Subaru heater hoses? 1 meter total? Protected from the elements in the
engine compartment. Vanagon heater hoses? 6 meters total? Hanging out
in the breeze. Are your heater hoses insulated? If not, this summer,
get thee some 1" foam pipe insulation, crawl underneath  and insulate
them. Betcha it'll knock at least a mile off the 'we got heat' distance.

(My diesel takes about 6 miles at highway speed to produce noticeable
heat. The 1.9 gasser? About 9 miles.)

Jim

On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 8:33 PM, Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@gmail.com
 > complained:

> My wife's Subaru Outback's heater is ready to put out some serious
> therms in about 3 minutes of drive time. The temp gauge comes up
> quickly, whereas the temp gauge in ol' Mellow Yellow needs another 5-8
> minutes of driving in freezing temps to really start to creep upwards
> and for the heater to start doing anything interesting.
>
> I'd like to think that the difference is due to the awesome efficiency
> of the WBX engine . . . I'd like to think that, but something tells me
> that a 2006 Subaru engine is a tad more efficient.
>
> So, does anyone have any idea why the 1.9L engine is so sluggish
> compared with the Outback's engine when it comes to making hot water
> available to the heater core? Mrs Squirrel gripes about how long it
> takes to get warm air to come out the heater and I'd like to have some
> highly-technical answer to respond with. You know, baffle them with
> BS?