You and your lease car during these three days of snow

A recent AA survey found that two thirds of drivers use a scraper, but only 13% of people clear their cars of ice before they start to drive. It’s clear that young drivers are the worst, with up to 21% admitting that they will willingly drive with some windows frozen. Young drivers also make up the highest proportion of drivers who admit to using hot water. According to the BBC Weather we are in for some more snow and freezing conditions, so we have given some thought to how best to defrost your car, whether owned or leased, in a morning. 

    Hot water is a risky strategy on a frozen morning, a sudden change in temperature can easily crack glass, something which cannot be repaired . Also, the water will cool quickly and leave you with wipers frozen to the screen.

 Consider the following, use a scraper whilst your car is running, with the air recirculation and switch on the heated rear window and heated mirrors. Remove any snow to reduce cooling. Stay with your car when its running, the theft risk is more than just loosing your car,  it may even be that your insurance company will not pay out if your keys are in an unattended car.

Do not use your wipers until your blowers are warm and the ice on the windows has turned to water.

Warming an engine up seems like an obvious thing to do. But it is the period at which a car uses most fuel, runs worst and in deed it may be bad for your engine.    Petrol and diesel engines need to warm up differently, the engine block of a diesel is a much heavier unit than petrol and needs more warming, so it needs some throttle applied and ideally driving.

In conclusion, the most efficient and quickest of all seems to be a quality screen cover that you remove and put in your boot for later, allied to a soft brush for snow removal and a good scraper.   Scrape the windows, remove the cover, fire the engine and go.  Its more fuel efficient, its safer and you wont break any glass.