Makes you cringe huh?
 

:rolleyes: I'll bet that it just gets great gas mileage...

I guess if one could afford the car, one is probably not too worried about the price of gas.

If one could afford to throw away that kind of money, you mean.

I mean, really - is it that much of a pain to sit in a coldish car for a few minutes, and let it warm up as you drive it down the road? Is it really too much to ask people to brush the snow off their own damned windows, rather than melt it off using wasted gasoline?

Oh, I just noticed - It's a Buick - made by Government Motors.

Some cars do not warm up in a few minutes. My tracker takes almost 8 minutes of driving before there is any appreciable heat coming from the vents. I have to carry a towel in the car because defrost only works once the heater core gets warm.

Also when one has a small baby remote start is a great tool to have. I will bear the cold for how ever long but no reason to let a baby bear it too. There are only so many blankets you can wrap a child in and still buckle a car seat in securely.


Don't get me wrong... just like with most technology there is a great purpose but more often than not it is abused and it becomes wasteful.

I saw this commercial. I was more taken by the whole "my phone can do anything!"

I believe babies are actually more capable of dealing with extreme cold than full grown humans.

One the one hand, people want their spiffy smartphones to do anything, like unlock and start their cars. On the other hand, these spiffy smartphones can easily be stolen. Yah, convenience is just great, isn't it?

Do you have a kid? I'm not trying to butt heads or say you're wrong but honestly I couldn't take my kid out in a frigid car just to save a little bit of fuel and feel okay about it.

I dunno... my two boys appear to not have been affected too much by cold. Then again, it doesn't get all that cold here in Ohio, where a cold snap is charitably defined as temperatures below 20 F.

Now, where I grew up, in Fairbanks, AK... that's a different matter. Only a fool would set their kid in a cold car at 40 below.

I'm only 16 so no kid.

My information came from the story of Jim and Jennifer Stolpa and their 5 month old baby, Clayton. They survived a week in the cold wilderness. the only reason the baby survived was do to a special ability that babies have to maintain their internal body temperature. it's a survival mechanism left over from our ancestral days here on earth.

That is good to know if ever extenuating circumstances happen

For some reason, I have a propensity to memorize random facts. They come in handy quite often though :thumbup:

Given an unprotected baby can die of hypothermia at just 20 degrees Celsius (about 68 degrees F), no. (One such case happened here, recently)

Yes, the chances of revival after flash-freezing are better than for an adult, but since babies have less mass per surface area, they start suffering from cold a lot sooner than we do. Even in mildly cool weather, a baby's fingers and toes will start getting painfully cold long before you or I would even notice it.

That "survival" mechanism is the baby entering the third stage of hypothermia more easily than adults, which slows down the metabolism. But actually relying on that to keep a baby alive is like relying on your ability to vomit out poisonous food every time you accidentally eat a toadstool in the wilderness. Nice to have, but don't push your luck.

-

That said, that's still an egregious waste of gas. From just before landing to debarkation to claiming your luggage to actually checking out of the airport, you're lucky if you can make it out in under twenty minutes.

I'd be looking closely at who Buick partners with to provide system security in that app.

You might get off the shuttle bus to find a snow-free empty parking space.

I'm not bothered by this at all, it's just the future happening and it will run its course. The worst thing that could possibly happen is for nothing to change and nothing to make any progress.

As for adding these features to your own car, Crimestopper makes something like that. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the company GM contracted with for this feature since their infrastructure and wireless contracts and such are already in place.

Nothing like a TSA strip search in a cold airport because you were using your cellphone on a landing approach. At least he probably has heated seats to warm his kiester back up.

LOL! At least the Buick would be nice and toasty warm!

An electric block/coolant heater plus a hair dryer or space heater in the cabin is arguably better, provided you have a place to plug in.

Oh, and yes, cringeworthy!

Remote starters have their place. -10˚F windchill isn't particularly cold, and when it is really cold some vehicles really should warm up a bit before they move.

My big problem with remote starters is when you really want to use them (-40˚) the vehicle probably won't start anyway without a bit of finesse.

If it's only -20˚C the vehicle will probably be drivable by the time you scrape all your windows.

I wish that systems like the Webasto and Eberspacher/Espar fuel-fired coolant heaters were more common (and lower cost, because $1500 ain't cheap) here in North America.

MUCH less fuel usage than idling the engine, zero engine wear, and they even circulate the coolant and heat the interior in some configurations.

I've got an Eberspacher out of a 1957 Beetle (minus the lines and fitting on the gas tank). It's hard to get anyone to work on them—liability issues. Want it?

I may still have a Borg-Warner underdash unit for the Type II.

They don't move at swap meets very well.

Edit: Oops. Space heaters, not coolant heaters.

Unfortunately, wrong fuel type for me.

(And, the ones from back then were the ones that got fuel-fired heaters a bad reputation, I thought.)

Oh, and yes, I was talking about coolant heat, not space heat.

It's soo difficult to use a block heater. More effective: easier starting, instant heat, more efficient fuel use.

Way behind in the sequence,
But you are right, it's all about Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) or brown fat, plays a major role in thermo regulation, infants and children have heaps and you lose it as you get older, probably more due to attrition (use it or lose it) because we always keep ourselves wrapped up in centrally heated houses and remote start vehicles.