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People just don't care about their vehicles, that's why. There are multiple examples of even diesels starting at -25°C without heating. All my cars have been gas and while starting them at -30°C required some magical actions (like turning on headlights briefly to warm the battery up or depressing the clutch if you have a manual transmission) they all started most of the time. No extra tools or devices were necessary.

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> or depressing the clutch if you have a manual transmission

What exactly does depressing the clutch do as compared to not doing it and starting the vehicle in neutral? Is it to reduce the engine load further? Or something else?

Standard gear box oil is 80W90, which at -30C (even at -20C) turns into a thick jelly. Even in neutral starter has to move gears in that jelly. So normally you don't want to release the clutch until engine is warm enough and stable, and even when you do release it (in neutral) you do it slowly, sometimes in multiple attempts to avoid engine stalling, like starting on a steep hill. I haven't tried automatic at those temperatures, but ATF is much less viscous, so it should be much easier on the starter at low RPM.

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