Anyone bought the winter 1/2 car cover from Superskoda or similar? Also, what about grille covers for the upper radiator grille/bonnet?

 

http://www.superskoda.com/Skoda/FABIA/Fabia-I-99-07-winter-anti-ice-car-cover

http://www.superskoda.com/fabia/sportgrills/skoda-fabia-i-front-grille-cover

 

Interested in peoples' views and solutions to the winter problems of scraping the windows and warming the engine up quicker.

 

J.

I have seen something like the grills used on old land rovers when I was in the army years ago it just helps the engine warm up and stay warm when driving in very cold weather

Is in needed in the uk, no.

IMHO the grill cover is useless if the thermostat is working properly. 

I'd rather melt the snow/ice off than attach a sanding sheet to my paintwork. Any dirt under the sheet will be rubbed against the paint by the wind blowing the cover.

That's about why I don't use one, my car spends winter covered in a layer of grime no matter how often I wash it. That and straps and hooks rubbing against the arches.

 

If it looks like it's going to freeze overnight, I just tuck a sheet of plastic under the wipers and in the doors.

I have a heated windscreen

Not cheap once you factor in fitting costs, but it does the job.

http://www.heatedwindscreen.com/acatalog/skoda-fabia-green-heated-windscreen.html

I'd go for a parking heater (webasto/sirocco). It's a bit more expensive than the heated windshield but not only it heats up the car, but it also helps the engine when cold starting at - million Celsius. Shame on Webasto they didn't make one for the 1.4 mpi model. 

I have a diesel fired parking heater on my A6 and it only heats the water for the air in the heater matrix, not the engine block oil or water. You can get a thing called a Kenlowe Hot Start for about £200 if you have access to a 230V supply and that does heat the engine water or oil depending on which one you buy and where you install it.

The advantage of the windscreen is that I needed to replace mine for the MOT anyway and these days it seems that the windscreen excess is getting very close to the price of the windscreen (£150 on my last renewal) so I went with the heated windscreen which ended up being about £500 fitted with all the electrical work to wire it into the same switch as the rear heated screen.

A Webasto parking heater would be £600 just for the parts and then probably that again to fit it. You need the BIG Webasto heater because it's a big engine in a little car!

Edited 21 January, 201610 yr by wja96

I have a 4kW webasto on my 1.4 16v Fabia and it works great (can't make the remote to work though, only programmed at 7am / 3 30 pm to start). It heats the coolant, not the block, as you said. I leave the fan blower on 1st postion, it starts along with the heater and it pretty much does it's thing. It's usually running about 25 to 35 minutes, depends on how fast I'm drinking the coffee. At -15 to -11 C outside, I can get in the car and start driving wearing only a t shirt and the windshield never saw an ice scraper. This is how I got the car so I wanted to fit one of those on the second one, but all the Webasto sellers told me that it couldn't fit on the mpi version. I could look for a 230V version, but I don't really have access to a power supply in the parking lot, at home nor at work.

Edited 21 January, 201610 yr by Alexandru

I have a heated windscreen

Not cheap once you factor in fitting costs, but it does the job.

http://www.heatedwindscreen.com/acatalog/skoda-fabia-green-heated-windscreen.html

 

How is it wired up?

ive looked at these in the past and thought id just get another rear demister heated screen switch and wire it up to that, but put a little picture of a front screen isnted of rear

 

also how much was it with delivery?

How is it wired up?

ive looked at these in the past and thought id just get another rear demister heated screen switch and wire it up to that, but put a little picture of a front screen isnted of rear

 

also how much was it with delivery?

I have no idea how it's wired up. I know it's in two halves and each has power separately but beyond that it was fitted by a local glass company in Diss in Norfolk and the electrical bit was done at Norwich In-Car Entertainment (NICE).

It comes on with the heated rear screen switch so at a wild guess I'd say they ran a cable from the rear screen to turn it on and off at the same time and the power comes straight off the fuse box.

Without looking out the invoices I'd say it was about £350 delivered, £100 to do the glazing work and £50 for the electrical work.