On Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:06:58 +0000, Appin wrote:
In those parts every sump has a sump heater

Yes - or a block heater (sump for warming oil, block for warming coolant).
Sump heaters which just attach magnetically are cheap and pretty common
around here (not much use if you have a plastic sump

No chance of a battery working at -30 degrees Celsius.

That's wrong in my experience; we get *lots* of winter days where it's
that cold here and have never had a problem. Further north though and I
expect it could be down to -50...