Chorlton

This is for all you peeps already waist deep in snow. Someday, I'm going to be living up in the mountains and the last time I saw thick snow was back in the early 80's! So, does anyone leave their car out overnight? What do you need to do to protect it - are battery blankets and block heaters needed?

scrubbedexpat099

A good battery and most importantly good snow tires. Deep snow is not a major problem, the biggest problems we have is when it thaws and freezes, then you need studded tires.

Down to -10 last week and we had no problem starting the truck, if you are talking a lot lower, then I am sure the more extreme measures are needed.

Going to be 60 today, that's CO for you.

CarlM

In Alaska we have friends who plug their cars in to the mains at night to keep the engines from seizing!

(Any Brit expats live in Alaska by the way??)

jamjar

I used to live in Upstate New York, north of Syracuse. Only had battery problems once when we'd left the car out in the driveway overnight and temp went down to around -30f. Many people had remote starters so that they could get their cars warmed up and windows defrosted etc. Someone else already mentioned tires. I didn't have a four wheel drive vehicle but with good snow tires I had few problems. Keep a thing of kitty litter in the car and also make sure you have an emergency kit in case you do get stuck.

Chorlton

-10 would be about the lowest I would expect - so no heaters needed?
and that was without a garage? hmmmm

scrubbedexpat099

Normally it is in a garage, but there have been many times when not.

-10 here is not that bad, nothing like as cold as -10 would feel in the UK.

I have plenty of friends who leave their cars out year round with no issues.

I did get a new battery recently, Costco, not that much, but the old one was at least 5 years old.

The dog sits in the snow in the shade at well below 0.

smeg

This is my third winter living just north of Boston, I drive a fairly standard front wheel drive auto (Altima), and have had few problems on the roads in snow or ice ... the trick is to go slow and steady! We hit -10f last winter and my car has never not been outside on a drive or road, never had a problem starting.

Biggest issue I faced last year was the deep snow on my car bonnet blocking my remote unlock, so I couldn't turn my alarm off until I dug it out

Carry a snow shovel, an ice scraper, and get used to digging

Crispyuk88

A decent battery is a must! I recommend optima persoanlly.
Lock de-icer for all those that don't have keyless entry.
Wiper fluid that can unfreeze windsheilds up to a certain temp.. highest you can find.
Snow tires, although not needed will help dramatically in road grip, handling!
Also in a car, all wheel drive and a manual car will be alot easier to drive in the snow. Engine breaking instead of foot breaking can prevent locking up the wheels

Snow sucks

fatbrit

Just this week in the car I had to put the air on low around midday as I was getting a touch hot, followed by the heating on low in the evening as I was getting a touch cold. Most disconcerting it is! It's much easier in the summer where you just have the air on full all the time.

Russ&Jayne

We live around the mountains of Vermont and don't have a garage or anything fancy for the car apart from snow tires. We couldn't survive without snow tires. Where are you gonna be living?

Eskimo

I had to put the heated seats on this morning for 10 mins (at 6am)

MrDub

Yeah, I did the same (at 7am !) and a bad smokey smell filled the (new) car. Did a search on VW problems and it seems seats going on fire isnt all that unusual...so will have to put up with my small luxury in life now for a while.

Manc

snow tires?

remote starters?

garaged overnight?

heating pads?


a little melodramatic
whatever happened to an ice scraper and brushing the snow off?

anotherlimey

I had to turn the air con off

Leslie

Winter driving advice:

Don't do it.