“set car off running, close door, lock door with first set of keys in the ignition“

I did this once. An old car whose remote locking had packed up. When I went back to get into the car, I put the key in the lock, turned it, and felt part of the mechanism break. The key then span uselessly. None of the other doors had a keyhole. So I had a locked, running, car and no way of getting into it.

D’oh.

I ended up smashing the glass on one of the rear doors and climbing in 😳

But on the bright side, replacement glass from a breakers was only about £15 and not too hard to fit.

I now don’t bother locking the car. We live in a quiet area and if it gets nicked, I’ll stomach that £400 loss.

Anyone using a vacuum squeegee thing? I’ve not got one but I’ve seen a few people recommend it for damp cars. Seems pretty sensible- clears screen and gets water out of the car

Otherwise you could get pissed up and doughnut your old 3-series around Tesco’s car park with impunity.

No you couldn’t. Drink drive laws use the phrase road or other public place. Public access to Tesco car park.

Driving, or being in charge, when under influence of drink or drugs.

(1)A person who, when driving or attempting to drive a [F1mechanically propelled vehicle] on a road or other public place, is unfit to drive through drink or drugs is guilty of an offence.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/4

I’m more intrigued how Joe scummy car thief can see where they are driving and don’t stuff it into the first parked car they come to

Sometimes they do. Not their motor to worry about though.

irc – Member

No you couldn’t. Drink drive laws use the phrase road or other public place. Public access to Tesco car park.
😕
Which is why I said:

It’s about being accessible to the public, not actually being public.

as car parks are typically privately owned places.

I’m into my second winter with an electric car (Renault Zoe) and telling it to defrost and warm up from my phone before I leave the house still seems a bit special 😀

Best solution I’ve seen to this problem was in a late 90s USA spec Ford Taurus.

On arrival to the motel in upstate New York on a winter road trip, reception asked what time we were leaving, and how we took our coffee. Leave your keys with us. The next morning we walked out at 9.30 to see the staff had dug it out of the 43″ of overnight snow, warmed up, engine running and fresh coffee in the cupholders. They do quite well on tips when the service is worth it.

I’m sure that one of my cars said in the manual that you should *not* do this and should drive off straight away. Can’t remember which car…

I think most probably do.

Leaving it running cold means the oil isn’t warmed up and the engine wears itself out. Far better to drive the first few miles gently until warmed up than to leave it running on the driveway until it’s warm.

Even worse, people who stick the fan on 4 and the heat on full, so they drive to work and the engine never even starts to warm up.

They get around it in Scandinavia by having plug in oil heaters that warm the sump up.

Which is why I said:

It’s about being accessible to the public, not actually being public.

But not for engine idling. It depends on what the law says. Idling laws state “road” so it can’t be committed in a private car park even if it is accessible to the public. Other laws state road or public place which includes the likes of Tesco car park.

So Tesco car park – drink driving – illegal. Idling the csr – legal.

A woman by me had hers spotted by the police recently so they took the keys and tapped the door to find she had gone back in to cook bacon sarnies for the family while the car was warming. I just don’t understand how people can think it’s a sensible idea! Especially as most insurance companies will use it as the perfect excuse not to pay out!

I loved my old heated windscreen on the Mondeo and would love one again but think the connected electric car with the app to heat everything and demist will be the way forward.

bensales – Member
I just push the button on my app whilst having breakfast

Did your missus set the temperature?!

sponges on the inside of the screen are the work of the devil.

You see the smears for life afterwards the car becomes undrivable and needs scrapped.

Sorry – pet hate.

I retrofitted a heated screen to my 30 year old landy – best thing ever all new cars should have these 😀

bensales – Member
I just push the button on my app whilst having breakfast

legend – Member
Did your missus set the temperature?!

The temperature number is a work of fiction. That feels the same as 21 did in my previous car.

If there’s any fault with it, its that it doesn’t also turn on the heated seats and steering wheel too.

I retrofitted a heated screen to my 30 year old landy

What’s the difference between fitting and retrofitting?

Retrofitting means only using artisanal hand tools for the job.

By the time you’ve scraped the ice off, the windows will be demisted anyway? Heated rear window sorts that, winding the side windows down then up again sorts those, wiping the windscreen with a sponge sorts that.

I use a more extreme version of DezB’s method, where I don’t have a driving licence or a car.

And does it show.

Unless your window seals are heated the side windows will still be frosty.
Ice clears quicker than mist.
Iced inside = long wait.

Quickclear is the best thing I ever got for winter starts, even if the drivers side is rubbish and patchy it still beats the hell out of sitting waiting for the inside to defrost on the old Civic. If I had a driveway I’d have a sump heater.

“The company announced Wednesday at CES 2017 its newer vehicles will work alongside Amazon’s popular Echo smart speaker and its voice assistant Alexa.

The move will allow select Ford owners to make voice requests via the Echo such as “Alexa, ask MyFord Mobile to start my car,” provided they’re within earshot of the smart home device.

Other capabilities include the ability to turn off the car, lock or unlock the doors and check a vehicle’s battery power level. The technology could also be useful for those who want to loan a car to a friend without handing over a key. A car owner could ask its Echo to unlock and start the car, even if its miles away. “

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/04/technology/ford-amazon-alexa-echo/index.html

Seems secure

Don’t worry, knowing the Ford voice controls they would still be arguing about it; the windows will be down, AC on and Radio 3 blasting out full volume by the time you get outside.

They get around it in Scandinavia by having plug in oil heaters that warm the sump up.

Many do, but many don’t. Mostly a hangover from the days when cars were hard to start in really cold conditions. Modern car tech means it’s often not worth the trouble.

Keeping the car in the garage is a lot more popular though.

ret·ro·fit (r?t?r?-f?t?)
tr.v. ret·ro·fit·ted or ret·ro·fit, ret·ro·fit·ting, ret·ro·fits
1. To outfit (a device, vehicle, building, or system) with newly developed or previously unavailable parts or equipment: retrofit cars with new safety features.
2. To install or fit (a device or system, for example) for use in or on an existing structure, especially an older dwelling.

Yep i retrofitted the heated screen.

sbob – Member

So private land – no offence.

It’s not as simple as that.
I don’t have time to dig out the legislation but there is a “for the purposes of” clause that will allow prosecutions for certain offences on private land in certain circumstances. It’s about being accessible to the public, not actually being public.

Otherwise you could get pissed up and doughnut your old 3-series around Tesco’s car park with impunity.
[/quote]

As you state in your follow up its about public access, but in that you’re missing the other meaning of the word. Private, as in belonging to or for the use of one particular person or group of people only.

So on your own drive, do what you want. Idle away, dont run a CAT, pollute a plenty, you dont even need to pay VED (almost like you are not on the road so not obliged to pay taxes to use it… which are not a road tax apparently). This, funnily enough, is how race tracks* work too, no free public access = do what you want in terms of making pollution with your car/motorbike (within the limits of other laws, safety, noise etc.)

*tracks in the loosest sense also included, motocross muddy tracks, fields, old airfields, laps of you herbaceous borders on a mini-bike, any enclosed private land without public access.

I’m sure that one of my cars said in the manual that you should *not* do this and should drive off straight away. Can’t remember which car…

BMW’s do unless it’s been designed from Factory for remote warm up phase, in which case it will either use WEBASCO (or other) system, or use the electric heater and pumps.

Main issue is that oil pumps generally only work under load (i.e. you drive by the bugger), so you can end up starving the engine of oil thus knackering it.

Most new cars defrost pretty damn quick now anyway as there is minimal moisture able to get in, and when it does the AC normally clears it quick.

HOWEVER My missus – wont use AC and then wipes the windscreen with a sponge/hand/snot rag it it winds me up cronic..

This is where, as mentioned, ‘lecy cars are streets ahead of their Dino powered cousins!

My i3 is already defrosted and warmed to 21degC when i get out to it in the morning, and if i need to leave at a unusual time (my normal commuting times are set in the idrive) i just hit the “precondition now” button on the phone App and wait 5min before going out to it 😆

And for the really cold starts, ie, first thing in the morning, the power used to precondition comes from the mains, not the battery! (in fact, it’s also heating the battery as well) because car is left plugged in, having charged overnight on cheap rate ‘lecy

what if you dont have a smart phone ?

trail_rat – Member
what if you dont have a smart phone ?

then you’re the Dino running my car 😉

trail_rat
what if you dont have a smart phone ?

As mentioned, usual Departure times are preset in iDrive (via normal iDrive knobulator in the car) and you can also walk out to car, unlock, and hit the “precon cabin now” button on the Hvac, relock, and pop inside for brekie, coming out 10m later to a defrosted car.

‘lecy cars are streets ahead of their Dino powered cousins

You do know where a lot of the power used to charge electric cars from don’t you?

“Indirectly Dino powered”

might be a better description rather than ‘lecy?

I know where the power is coming from for my ‘le you car.

Straight from my roof if the sun is shining, 4kw worth of solar panels.

If……the sun is shining then it’s free power for me.

“A lot”? And as the grid greens, so does my car………

Take a look at gridwatch to see how rapidly the UK grid IS greening btw!

Added to which, my i3 is managing over 200mpg equivalent (ie as a total energy used comparison) so even if it IS completely dino powered (which it isn’t), it’s still at least twice as “Green” as a direct ICE vehicle……..

Straight from my roof if the sun is shining, 4kw worth of solar panels.

but not for those that

having charged overnight on cheap rate ‘lecy

I’m not denying that electric vehicles *can* run on electricity beyond fossil fuels but they’re not automatically any more green, the polution and emissions are just sometimes just moved elsewhere. and with systemic losses in the electricity grid etc it’s not always a clear cut ‘electric is better’ overall (although locally clearly there’s some benefit).

On that Gridwatch page, if the top, left hand dial goes into the red does something blow up?

If so, I’m boiling a FULL kettle and turning the immersion heater on.

I use a more extreme version of DezB’s method, where I don’t have a driving licence or a car.

And does it show.

Unless your window seals are heated the side windows will still be frosty.
Ice clears quicker than mist.
Iced inside = long wait.[/quote]

I’ve not de-iced or got into a cold car since Sunday. By the time I’d cleared the windows, my wife arrived and we got into the car and she drove it away after about a minute of waiting for the misted windows to clear.

No licence isn’t the same as no experience.

You do know where a lot of the power used to charge electric cars from don’t you?

“Indirectly Dino powered”

Not always. And it’s improving all the time, unlike petrol power.

STATO – Member

As you state in your follow up its about public access, but in that you’re missing the other meaning of the word. Private, as in belonging to or for the use of one particular person or group of people only.

Funnily enough, I’ve just bumped into an old friend of mine who I haven’t seen for over a decade who lost his licence due to shenanigans in a private car park, not open to, but physically accessible by the public.

Luckily my Freelander has a heated front screen & seats as well as a pre heater for the coolant system so I unlock it, start it with the screen heater & seat on & aircon on recirc aimed at dash then scrape the windows. By time I’ve done the outside the inside of the screen is clear, my bum can be toasty warm and the air in the cabin is pretty warm too.
Assume that the screen heater is a benefit from the days when Ford owned LR as it’s a 13 year old car.

Volvo and JLR retain access to the patent for heated screens as far as I know.

VAG have a different version but for some strange reason didn’t offer on Audi (at least in 2014).

As the first screens appeared in 1985 and EU patents last 20 years other manufacturers should be able to offer it (GM and BMW through Mini seem to).

Someone bought me a demister sock for Crimbo. A sock filled with kitty litter, leave it on the dashboard wedged against the window.

I haven’t had to demist the car at all so far since Christmas. Such a good idea I went and bought a bag of litterrors, filled some socks and handed them out to family members, shoved a couple in my Asgard shedo etc. It’s great.

My much loved T2 Combi had crap heat exchangers and couldn’t produce enough heat to melt a choc-ice. Luckily I had an Eberspacher petrol heater plumbed in. Think of a flamethrower crossed with a cylinder vacuum cleaner on ‘blow’.
In the morning I’d get in, pull out what looked like an old choke lever and then press the big green illuminated button. There would be a whirring sound from the fan, followed by a CRUMP! as the petrol ignited and with the timer running I’d walk inside, grab my stuff and wander back out to a toast fumefilled deathtrap. The ignition was never turned on and no keys needed.

Windscreen covers are a few quid. Just put it on when its cold. Takes 30 seconds.

Fine. Until you take the cover off, and the screen instantly ices over, which has happened to me on a number of occasions.
It also does nothing about an iced up interior, which is a Royal PITA because of the reverse curvature of the screen, plus obstructions like the mirror, and the top of the dash.
Clearing thick ice where a wet screen has frozen is like trying to scrape off Teflon, even with a screen spray, and I’ve had the screen refreeze after getting the ice off before now, as I’ve been driving along the road, forcing me to find a safe place to pull over and scrape the ice off all over again.
If it’s better to have the screen blower on a low speed when you start, why then does it automatically go onto full blast when I start the car and switch to screen demist?
As far as heated screens are concerned, it does seem odd that they’re not offered by more manufacturers, as the patents have lapsed; one week a while back I drove six Corsa SRi’s, ex-fleet cars, and every one had a heated screen, but Vauxhall don’t offer them on every model, the Mokka can’t be ordered with a heated screen, despite lots being sold, and it being an obvious subject for having a heated screen.
I really do miss the heated screen on my Puma, especially when I’m outside at 6am de-icing whichever car I’ve brought home and have to drive it to whatever destination it’s required at.

Do you drive abroad alot or something count zero. Your describing things that rarely happen in the north of Scotland and yet your in the tropics of south of the border…..

I had a loaner VW T6 a few weeks ago which had the heated screen
bloody terrible in the dark with the filaments showing up in the oncoming lights and flaring badly
certainly put me off any heated screens in future vans