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Going back a long way, lots of Land rover owners did this, but it's an old trick:
fit a heater to the engine
http://www.kenlowe.co.uk/pre-heaters/cars/whatwill.html
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KENLOWE-HOTSTART-ENGINE-PRE-HEATER-/130632142834
then the engine is hot when you get in
I have another trick: I keep a 2kW ceramic heater in the car, which I run for 20 mins before I leave for work on frosty days. Clears all the windows, warms the seats and so on, very nice, and not too expensive a trick compared to 10 minutes on the drive scraping windows, etc. Quite a lot safer too than driving with a 4 square inch hole in the frost to see out of
btw many people labour diesel engines, thinking they are being careful and frugal, in fact it damages the engine, which cost about £5k-6k. Never let the car shudder as you accelerate
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I used to have this discussion in the early 90s when I had aircon and it was exotic for the UK, the facts to bear in mind are:
Not as quickly as putting the heater on and/or wiping the windows before you start.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
just because you do, doesn't mean you should.
Remember to use it occasionaly, as the seals in the system require "conditioning" otherwise they will perish.
The coolant charge contains oils which effectively lubricate the seals.
So run it every few months for a few minutes to keep the system working.
Oh and for reference I've tried turning mine off, running it manually, leaving it on Auto all of which made no measurable difference to my mpg figures, this is on a powerful modern diesel.
On my '93 MX-5 if you run the aircon you can genuinely feel the 10% reduction in power (the pump is run directly from the crank pulley), that's a lowish power old design petrol engine.
I quite like crusty bogies, although, specifically, just my own.
I was talking to my wife the other day, and we both agreed that we are glad we don't have that on our Citroen. The horrible electronic handbrake on the other hand.....