Diesel powered center console heater?
 

A fellow MB diesel enthusiast in a work truck from a nearby town followed me home when yesterday he saw my 240D and wanted a closer look, after chatting a little about the car he mentioned something about an older MB diesel model that had a dial located in the center console where you would dial in the amount of minutes to fire up the diesel powered heater that heated both the cabin and the coolant. Anyone hear of this or have a pic of what that looked like?

Yup, they are called webasto heaters (brand name), I've also heard them referred to as fuel burning heaters. They were available on some models from the factory in cold climates (my e290 has one) and also as aftermarket installs.

My Touareg has one of these... great feature!

-J

Very interesting, thanks for the info!