All modern cars should produce enough heat to warm the occupant within a couple of minutes. If it doesn’t then the thermostat is probably not working correctly. My first new car had a defective thermostat from day one. Not only are you not getting heat the engine is not warming up properly which causes damage. It’s tolerances are engineered around the temperature set by the thermostat.
Have you started your car in -30C many times? Especially if it’s been left in the porch freezing its rear end off since, say, yesterday? I can promise you it takes bit more than “a couple of minutes”, even with a working thermostat.
A Diesel fueled car is even worse unless it has some kind of extra heating for the coolant system or oil sump. Most new Diesel fueled cars sold up here have either an electrical heating coil in the coolant system or an extra Diesel burner installed.
It’s always that way…
I always use Celsius now, and have been having trouble following some of the posts that the USian Dopers have made in this thread.
The only Farenheit numbers I remember are that 68-72 is the range for our house thermostat, and that when it was 0 F or below, my Dad would give us a ride to school. 1 F or higher, it was walk the mile to school.
Ah, the innocence of southerners! 
Yeah, clearly they never lived somewhere where you have to put cardboard over the radiator to keep the engine temp up.
[rant] It’s those shovelware articles out of California or other cities or states that shut down when the temperature hits the freezing point of water, those types of stories that were stale in 1930 and that fill holes between car ads that should be burned at the stake: “Now is the time to check your battery.” Or “Now is the time to check the pressure in your tires!”
I came across one again last week on the web, linked from the Toronto Star Wheels section to yet another blah-blah recitation, this time out of Ohio, again exhorting everyone to never allow your car to idle more than 30 seconds because it’s plenty warm enough to drive after that, and let’s all save the planet. Even in winter, it pointed out.
The drone at the Star (newspapers closer to home are just as guilty) who linked to that crap should be shot. A 30-second-only warmup in weather like we had for weeks on end — every winter and likely will have again before spring — could very easily damage the engine and/or the transmission when oil flows like molasses, if it flows at all.
Toronto isn’t completely free of real winter, either.[/rant]
It really is.
As for The Lady’s car heater not warming up, I’m sure she knows the difference between a car heater taking a while to warm up at -30ºC and a car heater not warming up at all.
It is worse this winter for sure - but I didn’t notice until I took the other car for a drive.
I just got used to it.
Sadly, Max is on his last legs, and will be traded in this spring. Or possibly driven to the nice folks at the Kidney Foundation.
At - 7F (-21C) my car was producing heat within a mile of travel. I wasn’t being roasted out of the car but it was noticeable heat. 20 minutes into the drive I had to turn the heat down. Haven’t seen anything colder since owning it so you Canukes have my sympathies if you’re experiencing worse. I remember -20F in a car with a bad thermostat. It was useless. I HAD to warm it up to see out the windshield.
I think people who buy a new car just assume the thermostat works. I’m driving an anemic 4 cylinder and it pours heat out.
pLEDGED! Thanks Gorsnak! That is just brilliant!
I wish I could say me, but I’m regularly working at those temps at our remote sites… Pretty bad when the helicopter has to start up every 30 min or so to prevent it from freezing solid and since that’s my ride home, I’m OK with that…
In Ann Arbor the 70’s, when I was still living like a student but had my first job, in the winter my old car would usually break down so I’d hoof it to a bus (to another bus) to get to work. There was a bank on the corner I used to pass, with a big sign with the current temperature. The lowest it went was 9 F, so if it said 9, you knew without a doubt it was fairly chilly. To see HOW chilly, you’d have to spit. (requisite Jack London reference.)
White still works down to -20F. Below that, it works nicely as a kicker, and the rest of the wax comes off pretty quickly. I loved xc skiing in cold weather. One winter it got to -20F and stayed there for quite a while (very unusual for Ann Arbor), and I went xc skiing most nights after work. I told my wife the time to call the rescue squad, if I hadn’t returned home. A broken leg or even a twisted ankle could have been fatal. I did carry mittens and a down vest in a pack, but already wearing a down parka and full goretex shell, it probably wouldn’t have helped much.
Normally, I can xc ski for hours before I’m tired. When it was that cold, I was wiped out after just an hour or even less. What I realized is that normally, I’d ski like crazy for 15 minutes and then stop until my temperature was back to normal (5 or 10 minutes), rinse and repeat. When it’s that cold, a stop of 90 seconds was a bit too long.
That was at -20F, with no wind. No doubt it’s a walk in the park compared to -30F.
The coldest I’ve experienced was (again) -20F, in Leelenaw Peninsula, bt blowing steady 30 MPH wind off Lake Michigan. We had been XC skiing but it was just too cold that day, so we took a car trip around. With a pretty serious (500-fill) down parka and full gortex shell, down mittens, and probably two hats, I couldn’t stand in the wind for more than 5 minutes before I’d look for a building to stand behind (or the warm car to crawl back in!) I don’t remember what they reported for the wind chill.
You win one Internet.
That can happen at any temperature, which is why you’re supposed to always connect the cables to the dead battery first and the good battery second (and also, connect positives first, then ground to ground rather than battery terminal, but I use the battery terminal to get a better connection.) I saw that happen to a couple of students once as I was driving by. BLAM! and they covered their faces. I started to stop, but it was soon evident that nobody was hurt.
Five years from now, we’ll all be (in cold climates) be using the Magno-Plug, or…
…The What?
I’ll wait.
“Global TV Saskatoon” One of these words is not like the other. One of these words just doesn’t belong. 
I have to ask, what is about a plug that is slightly easier to pull apart that is so desirable? It looks to me like the end hanging from a car is going to flop around more than a standard plug end. The thing is huge.
Two main things. In extreme cold weather the amount of force needed to plug/unplug conventional cords is extremely high. Second, and this is the main thing, when you forget to unplug the cord (and eventually you will) it won’t result in one or the other ends being mangled beyond recognition.
It’s not much fun trying to replace the plug on your block heater cord when it’s -35.
makes sense. I bet snow freezes to it. Plugs often heat up at the connecting points. I hope it makes it to market.
In the meantime you can take a page from the aviation world and make a “remove before driving” flag and stick it in the grill so it’s visible.
The thing is, even when the heater is producing heat, it’s not just the passengers you need to heat up - it’s the interior of the car: the seats, the dash and console, etc. When it’s 30 below, those parts of the car just suck up the heat for quite some time.
Then there’s the steering wheel. Try holding a steering wheel that’s at 30 below. Even with gloves on, the cold steering wheel makes your hands really cold, which in turn makes you feel cold generally.
I’ve got an old Blazer 4x4 that is the go machine.
Got a block heater & I put 1500W electric heater inside on the floorboards set about ½ way and the interior is nice & warm, the windows are all clear…
& Bob’s your uncle.
Only turn the inside heater on about 10PM and off in the morning if there is no reason to get out & no precipitation is falling.
I’m not doubting you but at -7 F I still got heat fairly quickly. What I want you to take away from what I’ve said is that your car should produce heat quickly if the thermostat works properly. Unfortunately, you can’t recirculate it because it will frost the windows so as it gets colder it obviously takes longer because of the outside air. but anybody complaining about -5 to -10f temps should consider checking the thermostat. It has to seal completely and open at the proper temperature.
Sadly, there isn’t a modern version of the Southwind Heater that could be used on today’s cars. I don’t really need one but if I had a cargo van I’d seriously consider adapting an aviation gas heater.