But there is a large amount of fuel duty and VAT to pay on the fuel used to warm the car up.

Well you can blame the insane energy policies for that. And the lack of investment in innovation in ICE emmision reduction. But if you're a fan of NET ZERO then you'll be fully supportive of the mini budget keeping the dream alive.

Keep on Greening the planet we'll soon be at 9 billion to feed.

The guy who was my Best Man when I married my wife was a tool maker at Triplex in Kings Norton and was involved in making the very early heated windscreens around forty years ago, the heated back windows were and still are simple to make because people will accept thick lines in them, thick lines in front  screens are a different matter, people will not accept thick lines in them hence thin crinkled elements closer together are required.

He managed to arrange for a factory tour for us, his dad being a senior manager helped, they were making the Triplex 10-20 glass for the Austin Princess cars, a special safety glass that could not be moved in the manufacturing process until it cooled, so rather than moving the glass through a furnace they moved the furnace over the glass.

The development of the glass led to the development of cars to showpiece it.

www.aronline.co.uk/.../

When I have visited New England it seems quite common to have remote starters so in winter you can start your engine from in the house or the office and allow it to warm up / thaw. The winters there are rather more severe than in the UK. 

This is normally only fitted to vehicles with an automatic transmission which have a starter inhibitor switch if it is not in park.

As I understand it, remote starting is not permitted in UK because the vehicle has to be under somebody's control when in use.

Sparkingchip Wow that's really interesting sparkingchip and thank you for sharing.

Also thank you for the trip down memory lane with the old Princess cars  I remember my younger brother being absolutely OBSESSED with the Austin Princess and would always squeal with delight every time he saw one on the road.

Now nothing less than a Porsche will make him do that... 

My sister in law used to live in Canada. Her cars had a heater that she would plug into the mains overnight to stop them freezing up. 

It was not that long ago my brother in law used to put a paraffin heater under his 2CV while parked at work when it was cold. He was a doctor at a major hospital and the fire brigade were called out when someone noticed it. He was told in no uncertain terms not to do it again.

Roger B A few months ago I came across a really interesting video on YouTube about Yakutsk (i.e. the coldest place on earth) in which it was said that unless their car is in a nice warm heated underground garage, they have to keep their cars running 24/7 to stop it from freezing up! 

I also found this video again mentioning that cars in Siberia are left running 24/7 and how important it is to have the right oil in the engine too: 

There’s a lot to think about in cold conditions. We don’t usually get below -15°C here (Zürich area) and the car is  kept in the underground garage that comes with out apartment block. When we go off to the mountains things are a little different, it may sit out in temperatures below -20°C for a few days. I’ve been taught a few things by the locals.

Always disengage the clutch when starting, the removal of the oil drag from the gearbox may make the difference between starting and not starting. I did an experiment last time using the fuel consumption indicator. It normally idles at around 0.6-0.7 l/h (2008 Touran 1.9 TDI). After a cold start at -18°C having stood out with temperatures below -20°C the idling consumption was 2.6 l/h, taking my foot off the clutch increased the consumption to 2.8 l/h. Don’t start and just move a short distance, make sure you will run the engine for long enough to recharge the battery.

When the temperature stays well below zero icing of the windows is no problem as there is no moisture, snow can just be brushed off. The trouble comes when you have been using the car and it is warm and then it snows. The snow is melted by the relatively warm car and then freezes coating everything in ice. This can even make it difficult/impossible to open the doors without thawing them with warm water.

Winter tyres are essential and with them I have never had to use snow chains although I always carry them.

Roger B said:

Always disengage the clutch when starting

Does the clutch ever get frozen onto the flywheel?

I always disengage the clutch any way for safety.