Cup Warmer for Cars Question

Factual Questions
1

I was thinking about this while I was driving all around town over the holidays. I buy my $4 Starbuck’s Grande whatever in the morning and before I can drink half of it it starts to cool down to the point of almost being undrinkable, within 20 or 30 minutes. :mad: Yes I drink slowly. Even with that funky cardboard sleeve they provide you it still cools down fairly rapidly :rolleyes:

Why isn’t there a nifty heating unit built into my car’s cup holder that will gently keep the temperature warm as long as the car is running? They have one in my seat to keep my butt warm. Is this a huge engineering challenge? :dubious:

I bet there’s already an aftermarket gizmo that I can get but wouldn’t a built in cup warmer/cooler be a nice feature to have?

2

There is an aftermarket gizmo, I have one. Plugs into the cigarette lighter, cup sits in the base. I don’t know how much they are, I got mine as a gift.

Some cars have these factory installed as an option. I saw them when I was out looking at Buicks in September.

You can also get a heated cup that also plugs into the lighter socket. Problem with that is, you have to pour your drink from one cup into another. Messy.

3

Really? GM sells them? I’m shocked. My wife’s $40,000 Lexus SUV doesn’t have one and I don’t remember it being an option. :dubious: Unfortunately there’s really no place to put the aftermarket gizmo that won’t result is hot coffee being spilled onto the carpet… :rolleyes:

4

Well, my last car had one (Honda Civic), until I asked about it at the shop and they fixed the heating ducts. :stuck_out_tongue:

It would have been OK if I were a coffee drinker, but I’ve usually got a Coke or water. Warm cup holders not so good for those.

5

Well, it was on a Lucerne I was looking at. Possible the dealer put it on and not GM? Sure. I didn’t check into it too much as I didn’t care.

I didn’t care for the car either. I was only looking at GM’s because I have over 3 grand in credits on my GM Mastercard.

But nothing GM has out right now thrills me.

So I bought a Mustang GT. :cool:

6

Dodge offers them in the Charger and Magnum, I’m not sure if they started offering it in MY2007 or MY2008.

7

Why not bring your own insulated coffee mug into Starbucks, and have them put the coffee in there, rather than the paper cup with the sleeve?

8

Because that’s not nearly as cool as cup warmers. Besides, they’re dual function; they can keep your beer cold, too. :wink:

9

That’s a good question. I know that Volkswagen has/had that cooled glove compartment so you could stick food in there and it’d keep relatively fresh. I’m thinking there just isn’t that much demand for a heated/cooling cup holder to make it worthwhile. I’ve also wondered why I can’t have a cooled car seat. I figure some air vents in the back to allow the AC to come out would do the trick nicely.

10

Most luxury cars nowadays have air conditioned(with compressors and coolant and all that jazz, I understand) seats. Mercedes convertibles also have an “air scarf”, basically vents on the seats that blow warm air around your head when you’re driving around with the top down. Heated steering wheels too.

11

You can. Volvo, Lexus and some other brands off seats with fans in them. On the Volvo at least, it draws air from the front area of the seat, and sucks it through the seat, and out the bottom of the seat. Very comfortable on a hot day. I think the Lexus seat may hook into the AC system, but IMHO after using the vents in the Volvo seats, I don’t think that is really necessary.