Gearhead Guru Guide: How to Drive Safely and Prepare Your Car for the Snow and Winter Weather

Jan 25, 2025

On today’s edition of Gearhead Guru Guide, we’re sharing our tips for how to improve your safety and driving awareness during winter weather. With the addition of snow squalls, white outs, and heavy sleet or freezing rain to your commute, winter driving conditions can increase your likelihood of accidents and other vehicle headaches. Following these important safety tips and preparedness points is especially important for newer drivers who are still getting their bearings behind the wheel. Whether it’s sleet, snow, or ice, you’ll want to feel confident that you can control your vehicle and safely move out of harm’s way.

Always wear your seatbelts and ensure pets and children are properly restrained as well.
Let older cars warm-up from sitting for at least 5 minutes, and newer cars between 30 seconds to 2 minutes to prevent engine issues and allow your heat to kick in. Remember as well to maintain at least a half-full gas tank to avoid gas line freezes. If you experience issues starting your vehicle, you’ll want to check and test your battery; batteries have lower performance efficiency during cold weather as it takes more energy to start a car from cold temperatures.
Remove all snow and ice from the roof, trunk, and hood of your vehicle. Ice sheets and snowpiles can cause accidents and visibility issues for other drivers and pedestrians around you. Ensure that you do not hit the road until your vehicle is clear! Additionally, most law enforcement will issue tickets for snow and ice hazards like this.
Clean your car’s external mirrors, camera lenses, and other external sensors of snow. This will ensure you have clear vision on all angles of the road, especially with assistive technology which can help us see additional coverage areas for safety.
Thoroughly inspect your windshield wipers for damage and replace them as needed. It’s also a good idea to regularly top off your wiper fluid with a seasonally appropriate blend that can withstand freezing temps below 30ºF.
Remember to check your tire air pressure regularly. Cold weather causes the PSI to drop, and excessive heat can cause the tire pressure to increase. For every 10 degrees drop in temperature, you should make sure to double check your PSI as you may need to inflate them more regularly in chilly weather.

If at all possible, stay home and avoid driving in inclement weather such as snow, sleet, ice or similar. If it’s unavoidable and you must travel, make sure to fill your gas tank before hitting the road, and definitely do not drive distracted! That means keeping your eyes on the road, no texting, no phone calls, and keep music at minimal so you can focus solely on the road ahead and listen for any incoming vehicles or emergency services.
If you’re caught in a whiteout while on the road, pull over to a safe place with your hazards on, and don’t resume driving until conditions improve. Unless the situation is an emergency, do your best to keep the shoulder and emergency pull-offs cleared for emergency personnel to bypass any stopped or stalled vehicles. If visibility is low, consider putting on your hazards or high beams while driving to help others on the road notice you more easily.
Leave extra distance between you and other vehicles on the road. Inclement weather means decreased stopping distance time and decreased visibility. As a general rule of thumb you’ll want to leave at least 6 to 10 car distances between you, especially if driving at higher speeds during inclement weather (8 to 10 seconds distance, on average). Giving drivers around you a little extra room means less chance of an accident, reducing severity of unavoidable incidents when they do occur, and better safety awareness overall.
If you start to drift on ice or skid out, steer into the skid in the direction your back wheels are moving to avoid fishtailing. For example if the back of the car starts to slide to the left, steer to the left and it will help realign the vehicle and avoid spinning.
If you’re driving in messy weather, do not accelerate to try and avoid any incoming accidents or situations. Accelerating will increase your risk by reducing your ability to stop quickly. It’s better to drive slowly, cautiously, and maintain your cool. Two or more fast moving objects colliding, or a fast moving vehicle hitting an inanimate object are going to cause even more injury or worse. Remain calm, keep your vehicle slow and steady. Do not slow down speeds if driving uphill as this may cause your vehicle to slide backwards and lose traction.

Always make sure your phone and wireless devices are fully charged before you head out into bad weather driving, and be sure to have your emergency kit restocked with warm, dry clothing, towels, blankets, and other supplies in case you end up stranded.
Consider joining a membership to roadside assistance in case you are involved in an accident, break down, or are unable to get your car out of ice or snow. Roadside assistance can dispatch trained professionals to assist you with a tow or to pull you out of snow and ice quickly, efficiently, and safely.
Remember to stock your car with plenty of winter weather emergency equipment, and replace items as needed throughout the season: a bucket of kitty litter, a bucket of petsafe ice melt, a small snow shovel, a small broom, an ice scraper and windshield cleaner, jumper cables, flashlight, flares/LED blinking lights, first aid kit, emergency blankets, thick towels, a change of warm clothes, extra hats and gloves, a cell phone charger, shelf-stable foods, emergency medication dosages carried in your glovebox or on your person, a long lasting glowstick, portable battery bank, written/printed list of emergency contacts in the glovebox, a foldable step stool for larger vehicles so you can reach the top to clear snow/ice.