This is not really a question as much as a random thoughts thread. I'm going to add a fuel powered auxiliary heater to my car to finally get rid of the TSI's problem with taking forever to heat up. It's also going to be used for pre-heating the car when it's parked. This solutions uses quite a lot of power, and this combined with my short drive to work means I'll have to come up with a solution for trickle charging.

I already have a Defa 4 amp intelligent battery charger, one of these to be precise:

... and it's possible to unplug the 12V cord with the clamps and replace it with a number of accessories. For example, one of these:

My plan right now is to snip the ring connectors off, splice in a longer wire and run it from the battery to somewhere close to the upper radiator grille. The charger fits nicely between the crash beam and the radiator even with the bonnet closed.

And yes, turning on the heater with a simple SMS from anywhere in the world will be awesome. Also I can't wait to be able to SMS the car to ask what the temperature is when it's parked at home and I'm in another country.

Sounds like an awesome idea.

How do you find the DEFA??

I went into a store and bought it. Or rather, I sell parts for a living and just bought it from work.

Car pre-heating is a huge business in Scandinavia and Defa has about two thirds of the market. Calix the remaining one third. Defa recently bought a company that sells battery chargers and started to compete with Ctek and the other smart charger manufacturers. I just like the Defa because of the cable management. I try to keep my car tool box neat.