Parking heaters, Webasto/Eberspächer etc.

AA wrote:

Wow. This is great, but I would have to be living in Greenland to need something like this. I'm thinking a heated garage might be as effective?

The initial cost to insulate, sheetrock and buy an appropriate size propane heater for my 28' x 34' Garage, the equivalent of a 2 car garage cost me somewhere around $2,000 and about $30.00 month in average propane cost to keep a minimum of 40-60*F.
The only problem I have is that this is just to keep a small collection of motorcycles and a shitload of tools and equipment and ME happy.
My car still has to stay outside. Not enough room in here for all of us.

Yes, but for the same price you also have a heated space that you can use for whatever, and the car stays clean and dry.

Btw, my "heated garage" consists of an oil filled electric heater for $50. The garage is not connected to the house, cinder block walls, sealed doors, and that little heater keeps it 20-30ºF above outside temps. Costs ~$50/month if I use it every night.

AA wrote:

Yes, but for the same price you also have a heated space that you can use for whatever, and the car stays clean and dry.

Btw, my "heated garage" consists of an oil filled electric heater for $50. The garage is not connected to the house, cinder block walls, sealed doors, and that little heater keeps it 20-30ºF above outside temps. Costs ~$50/month if I use it every night.

The car doesn't fit. So it doesn't stay clean and dry, but I know what you mean. It could if i chose to store this other stuff elsewhere.

It's custom install almost every time you're buing aftermarket component like this.

Of course, they sell these mostly to premium class cars here like Mercedes, BMW, Volvo and so on and they have detailed instructions for these marks and models and it's much faster and cheaper to install.

The original idea of warming the car before start has now grew something greater

Of course, own heated garage would be ideal. Then you wouldn't need apparatus like this, or block heaters, at all.

There is one thing too to remember: Riviera is quite a cheap car in the US so adding fuel powered heater to it, especially with prices like here in Finland, wouldn't be cost effective. But, every car in Finland is always "too" expensive, thanks to car taxing system.
You'll laugh your asses off if you want to buy Riviera from dealer here: cheapest unit is over $14000! (with 200 0000 km on it)
Well, now adding a heater isn't so expensive anymore...

Timo: I didn't start engine before temperature has risen to -22°C. It took 4 seconds to start and engine revolved slowly. It always gives me creeps to cold-start engine.

Quote :

There is one thing too to remember: Riviera is quite a cheap car in the US so adding fuel powered heater to it, especially with prices like here in Finland, wouldn't be cost effective. But, every car in Finland is always "too" expensive, thanks to car taxing system.
You'll laugh your asses off if you want to buy Riviera from dealer here: cheapest unit is over $14000! (with 200 0000 km on it)
Well, now adding a heater isn't so expensive anymore... :shocked:

Funny, I see it the other way around! Spending $14,000 on the car, I wouldn't want to spend another dollar on accessories. I would be more apt to spend extra money on a heater for a $3000 car, because the overall cost is still lower. It's all about your perspective.

You're right about perspective.

Like: If you buy an expensive car you also want to take care of it a little bit better. You wash it more often, buy better oil, want to make sure that engine lasts longer.

But, I understand your point of view.

Webasto or Eberspächer unit is very easy to disassemble and install it to your next car, so you don't have to buy another again.

Yeah, it really wouldn't be cost effective here, where electric plugins are not hard to come by, making a $100-$200 block heater the way to go. But I can understand it in Jari's situation where he doesn't have access to an outlet. Both my vehicles are in an attached garage that doesn't normally fall below 20deg F in winter, so I don't even have block heaters installed. And daytime at work usually warms up enough to not really worry too much about the cold start at 5pm.