Not many places - and really not many big places in the US - need engine block heaters. Cold weather doesn't need special gasoline, although diesel fuel does ha

Not many places - and really not many big places in the US - need engine block heaters. Cold weather doesn't need special gasoline, although diesel fuel does have to be formulated differently (modern winter gasolines are formulated to meet various states' emissions requirements, not because it gels in the cold). I'm from the South, so I've never had a car with a block heater, but I've driven in temps down to 0 F/-17 C without a problem. They had been that low persistently for about 4-5 days. Perhaps I did untold damage to the car by not having low-viscosity oil, but it worked well for the four years I drove it and the two after that when my sister did (until she wrecked it), and it was seven years old when it became mine. 13 years for a mid-eighties GM car was pretty good. Given that the auto industry in the US and Canada was basically founded around the Great Lakes, I can't imagine that they wanted to sell things that wouldn't work in the cold weather of that region.