Good news! The UK division of Renault’s Romanian brand, Dacia, is trolling automakers (like BMW) looking to make heated seats a subscription service by giving out an ingenious hack. On the first and second of February in three British locations, Dacia will be giving out branded hot water bottles dubbed “Heated Seat Saviours.”
The sudden, unexpected appearance of a hot water bottle was a source of confusion in our Slack channel, so here’s how this wonderful bit of kit works. Basically, it’s a flexible rubber insulated vessel. Unscrew the bung, fill the vessel with boiling water from the kettle, screw the bung back in, and the rubber construction will let you enjoy heat for a fair period of time. It’s great for winter wrenching, cramps, shoveling snow, staying warm during a nasty storm, and pre-heating unheated seats.
According to Dacia, “The ‘Heated Seat Saviours’ will be available for drivers, who may not feel comfortable forking out additional costs for a feature already fitted in the initial purchase of their car.” Oh, the shade is real, and really fitting for the Dacia brand.
If you’re not terribly familiar with Dacia, it’s a Romanian carmarker that started out making Renault models under license before producing its own budget-oriented and seriously weird cars like the Lăstun city car. In 1999, the circle of life completed a full revolution as Renault acquired Dacia, and the Romanian brand was soon realigned as Renault’s budget arm. Since the Renault acquisition, Dacia’s made great headway in Europe because it turns out that a lot of people simply want a car.
Dacia customers don’t need something terribly fancy or fashion-forward, they just want something cheap, reliable, and offering good value, and are there ever a lot of these customers. British publication Autocar reports that in November, the Sandero hatchback was the second-best-selling car in all of Europe, just 388 units behind the Tesla Model Y. Given Dacia’s following and ethos, it’s not surprising that the brand is poking fun at subscription services from brands like BMW. In fact, here’s what Luke Broad, Dacia Brand Director for the UK has to say about this initiative.
Our ‘Heated Seat Saviours’ are a bit of fun, but they do highlight the direction the wider industry is going regarding subscription-based access to features. Asking someone to pay extra to activate factory-fitted equipment certainly isn’t Dacia! We believe in simplicity, offering our customers technology that makes driving more convenient and comfortable with features included in a car’s initial price. Whether consumers view heated seats as essential or not, our commitment to value and a fuss-free ownership experience means that we will only ever ask them to push a button to enjoy them.
Of course, this could all backfire spectacularly if Dacia eventually pulls a U-turn on subscriptions, but for now I’m all for this fine example of trolling. So, if you’re in England and want a Dacia hot water bottle, you can pick one up on Feb. 1 or 2 from Dacia Staples Corner in London, Dacia Manchester in, er, Manchester, or Dacia Swansea in – you guessed it – Swansea.
(Photo credits: Dacia)
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I am an old school car guy. Screw paying monthly fees for stuff you buy.
“The only subscription I am willing to pay for is my subscription to Autopian”!
I spent a year in Morocco on a project and they gave me a Dacia Sandero for my vehicle.
5 speed and a 1.5L diesel.
No turbo.
Power windows for just the front, via a common switch in the center console.
It did have A/C.
I was not impressed.
I assume these are not very common in the US from your detailed explanation of something I used quite often as a kid. We call them “Bettflasche”, which is simply bed bottle. SUPER great if you catch a cold or are in an old house with limited heating!
They’re extremely common, and can be found at Walmart and nearly every pharmacy or drug store.
Nice troll.
Next up: Trunk Monkey gets an upgrade to remote starter!
Thomas i very much like how you have knowledge of things before your time.Or maybe you’re learning as you go? Either way well done.
It makes the predominately middle aged members here feel at home
I am the Great Cornholio, I need TP for my Bunghole.
Came here looking for this, leaving satisfied.
BOW BEFORE THE ALMIGHTY BUNGHOLE! Bungholio…
BUUUUNNNGGGGHOOOOOLIOOOOOIOIOIOIOOIOOOOOOOOOO!
Good news! This means that heated “seats” are now available on the Dacia Sandero!
Beat me to it.:)
Dacias should be sold here as Mitsubishi
The new Mirage 😀
They are linked, too, albeit tenuously.
It was necessary to explain what a hot water bottle is and how it works? Now I feel even older than when I have to explain to our more inquisitive grad students that those weird built-in hinged receptacles next to the elevator on each floor have been there for decades and are called ashtrays.
David and I imagined a “hot water bottle” to be like a thermos, or maybe just a regular water bottle with hot stuff in it. This….wasn’t what we were thinking!
Yeah, that’s a misnomer as it’s clearly not a “bottle” per se.
But calling it what it is – a bladder – might hinder sales a bit.
Earlier examples were indeed bottles made of rigid materials such as metal, ceramic, or glass, so my guess is the already familiar name carried over with the introduction of the flexible rubber versions.
:nods:
My folks have this massive one that holds maybe 3 gallons, made of aluminum.
I’m fairly sure that my grandmother who lived in a house without central heating in the UK used hot water bottles to warm up the beds in the evenings. I also distinctly remember thick ice on the inside of the windows in the mornings! This was in the mid/late 1970’s in Wolverhampton (near Birmingham).
That’s my house situation today, isn’t it normal ?
Thanks. I feel old now.
“…those weird built-in hinged receptacles next to the elevator on each floor have been there for decades and are called ashtrays.”
Are you talking about the ones with a button to dump the ashes to a larger receptacle below the initial “ash-catcher”? It has been forever and a day since I’ve seen one of those! Gotta love college campuses that don’t ever remodel.
Precisely that. In order to fulfill my obligation as an educator I’ve just now walked down the hallway and taken a photo of one for the benefit of today’s youth:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52648986666_1fcd3bcf76_c.jpg
Senior in college here. I did not even know these existed. After the descriptions on here I am going to spend a few hours researching them, and will try finding one of these in the wild.
It’s been all electric heating pads since the 80’s!
Although my family uses a sock of microwaveable ‘beans’ to relieve menstrual cramps. Same idea, but no water.
Slight error, Thomas: Dacia is part of Renault, not VW.
That was me. Not sure why I thought it was VAG!
It’s probably because you’re surrounded by VAG in Deutschland at the moment.
I’ve been to Romania, and seen the clearly Renault-based Logans everywhere. Come on, DT!
I find Dacia’s model names such a random mix of seemingly unrelated words. Duster (which I like, both the name and car), Logan, Sandero, Lodgy, and Jogger. What the hell is a Lodgy?
I kinda love Lodgy?
Know what else I love? Renault Kangoo!
I hear you on the Kangoo (which is as good as the Citroën Jumpy), but I can’t stand the Lodgy name. It just looks and sounds wrong. And while I appreciate cheap 7-passenger non-SUV cars, the Lodgy’s looks also bothered me.
Kangoo is my favorite new wave band.
I tried to translate Lodgy from Romanian to English. Got nothing. Maybe its just Lodge with a ‘y’?
I see what you did there…
Confusion with Skoda, which is Czech, was taken over by VW and is their budget arm?
Wait, the Model Y is the best selling car in Europe?
Only cause they deliver them by batch once every 3months…
I was going to say, that sounds like they’re burying the lede a little bit. That’s not what I would’ve expected to be the best-selling car in Europe or any other continent.
In November. It was 32nd overall.
“Good news!”
What???
Anyway…
Moving along to something completely different.