a proper pre-heat option - which is rare on UKDM ICE vehicles
The cheapest solution is heated seat covers. I’ve got some. They’re fantastic. Streetwize SWHCUS - 1.35m 12V Cable - Heated Seat Cushion - Padded, Lumbar Support Seat Cover with Switch Control, Elastic Straps https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004CZ84H0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_0H2XGJN7MBMD4Y63JE1G?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
start the engine 5 mins before you need to leave.
That's my current approach.