I’m surprised that the old Saab heated washers used heat from the radiator. I would have thought they’d be electrically-heated. The problem with using the heat from the radiator is you have to wait until the car warms-up before you can spray warm water onto the windshield, right? How long does that take? I live in L.A. so we’re always in a hurry!

Saab used to sell a washer fluid heater for the classic 900……….I wonder if the 9-3 has such an option (I’ll have to check)?

They did, indeed! It was a section of copper tube with a copper pipe which was wound around it and encased in plastic. Plumb it into the radiator top hose (IIRC) and the tubes to the windscreen was tubing and you got heated windscreen fluid. More effective for removing bugs and clearing frosted windscreens.

Saab discontinued this item around four years ago. It was a popular accessory, originally for the 9000 but also fitted c900, GM900, 9-3 and 9-5.

If I could get them, today, I’d have one on my Saab. It’s very chilly in the UK at the moment.

Being a lifelong Southern Californian I never could appreciate things such as engine block heaters, remote engine starters (though in the 80s 007 novels Bond had one installed to detonate car bombs linked to the ignition from a safe distance), or ice scrapers. But last week I was in Chicago for a training class and the weather was unseasonably cold. It was mid-January-type weather in November. Getting in my rental car (a Pontiac Torrent SUV crossover thingy, which was pretty ergonomically awful, but I won’t go into it) one morning with ice on the windshield I found myself wishing I had that option I’ve heard of on some cars: heated windshield washer jets. I’m lazy and don’t like scraping the window out in 18 degree (Fahrenheit) weather! Another Saab accessory product I think I’d own if I lived in a cold climate and owned a 9-3 would be that windshield ice scraper that stows in the 9-3′s “smart slot”.

It does look like Saab is really stretching trying to find items to put in a press release. As John from Elkparts mentions in his comment above, I saw this scraper years ago. It’s not new. But at least they’re not putting out a press release for the ice scraper in April or May, like when they debuted their XWD system… Leave it to the Swedes to design the world’s best ice scraper.

On a somewhat related note, at the L.A. Auto Show last weekend I saw that in the Porsche shrine (they rent-out this HUGE room to themselves every year at the L.A. Auto Show as L.A. is Porsche’s biggest market) they had a whole storefront where they were selling their overpriced Porsche Design products. I always liked Porsche Design products (but could do without the logo on everything). If they were to begin manufacturing their folding sunglasses from the 80s I’d buy a pair in a second! I wish Saab would have some nice equivalent. The stuff I’ve bought from Saab Expressions looks nice on the webpage but when you receive it it’s generally poorer quality than what I’d expect from Saab. It’s also got “made in China by X company exclusively for Saab” on the tags and such. Saab merchandise is generally more affordable than that of say, Porsche, but I’d pay a little more for quality. That said, some of the Saab stuff I like (like the Saab bicycle) are grossly overpriced.

Everybody from Audi to MINI to Cadillac were selling their merchandise at the show but Saab was not. I remember in previous years Saab were though.

is there a price on that scaper?

There is.

It is a BIG one!

Don’t look it up unless you are sitting down. This is a gift for the man who has everything except, maybe, a credit card that he destroyed clearing his windscreen of ice

Elkparts has been stocking Funk-Is since 14th December 2006 – that is almost two years before their press release

GM must be in severe financial difficulties if they are now trying to flog ice-scrapers!

It is the best ice-scraper I have seen, though!