Cars with best heaters for cold oldies?

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 10:58
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - John F

Any thoughts from those familiar with many different models? I've always found Fords with small engines warm up in no time. My 2.8 Audi is useless at warming the cabin until at least 5 miles. Car testers provide data on all sorts of things but never how quickly the heater works. Why not? This would be a major consideration for me with my next car.

I appreciate a really good heater probably indicates an inefficient engine which wastes heat, but for most of the year north of the 50th parallel this is a bonus!

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 11:05
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - skidpan

Wifes Puma and Micra both heated up really fast.

Diesel Mondeo was really slow (5 or so miles for heat to show), diesel Focus only a little bit better.

Wifes current Kia Ceed diesel takes a couple of miles, best diesel we have had other than:

Diesel BMW really good, blows warm air within a few hundred yards even in this weather.

But the winner is, dads old Honda Jazz, it would blow hot air before it was off the drive.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 11:05
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - unthrottled

I thought some of the larger audis had supplementary heaters (ie a separate diesel burner) to counteract this. (doesn't appear as if yours is one of those sadly!)

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 18:20
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - John F

I thought some of the larger audis had supplementary heaters (ie a separate diesel burner) to counteract this. (doesn't appear as if yours is one of those sadly!)

Sadly not. 1998 petrol V6.

I used to keep an old long thin toaster with one failed element strapped to the front of the driver's seat wired via the boot to the mains - timeclock set for an hour before departure - a broken rosemary tile instead of the slice of bread. It made a superb small storage heater, warming the steering wheel and melting the ice on the windscreen.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 12:20
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - countryroads

My mums Puma is the same, really quick heating...my sisters Hyundai Coupe is very good too. The quickest I have found though was an old Honda powered Rover 600, heat by the end of the drive...modern Honda petrols also very good.

Diesel VAG cars usually have an aux heater, is an option on petrol ones varying by market but nobody specs them here.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 12:34
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - craig-pd130

My current Volvo V60 has an excellent heater, blowing warm within half a mile. My old-shape V40 was equally good.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 13:00
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - Cyd

Why not look for a car that has a preheater as an option?

If it's not available as an option from new, have an aftemarket one fitted. Kenlowe do an electric preheater and Webasto do fuel burning ones.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 14:12
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - skidpan

Why not look for a car that has a preheater as an option?

If it's not available as an option from new, have an aftemarket one fitted. Kenlowe do an electric preheater and Webasto do fuel burning ones.

Cannot imagine anyone ithe UK needing a pre-heater, we're not in Russia or the Arctic. For the few days a year its really cold it would be a very expensive luxury and more things to go wrong.

Our old Focus handbook detailed the operation of the engine pre-heater fitted in certain markets. Basically you cannot keep the car in a garage as the fumes would be dangerous. So the car engine may be warm but it has a foot of snow on the roof and windows to clear off.

Rather keep mine in the garage, just drive out and drive off with no scraping.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 15:06
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - madf

My Jazz starts to blow warm air after 0.5miles.

Wife's Yaris diesel takes 3 miles in the same conditions.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 15:37
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - craig-pd130

My old BGT had a Kenlowe electric pre-heater fitted by the previous owner, it was great in winter.

Plug it in for 30-40 minutes after getting up in the morning via the handy connection point accessible through the grille, and it got the water temp up to about 15 - 20 celsius. Doesn't sound much but a lot better than sub-zero ... the engine then needed just a whiff of choke and took no time to warm through.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 16:11
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - RT

The ideal world is a Kenlowe-type pre-heater to warm the engine up plus a water/ATF transmission heater/cooler as fitted to some Subaru's (different to an air/ATF transmission cooler) plus an electric fan heater to warm the cabin up and melt the ice on the glass.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 16:26
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - ohsoslow

I had a Kenlowe heater in a previous car, wonderful!

Our present car (Nissan Note) has a just adequate heater, whereas the MX-5 will cook your feet in this weather even with the roof down, a good hat and scarf are required though.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 17:03
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - jamie745

Petrol Jaguar S-Type. Turn all the gubbins to full and it's fit for a Hawaiin shirt in minutes.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 19:02
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - Bobbin Threadbare
whereas the MX-5 will cook your feet in this weather even with the roof down, a good hat and scarf are required though.

Yes it will! Tiny cabin - I am toasty warm in mine in about 2 mins! I always have to turn the heater right down - it's super.

My mum's Aygo goes from cold to cooked in a few minutes too. The fans seem really powerful.

Edited by Bobbin Threadbare on 16/01/2013 at 19:03

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 19:39
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - Cyd

The Kenlowe has an optional controller that can switch on the heater fan and warm the interor as well as just the engine block.

Using a car with a pre-warmed engine is not only more comfortable for the driver, but will yield savings in fuel consumption. If you tend to keep cars for many years and use them most days, then an aftermarket kit may pay for itself and more. Especially at todays high prices.

Not only that, but the hardware of an aftermarket kit can probably be moved from car to car when you change. The savings can continue well into the future.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 19:50
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - RT

The Kenlowe has an optional controller that can switch on the heater fan and warm the interor as well as just the engine block.

Using a car with a pre-warmed engine is not only more comfortable for the driver, but will yield savings in fuel consumption. If you tend to keep cars for many years and use them most days, then an aftermarket kit may pay for itself and more. Especially at todays high prices.

Not only that, but the hardware of an aftermarket kit can probably be moved from car to car when you change. The savings can continue well into the future.

Having recently used a 1kw fan heater in the cabin for an hour in the current sub-zero temperatures, just that made a significant difference to fuel consumption - even though everything under the bonnet was still stone cold.

A Kenlowe kit can only be used a few days/year but the fan heater can be used inside the house as well.

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Thu 17 Jan 2013 08:39
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - KenC

I suspect the fuel saving gained here was due to the shorter time the car was on the driveway "Idling" and burning fuel. I read somewhere that 5 minutes of idling was equal to about 1 mile of driving.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 19:22
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - iFocus

My Golf 1.4TSI is blowing warm within about half a mile too, much better than my old Octavia TDi which took around 3-4 miles.

Petrol is usually better than diesel I've found.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 19:26
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - jamie745

Diesel takes about six months to warm up. Petrol is quicker, quieter, smoother and it's harder to freeze.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 19:43
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - bazza

The increased thermal efficiency of a diesel is actually quite a major disadvantage on these cold mornings when the screen and inside of the car is freezing and a few pennies saved on fuel suddenly assumes less importance to getting warmed up! Our switch back to petrol ( for the usual reasons of over-complexity and DPF etc) at least has some advantages in this weather. I shove a fan heater in it half an hour before leaving, works a treat

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 19:52
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - RT

Diesel takes about six months to warm up. Petrol is quicker, quieter, smoother and it's harder to freeze.

I can remember in the big freezes of the past that truckers would light a fire under their fuel tanks to get the diesel to flow - don't do that with a petrol vehicle !

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 19:56
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - jamie745

Petrol will eventually freeze - or gel, if you want to be pedantic - but the rest of the car will likely die of the cold before that temperature is reached.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 21:09
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - Tonto1

Another vote for the Jazz - warms up very fast indeed. Mini R56 from 2006 not too bad (about a mile/ 5 mins).We also have a BMW 318i and that takes a good 3 miles or 10/15 mins.

Best car I ever had heater wise was an a Rover 214 (circa 1994 if my memory is up to scratch). that would heat up in next to no time - I can't remember whether this was due to a relatively small amount of oil or coolant for the engine.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 21:47
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - Cyd

Yes, my wifes Rover 25 1.4 warms up very quickly. The Kseries featured thin wall casting technology and had a low capacity cooling system with high flow. The reduced overall engine mass results in fast warm up times and hence improved economy.

My Saab 9-3 Aero warms reasonably quick too. And I'm now a big fan of heated seats (the leather is very cold otherwise).

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Thu 17 Jan 2013 08:56
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - TeeCee

Best car I ever had heater wise was an a Rover 214 (circa 1994 if my memory is up to scratch). that would heat up in next to no time - I can't remember whether this was due to a relatively small amount of oil or coolant for the engine.

I had a "K" engined 416 on fleet many years ago. That warmed up from cold in nothing flat and is still the best car I've ever experienced for fast warmup.

Worst car I ever had in this area was a Mk1 2.0 Ford Galaxy. In cold weather it took a good half hour stuck in traffic before the heater got warm. No traffic=cold journey. Ford deemed it unfixable as "They're all like that". This is but one of the reasons why that was the most godawfully dreadful car[1] it has ever been my displeasure to be saddled with.

[1] Having been through a fairly rotten HB Viva, an 1100 auto(!), an Allegro, a Talbot Alpine and a Skoda 130 Rapid[2] amongst others in the chamber of horrors, that's saying something.

[2] I actually liked that. Great fun.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 21:23
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - MikeTorque

John F, the latest Ford Fiesta 1.0 EcoBoost engine warms up quickly and it's a very efficient engine (99 CO2 inc. stop/start) , it's well worth considering.

"An advanced “split cooling” system reduces fuel consumption by warming the engine more quickly and – unlike the larger EcoBoost engines – cast iron has been selected for the block, reducing the amount of energy needed for warm-up by up to 50 per cent compared with aluminium." (extract from link below)

More details here : http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=35237

I have the Fiesta 1.0 EcoBoost 100ps and I find there is useful heat entering the cabin within 1 mile of 28mph driving after a cold start. With the addition of the Quickclear heated windscreen and rear window heater it means all the heater output can be directed into the driver/passenger area, lovely in these cold weather conditions.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 21:56
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - Bobbin Threadbare

With the addition of the Quickclear heated windscreen and rear window heater it means all the heater output can be directed into the driver/passenger area, lovely in these cold weather conditions.

That's the main thing I miss from my old MkI Focus - the heated windscreen. Very useful indeed and my two subsequent cars haven't had/got it.

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Fri 18 Jan 2013 13:18
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - John F

John F, the latest Ford Fiesta 1.0 EcoBoost engine warms up quickly

Thanks for the really interesting link, Mike. Stunning; all that power from an engine the size of three tiny jam jars. And almost miraculous if it is as durable as they say.

Interesting to see the drive belts are immersed in oil - I always thought it was best to keep oil away from belts - I wonder what the are made of.

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Wed 16 Jan 2013 21:09
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - Smileyman

I always remember in my younger days I drove my late grandfather's SAAB 99. One cold winter's day I gave a friend who drove a Ford Escort a lift - he remarked the car's heater was putting out heat before we had even pulled away, unlike his car which took forever to warm up. Together with the electrically heated seat it was a great car for winter driving - I could even get warm air to my feet and the windscreen and fresh (ambient, unheated) air to my face at the same time - a much missed feature with most cars today.

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Thu 17 Jan 2013 06:31
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - madf

The answer of course is a heated motor house for gentlefolk.. But I'm just a pleb !! so it's an unheated and very cold garage...(Outside-5c, inside 0C)

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Thu 17 Jan 2013 08:46
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - skidpan

Why not do what every muppet on our street does, leave your car idling on the drive while you have your breakfast. When you come out of the house you either have a nice clear screen and warm car or a space on the drive where your car was parked.

One of our engineers at work used to do it. One day his Citroen Berlingo locked him out and since the spare keys were at HQ 200 miles away it left him a little emabarased. By the time RAC arrived and broke into the car it was lovely and warm. He got quite a warm welcome from the fleet manager later.

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Thu 17 Jan 2013 09:01
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - TeeCee

I could even get warm air to my feet and the windscreen and fresh (ambient, unheated) air to my face at the same time - a much missed feature with most cars today.

Ah yes, "warm feet / cold face". A must have.

Rovers got that dead right. The centre vents on their later cars had a lever between them for cold and warm. Rather cunningly, the "cold" setting didn't pipe air in directly from outside but just blended in more unheated air so the stream was a few degrees cooler than that coming from the heater. This meant you could have "cold face" in the depths of winter without running the risk of frostbite.

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Fri 18 Jan 2013 13:22
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - John F

I could even get warm air to my feet and the windscreen and fresh (ambient, unheated) air to my face at the same time - a much missed feature with most cars today.

Yes, same on my TR7 which warms up in no time thanks to inefficient engine and tiny cabin. Even climatronics can't do that. [well, mine can't - perhaps modern ones can?]

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Fri 18 Jan 2013 15:44
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - concrete

I could even get warm air to my feet and the windscreen and fresh (ambient, unheated) air to my face at the same time - a much missed feature with most cars today.

Yes, same on my TR7 which warms up in no time thanks to inefficient engine and tiny cabin. Even climatronics can't do that. [well, mine can't - perhaps modern ones can?]

The real answer is a mains electric heater to come on an hour before you start the car. Heats the cabin nicely and trickles through to the engine.

My old Toyota (04) Avensis had a pre-heater function which helped. My Skoda Superb diesel, with Climatronic heats up really quickly, by half a mile there is plenty of warm air blasting out. Not had a petrol car for 17 years but I do recall my petrol Honda Accord was good at heating up quickly too. Best to all. Concrete

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Fri 18 Jan 2013 19:19
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - unthrottled

Stuff the front grille with snow-the engine will warm up faster, then when the radiator gets hot, the snow melts.

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Fri 18 Jan 2013 21:57
Cars with best heaters for cold oldies? - jamie745

An S-Type has quite a big grille......

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