Here's an interesting link on block heaters, found this a few years back. In praise of the lowly block heater - MetroMPG.com And this is linked near the bottom of the above page, "mini-experiment: cold start consumption...": Mini-experiment: cold start fuel consumption and warm-up time - MetroMPG.com
Mendel, Congratulations you have sold me! I just ordered a block heater for my PIP from a Canadian Ebay seller. I'll attempt a DIY installation when it arrives if it's not too cold in my garage.
I didn't dirty my hands with ours, it was installed during car purchase, and they saw us coming, price wise. ;( But it's doable, there's some how tos, here and elsewhere.
I installed the EBH from the top. It took a bit over 2 hours but now that I know where it goes and what doesn't need to be removed I could do it in under an hour. Tomorrow I'll try it as I need to drive about 75 miles in near freezing temperatures.
