As Scandinavian automakers, Saab and Volvo had their fair share of innovations to deal with wintery conditions. However, these days, the former is defunct and the latter is making relatively mainstream automobiles. In fairness, so is Skoda, but the greatest automaker from Czechia still has one unique winter feature that more automakers need to adopt.
If you’ve ever lived in a cold and snowy climate, you know the excruciating pain of dealing with frost on a windshield. You can’t just pour hot water on it, and you can’t use the wipers—you’re lucky if they’re not frozen in place. More often than not, you’re stuck simply scraping the ice with whatever you have handy.
Thanks to harsh European winters, Skoda’s product developers are very well aware of this problem. To that end, they’ve ensured drivers won’t be caught without a scraper when the first snows hit. That’s because they tucked a neat little ice scraper where you wouldn’t expect to find one.
If you walk out to your Skoda and find the windscreen covered in ice, you needn’t worry about scraping with a library card or scrounging around for something in the house. Instead, you can just pop open your fuel door (or the rear hatch on some models) and slip out the nifty little ice scraper that Skoda included from the factory.
The scraper features some nice design touches, too. These days, Skoda tends to make them bright green so they stand out. If they’d made them black, you’d probably own the vehicle for 20 years before you even realized it was there. Plus, fluro green is just a cool color regardless.
[Ed Note: I’m not sure the fuel door location is ideal, as this can often be frozen shut after an ice storm. -DT].
The scraper largely flies under the radar, but it did make the New York Times when it showed up at a press event in 2012. It’s unclear precisely when Skoda first started including them with vehicles, but it appears to be a relatively recent innovation. Supplier Plastika noted it won a contract to produce them for the Skoda Rapid in January 2011. Notably, the scraper also includes extra features: a magnifier and a tyre-tread gauge.
Nobody really wants to have a random ice scraper rattling around in the trunk if they don’t have to. Skoda instead included this essential tool with the vehicle, so it’s always on hand and you have a tidy place to stow it. It’s a great example of an automaker trying to make its customers lives easier.
Beyond that, it’s there for safety reasons. You’re more likely to drive with a clear screen if you’ve got a scraper on hand. Skoda also notes that drivers might not see pedestrians in bad conditions if their windscreen is frosted over. By having a clean, clear view of the road ahead, they’re far more likely to avoid a dangerous incident. The added benefit of a scraped screen is that it allows the wipers to be far more effective at keeping the screen clear as you drive along.
The ice scraper isn’t the only piece of weather-related equipment that Skoda offers, it’s just a particularly unique example. The company also sells the majority of its vehicles with standard or optional door-mounted umbrellas—something you really don’t see a lot of outside of Rolls-Royce product. Heated screens is also a popular option on many models, with metal layers or wires embedded in the glass to keep fog and ice away.
We’ve featured Skoda’s unique innovations before; their wiper washer bottle with an integrated funnel is a particular treat. It’s something of a company tradition. Skoda has been touting the “Simply Clever” tagline since 2003, applying it to everything from removable interior lamps to self-deploying door-edge protectors.
What I love most about Skoda, though, is that it doesn’t hide these achievements—it celebrates them! Nothing stresses me out more than trying to report on some neat innovation, only to find that nobody at the automaker thought to photograph the little, intimate details that matter so much. Skoda does this so well, and I applaud them for it.
These days, so many automakers have been swallowed up by joint consortiums, and diversity in the car population shrinks under these conditions. However, even as it lives under the shadow of the Volkswagen parent company, Skoda has continued to maintain a charming character all its own. That ought to be celebrated—ice scrapers, umbrellas, and all!
Image credits: Skoda
Wouldn’t the glove compartment or center console be a better location?
I guess the thinking is that if you put it away wet, it doesn’t matter if it drips on the inside of the fuel flap.
Some of the early to mid ’90s 3-door JDM Nissan Pulsars and NX Coupes had Nissan-branded umbrellas stored in the B-pillar. I had a couple of these cars with the umbrellas still in place in NZ, so this isn’t just a Rolls or Skoda thing (we have been officially importing used JDM cars since late ’80s / early ’90s IIRC).
It matches the color of the diesel all so you can scrape your windshield w/ diesel residue!
Like a lot of auto enthusiasts, of course I have affection in my heart for Skoda despite the fact I’ve never even seen one in real life, let alone driven one. Even the fact that they’re part of VW (a company that’s left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth after owning several of their products over the past few decades, to say nothing of dieselgate) hasn’t managed to take the blush off of the warm feelings Skoda gives me. 😉
I guess it might have started when that loud big oaf with initials like those of Jesus Christ reviewed a Skoda Yeti, but maybe it predates that. Since then, I’ve watched many reviews of Skoda vehicles and while some seem more or less just like VWs wearing different clothes, others (like the almost mythical Yeti) deserve their accolades IMO.
Imagine an America where we could more easily import, register, and insure whatever we want (within reason) so long as we were willing to accept/deal with parts/service availability issues if what we had was locally uncommon. I’d have to have had at least one Yeti (diesel/manual please) by now, and probably a Jimny and late-model Swift too.
The fact that I’ll probably die w/o ever having known the joys (and potential horrors too) of Yeti/Jimny/Swift/kei car-truck/etc… ownership makes me a bit sad. 🙁
All cars should have electrically heated windshields.
Instead of having to wait for a car to warm up before the defroster does a half assed job of defogging the windshield you press one button and 30 seconds later it is defogged, longer if you have ice on the windshield, but not much longer.
The only issue with that is that windshields would cost twice as much to replace. Been there, done that with my Range Rover L322 that had a heated windshield.
A windshield that costs twice as much to replace vs a windshield you can’t see out of well during the winter of on account of it being fogged up, but it costs half as much.
I know what I’m picking.
I just picked having no winter and moved to a place where it never gets below 50F.
Your AC bill yearly is probably higher than the extra cost of an electrically heated windshield.
I like snow.
Somehow I hardly ever pay more than $150 a month for electricity living in Phoenix, AZ. I don’t keep it super cold in the summer, because I like being comfortable and warm. I grew up in the northeast and I hated shoveling snow, driving in the snow, and seeing what snow and salt did to old cars. Y’all can keep that shit.
Honestly it’s probably subsidized, though you do have nuclear there.
I would gladly take a few more months of ice and snow if I never had to deal with temperatures over 75⁰F.
A place that never gets above 75F sounds miserable to me, I’m happiest at 80-85F. I keep my house at like 78F in the summer, it’s nice.
“You can’t just pour hot water on it”
But you can pour *warm* water on it. Just below body temperature works fine. Warm enough to melt the ice, not so hot to crack the glass.
It’s *boiling* water that’s the problem
Just below body temperature, huh?
I’m surprised I haven’t seen Bear Grylls innovating a unique solution in that regard…
Still bad idea. OK, if it’s barely freezing it might work, but in colder climates that water just freezes elsewhere. Also the glass melted this way fogs up instantly and re-freezes. Happens in car washes all the time.
So scraper is the way to go, no need to play with water. Anyho getting the water is more of a hazzle than scraping a bit.
Also if one want’s to skip the scraping, 2kw accessory interior heaters llike Defa’s are great. Here in Finland they are power by same heating cord as block heater. Add that to covered parking lot and you don’t have to scrape no matter how cold it gets. And you make life lot easier for the engine too.
There are a handful of mornings here in Tucson where it’s gotten cold enough the folks who park outside need to scrape their windows. Maybe half have a tool to help. Many of the remaining just wait for the heat to get good enough. But a few actually do use the plastic card (credit card/shoppers card or something). It’s hilarious.
My go to is actually a blank rectangular plate you’d use for an electric junction box. An outlet or switch plate also does great (as long as you make sure the screws are out), they cost like a dollar, are hard to break and can fit anywhere nicely
Friend has a VW with a heated windshield. Doesn’t bother him, but I notice it every time I ride in it.
And what’s that blue cover by the fuel cap for (haven’t seen a modern diesel car, so I’m guessing it’s the urea filler)?
You are correct about the blue cap. AdBlue is the brand of urea fluid
I hate the ice. Last time I tried to use a store discount card, but could only get 10% off……..
banger comment, underrated
What’s an ice scraper?
I think Saab did this first. At least on the ’03-’14 9-3 they had this “smart slot” beside the shifter in the center console that had different accessories you could swap in and out. I think 90% of them just have a business card holder, but you could also get a hidden cup holder (to match the 9-3’s *4* other hidden cup holders), or a little hidden ice scraper.
Cool, but definitely for warmer climates with only rare ice. In places with real winters, you’d want something long-handled and specialized.
And there’s only one scraper for the job. This bad boy has held up for 15 years and still looks brand new
It’s fine. The best bit with the longer ones is that they have brush to wipe out the snow first from whole vehicle and also they do not get lost so easily as they are bigger.
Huh, the Skoda funnel caps are available on the Jungle Site, 2 for $10 or so. May check dimensions for fitment….
OK Update… these fit on all my cars. Soft rubbery material will stretch to fit most. Fit perfectly on my Toyotas (after cutting off the factory clip). Not so great on the MDX due to clearance, these are large and a bottle tight against the fender is a compromised fit. Tested on the Corolla, a car that always spilled and no mess. 8 of 10, would buy again.
I think this is actually an innovation that comes from somewhere with somewhat mild winters. In anywhere with serious winters the scraper never leaves the car.
I came here to say this
Stay away from polar circle !! That’s the solution !!!
Yeah, and it’s nice being able to put the scraper away where you don’t have to worry about it being wet after use, plus it stays relatively intact ‘n’ sacrosanct. The ice scrapers that people leave in gloveboxes, door pockets, on the floor, or in the trunk inevitably get their scraping edges utterly and completely compromised, not to mention how there’s the occasional hazard of finding out the hard way that the scraping edge has grit embedded in it SKREEEEE!
My brother recently bought a Skoda Superb. He is not a car guy, didn’t know any of the secrets, but I got his son really exited when I showed them the icescraper first, then the wiper wash bottle cap and finally the umbrella hidden in the door. “wow, only Rolls Royce has that, and now we have it as wel”.
What does the NAFTA label signify in that pic?
Diesel
I wish it meant “Built in North America” so Skodas could be sold here.
All this scraper talk begs the question why can’t manufacturers install a defrost/defog system on the windshield similar to what many cars have on the rear window? If regulations say they can’t have anything in the driver’s line of sight, how about at least something around the edges to make scraping the rest easier?
I’ve thought about this too, surely you could design integrated defrost wires thin enough to be barely visible.
But also the front gets all the rock chips and would be much more expensive to replace every few years
Ford had that with InstaClear, mentioned below. As I understand it repair costs could be a big sticking point, but now probably a wash with all the camera and assist systems that also require pricey windshield replacements. I think it’s popped up again in some Fords again in recent years. Not sure anyone else has it proper or just heated wiper parks, I’ve seen Honda & Toyota advertise heated windshields but most posts say it’s actually just the wiper park.
Lewin mentions heated screens right under the umbrella-in-door picture.
I briefly rented a car with that system in Germany and found the reflections of headlights and streetlights off of the wire grid to be somewhat distracting. Hopefully they’ve gotten better since then, but definitely not a perfect solution either.
I found I got used to it after a few weeks of driving a car with the wires in the front and stopped noticed them.
Until I’d have a new passenger in the car point them out, and then I couldn’t help but notice them for a few days later.
But they work fantastically for fog/light ice.
So he does! I missed that. But so far as I know, nothing like it is offered on American cars currently. Bummer.
If you live where real winter exist, you should have a full size snow brush and scraper combo. Try reaching the center of you windshield without getting your jacket and pants covered in road spray residue on the fenders.
Little hand scrapers are for inside you windshield.
One of my jobs was at Pratt & Whitney Canada, or just Pratt for short. In French, a scraper is a “gratte”. ID badges work great as a scraper, so there was a nickname for it in winter:
“La gratte Pratt”.
Though, both the long scraper and the gratte Pratt were useless in 1998 when I came out to my car in the parking lot and it looked like this:
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/reliving-the-great-ice-storm-of-1998/1465460
I had the foresight to pack a rubber mallet with me and chipped the door surround to get in. Followed by sitting listening to music for an hour with the heat on full (no social media to consume back then!). At that point, I was able to get out and slide the ice off most of the car.
Agreed on the “full sized scraper and brush required” position, but then again, I grew up in the mountains in CO. Plastic give-away scrapers are ok if you just have a little morning frost on the glass, but are useless against 8+ inches of wet snow followed by a hard freeze. For that you need real tools that give you leverage.
You can often tell who’s from the snowy places, because many of us flip the wipers up away from the windshield when we’re expecting ice later on. It keeps the wipers from freezing to wet glass and prevents accidentally snapping off the wiper arms from enthusiastic scraping.
Then again, some of us have garages. Few things make me feel as smug as hearing the “skritch skritch skrrrrritch” from my neighbors scraping off the ice on a cold morning, knowing that my windshield is dry and warm because I actually use my garage to store cars.
We get freezing rain 4-5 times a winter here in Montreal. Always an orchestra of skritches when you head out at the same time the shops lets out and 2000-3000 people are scraping away!
It sucks having a garage that you have to share, because of course the cheaper car gets put outside in the driveway while the more expensive car gets to stay inside in the garage. It sucks even more when said cheaper car is yours. This is why I keep a USB rechargeable heat gun, ice scraper, and isopropyl alcohol in my car. And sometimes even more isopropyl alcohol in the garage for when the door handles are so frozen I can’t even get to the tools inside.
I’d sit and my car and do that even in 2025.
“Ridged for her pleasure?”
I have an idea for storing ice scrapers.
It’s called a glove box…
Sorry it’s a shit Monday.
Not a great idea if you also store any documents or literature in there, because the ice scraper will be wet after use, and wet things and paper aren’t great together.
Mine goes beneath the driver seat.
Grew up with them in glove box. Never an issue. Always dried off with rags before storage. YMMV of course.
BTW my old man used to keep them under his seat til they started to either get broken from the kids feet stomping them, or tossed out the window.
Oh, the joys of not having children! ;-D
The best decision The Bangles ever made was to rework their song, “Shit Monday” to something more radio-friendly.
My ice scraper is about 3 feet long, before I extend the brush. Glove box? Fuggetaboudit. That’s what the “way back” of the station wagon is for.
Grew up in CO.
And did the same as you. But ours had the wood sticks, which were invariably broken by some “mishap.”
How does yours extend though?
Plastic sticks now?
Telescoping aluminum handle, wide scraper with a brass blade on one end, plastic brush and squeegee on the other. Tough enough to use as a whacking implement on ice, but still easy on the paint. Worth every cent of the $40 or so it cost.
Where in CO? I grew up on a farm outside Mancos, between Durango and Cortez. Spent plenty of time around Silverton/Ouray/Wolf Creek also. Tough winters, but the San Juans and La Platas are magical in the summer.
Access to skiing Purg, Telluride, Hesperus and Wolf Creek (not to mention the backcountry and Nordic skiing in the National forests) took away some of the sting of bad winter weather too.
Estes Park. But also skied and been almost everywhere to ski, except in your area.
After I finally get my hips replaced will try Telluride, etc. as soon as possible. (on the bucket list)
The area you are from is so beautiful, as is most of the state.
Our (wood) ice scrapers always broke, usually the result of beating siblings with them. Your’s sounds great for intended use, and as a weapon.
BTW, I have a couple ice scrapers that my Dad sent us from Colorado. They have lived in the glove box for 20 years, just for laughs.
Then we got blasted with 10 inches snow, ice here on the Gulf of MEXICO!!! (sorry never gonna call it some stupid name.) a while back. They were very helpful…Thanks Dad.
Step 1 – Figure out how to get electronic/flush door handles to work under a sheet of ice.
Step 2 – Browse infotainment screen down three menus to open glove box…
Step 3 – Remember to clear ice off of external sensors and cameras
Step 4 – Give up and stay home…
Related . . . It boggles my mind how many neighbors park their cars in their driveways and have to deal with ice/snow on their cars when they have garages. The practice of storing $5k worth of seldom-used stuff while leaving your vehicle which costs tens of thousands of dollars exposed to the elements and requiring you to do work in crappy weather before driving away seems like a poor allocation of resources.
I think at least half of my subdivision houses have their garage with stuff that they cannot park inside or just one car instead of two. I use the whole garage and my whole driveway for cars only lol
That’s how it is at my house. We have a 2 car garage filled with someone else’s immobile project car and a crap load of tools.
Two I can think of near me where the garages are packed full of cardboard boxes and other random garbage while an SQ8 and a TLX-S bake in the sun all day. When I was a kid my friend just never finished moving in. They had a 3 car garage full of cardboard boxes they just never unpacked after the move, despite living there for years.
My garage has no power, and faces an alley, so if we get a ton of snow I’m not getting either car out of it anyways. The alley isn’t paved, and ends at my garage, so it’s also never plowed, so it’s just a big drafty sorage pod until I get an extra ten grand to wire the thing for power and buy a small tractor with a snow plow.
Even worse where I lived in West LA where people would have the wheels/mirrors/lights, etc removed from their German/Japanese luxury vehicles because they were parked on the street or in the driveway rather in the
garage/she-shed/yoga studio/personal storage facility.You can actually make the numbers work in LA where housing is easily north of $1k square foot if you actually use the garage as a gym, studio, sports bar, WFH office, etc. We were the only people in our South Bay neighborhood who parked both of our cars in the garage.
America, what a country! (Said in a Russian accent)
Hollywood David Tracy doesn’t need to worry about icy windshields in Sunny SoCal.
I wish more cars came with what Ford called “Insta-Clear”, an electrically heated windshield. It worked really well on an 90’s Conti I used to drive for work.
As for the scraper, well, there are about 17 of them in a kitty-litter bucket in my garage. All of the family cars carry one year-round, because if you take it out in June you’ll end up needing it just a few months later.
Insta-Clear was awesome! Dad had it on a Town Car.
I think I read somewhere that Ford had the patent for that and refused to licence it out.
I always keep a scraper under the drivers seat, snow broom on back floorboard Dec-Feb. Keep a couple in the mudroom too. Winter travel tip – pack a scraper in your carry on bag, you will be amazed how few rental cars have them!
Glad David mentioned the fuel flap freezing closed, happens a few times a year here in PA.
In the 1990’s I complained to Hertz that my car didn’t have a ice scraper. The guy at the counter comped the cost of the entire rental.
Nowadays, Hertz would likely call the police and have you arrested for taking the ice scraper from the car that Hertz staff previously removed while cleaning the car…
Yep.