Well, time to try the new link.

1.  Battery Blankets.  Check your local VW dealer.  ALL new VW's come with
Battery Blankets.  I don't know if they are powered, or not, but I have
seen battery blankets powered off the battery itself.  They draw ever so
little off the battery, keeping the battery warm, and in top shape in the
winter.

Of course, I don't suppose that I'd like to leave it for a week or more
between trips, but there you are.  VW sees fit to use em on the new cars.

2.  I grew up in Northern Minnesota.  That's where they get REAL winter.
It gets cold sooner, stays cold longer, gets more snow sooner........etc.

All my life I grew up with Block heaters.  If you were cheep, you put in a
radiator hose heater, but we all knew they were fools, or just lazy.  When
it got down below, oh say, -20 �F, we would plug our cars in an hour before
we would leave.  That warmed up the oil in my Beetle, and the water in
dad's Dodge/Ford/Toyota enough, or whatever he had at one time or another.

At any other time, we started the car, scraped the windows, and drove off
gently.  If there was no frost to scrape, we waited maybe a minute at the
most, time to buckle the seat belt, and off we went.

We ran those car's a LONGGGGGGGG time.

m2c  (my 2 cents)

Ch
'89 SyncroBeast Vanagon
'87 16V GTI        ---   love those blizzaks.
'80 850 Yamaha Special
'87 16V GTI w/ hale damage - parting out - body gone, parts remain
'89 16V GTI w/ toasted motor
'86 Scirocco (8 valve w/ auto) - SO's - now w/ it's own hale damage

Prior Lake, MinneSnowta  -  soon, real soon - puleeeeeze