My '99 Outback has a switch on the console that turns on something...but I don't know what. It's the one that has an icon of a window and a wiper. I woke up this morning to a couple inches of snow on my car, and turned that switch on while I took out the trash, etc. Can't tell that anything happened.
...I did look at the manual, but it didn't really tell me what this thing does.
-John O