Educator makes a very good point I feel. Presumably the same is true of aircon. So the manufacturers will really have to do something about the efficiency of heaters and aircon.

First world problem or not I’m finding this thread v interesting. Hi

But with a plug in cant you pre heat the cabin with a timer set the night before

Surely this usese charging voltage to pre heat so range less affected by temps, and iirc only teslas uses heated batteries so more likely the cold will kill range with stiffer grease in bearings and low ambients

I have to wear a coat the heater in the testarossa mk1 mini is shocking.

same with the TR7Diablo

also empty all pockets.

If you’re wearing a down top it’s no wonder you don’t need a coat.

🙂

Fleece gilet until needs taking off.

Ideal in all situations (possibly excepting weddings and funerals)

Having started motoring in the late 60s I was aware of advertising for items like this as well as string backed driving gloves.
For some reason I managed to avoid both. And sheepskin coats and trilbys.

https://uk.burberry.com/double-faced-check-wool-car-coat-p80358681

That said should not drive in puffa jackets as it makes the seatbelt less effective even if it does make your electric car more efficient.

Needs a link to scientific evidence to be a true STW FACT.

Needs a link to scientific evidence to be a true STW FACT.

Does common sense and advice safety campaigners count?

I think it’s more of an issue for children as the coat creates too much of a gap for them to be restrained properly.

I guess the same can be said for adults.

Needs a link to scientific evidence to be a true STW FACT.

Go have a look if it bothers you .

I’m not googling it for you.

Presumably the same is true of aircon.

The air-con doesn’t have the same impact as the heater, my guess would be about a third, and it’s generally used when everything else is in favour of best range. The worst combination is:

cold which reduces battery capacity and enforces use of the heater if only to keep the screen clear
wet roads which increase rolling resistance and add the wipers
dark so all the lights are on

Jesus Christ, it was a tongue in cheek comment.  Did you (trail rat) and Drac get out of the wrong side of bed this morning?   This place is truly amazing for its belligerent sensitivity and ability to turn something lighthearted into an argument.

Have a nice day, I’m off to enjoy my Sunday afternoon.

I quite often drive naked from the waist down, I drive an Avensis so needs must.
It’ll be up for sale soon if anyone’s interested.

I quite often drive naked from the waist down, I drive an Avensis so needs must.
It’ll be up for sale soon if anyone’s interested

Fabric or vinyl seats?

Fabric or vinyl seats?

Wipe clean.

Fabric what do you take me for some kind of fetishist!?!?

If it means they don’t have to sit outside the school for 20 mins with their engine running so they don’t get chilly, I’m fine with it.

sit ……………………….. with their engine running

It’s time this became a finable offence for all cars that are ‘pulled over’ or parked.

The school run mums usually have big parkas and big bobly hats on with their engine running. If they cba then fine them. If it’s too much thinking they shouldn’t be allowed to drive a dangerous machine.

I drive naked. Always. I tried wearing clothes, but just lost any feel for the controls.

I reckon in about 18 months I’ll be inheriting my dad’s sheepskin car coat, I’ll make sure to check with kryton57 to find what car I’ll need to drive with it.
If only I hadn’t turned down his Loden cape.

At this time of the year I wear a Buffalo Special 6 with a Helly Lifa underneath for work. It gets put on indoors, and taken off indoors, at home. No way am I going to fanny around dragging the thing on in the car park at work, at around freezing or pissing with rain.
I don’t have heated seats, they’re cloth, inherently warmer than leather, but the heater warms quicker than the Octavia, and I just turn it down a few degrees once it’s warmed up.
It’s a twenty – twenty-five minute drive to work, so not even worth thinking about it.
Hats in cars, on the other hand…

Does the coat match your sunglasses?

(I doubt I’m the first but I n r a t s )

I particularly enjoyed cycling to work in the fog last week seeing the guy in a hi viz coat on in his car with no lights on

seeing the guy in a hi viz coat on in his car with no lights on

Has to have been someone from the bright clothes are better than lights thread.

Had a couple of VW caddy vans that took forever to warm up and when they did, the climate control would alternate between ice cold and surface of the sun whilst trying to get to 20 degrees c.
Was more comfortable to turn it down and wear a hat and coat.

don’t like wearing a coat in a car. Just uncomfortable, same with a suit jacket. All there is always a point where I will want to take it off and life is too short to pull over and to take your coat off. I’d rather sit there cold until the engine warms up and start getting hot air. But heated seats are a revelation. Always though they were a bit of a gimmick, but quickly becoming my favourite and most useful car gadget. I’d go as far to say you don’t really need the heater so much with heated seats. As people say on the usual home heating threats “heat the person not the room” the same seems to go with heated seats. Heated seat plus heated steering wheel must be a winning combo.

The wife never wears a coat int he car either. But she says its because she ‘wants to feel the benefit of the coat’ when she gets out of the car! I’ve given up on that one.

After swimming at the moment it’s a woolly hat, massive insulated jacket and over trousers.

Your swimming choice is a bit odd to say the least!

Notices thread on STW with link to cars.

Scans for big hitters.

Notices Trail Rat providing the definitive final word on the subject.

Leaves thread safe in the knowledge that the plebs have been educated by the self declared master.

1. If you’re on a short journey, wear what you would wear if you started at your destination.

2. Long journey, wear what’s comfortable for a long journey. (put clothes for destination on adjacent seat, or boot if more than one passenger)

3. If the above options are confusing, ask your Mum.

4. If you can’t drive.. see point 3.

5. if you try and post a sensible answer. Get a life.

Dear god, I hope OP was having a laugh

If you didn’t enjoy ‘Snakes on a Plane’ you should probably avoid coats in a car

What if it is raining or likely to be raining at your destination? that’s the main time I wear a coat – because (a) I quite like to be cold (b) I don’t usually want to get soaked getting into or out of the car.

It’s time this became a finable offence for all cars that are ‘pulled over’ or parked.

It is.

Not read all this but EVs change this a little. In a fossil fuel car you’re chucking a huge amount of energy into the atmosphere as heat, so to keep hold of a little bit of that has little/no extra impact. With electric you’re not, so you either use some extra energy or stick a jumper on.

Yes you can preheat while plugged in, which pretty much does the job. But you’re not always plugged in, and I rarely preheat if I’m not. Notable that you can get a lot more benefit in terms of feeling warmer per unit of energy in from heated seats than blown air. For me all the heated seats I’ve tried are too hot though, even on low, and I dislike feeling like I’ve pissed myself, so I only turn them on if what I’ve been doing outside has got me really cold.

That said none of this bothers me – I feel the cold less than many, so no coat for me but others might want one of they were in my car.

I imagine Alan Partridge using this as opening gambit to some BBC bods in the hotel bar.

“So lads, wearing a coat in the car…what’s the consensus?”

Can’t decide which is worse coat in a car, boots in the bath, mittens on a moped or tiara on trampoline. Bastards the lot of them.

Am I missing something? What’s the STW wisdom on this?

I’m with the OP on this.

I could accept it years ago when cars heaters failed quite regularly, but beyond me now. For the last few years I’ve commuted tp/around Edinburgh and on the bypass you’d see far more folk with them on rather than off – and if you’re on the bypass it’s not a 15 mins journey.

Going back in time I worked in Hull in the 80’s and the biggest taxi company ran Lada’s (imported into there) – in winter you always wanted a Lada taxi, stunning heaters 🙂

I imagine Alan Partridge using this as opening gambit

So did I. Think it’s time for me to accept that subtle satire is wasted here in 2020!

I bought a car that has glass things that you can wind down.
It’s even got one in the roof.

Can’t say it’s something I give much thought to but I guess I do drive in a coat if I’m wearing one anyway. Wouldn’t take it off when getting in the car, wouldn’t put one on to drive in.

As for EV’s, turning up the heat on my i3 does bash the range on a cold day but only if you want it really hot, which I don’t. Leaving it around 22 means the range isn’t really affected. AC doesn’t seem to make much difference tbh although I got the aux heater thing with it so assume that helps a bit?

So the manufacturers will really have to do something about the efficiency of heaters and aircon.

Electric heater is 100% efficient. Not sure what you’re gonna do with that.

Aircon is a heat pump that is also very efficient (moves more energy than it takes to run) but you need to take the energy to run it from somewhere. I’d suggest better insulation would be the way to go. And forget panoramic sunroofs (extra weight and poorly insulated).

Yes. No. Sometimes, but not other times.

The one thing I do insist on is, if the weather is not ‘warm sunny day’ I will at least fling a coat/jacket in the car. After our old Shitroen broke down on the drive back from the dealers and I had to stand on the side of the A14 slip road in 6 degree heavy drizzle & high wind waiting for them to come & sort it out I was very grateful for the thin waterproof I had flung in the boot of my Wife’s car that I remembered to retrieve before she went on her merry way.

Yes, I could have sat in the car but the close proximity of passing HGVs on the slip road (there was no hard shoulder; they had to go around the car) convinced me I was safer getting a bit chilly out of the car, than potentially getting a bit hospitalised staying in it.

Older drivers dress for the outdoors when driving because cars didn’t have heaters when they learned to drive.