Five hacks that will make driving easier in winter – and could save you £1,000s

THESE hacks will make driving easier this winter and potentially save you £1,000s in fines.

Driving in winter can be more challenging because of snow and ice, as well as reduced visibility to to rain and fog.

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Car experts at Select Car Leasing have come up with a list of hacks that will make driving easier this winter.

Firstly, keeping your car in an insulated garage overnight will keep the vehicle from reaching freezing temperatures.

Unfortunately, not everyone has a garage, so the cheaper alternative is covering your vehicle with a car cover instead.

If you do have a garage, the car experts recommend placing heated blankets across the vehicle’s interior the night before.

It helps produce heat inside the vehicle and minimise the defrosting process in the morning.

Drivers can buy a heated blanket for around £14, and it costs approximately 3p an hour to run.

Most people think that the recirculation button is only used to circulate cold air around the vehicle.

But another tip is that it can also help circulate hot air – speeding up the defrosting process.

Remember that driving with a misty or iced-over windscreen could cause and accident and end up with you being fined £1,000s.

And it is worth knowing you can buy heated covers for your seats.

They include a thermostat that will heat the seat to an ideal temperature before turning it off.

For those with children, stocking up on hand warmers is a good idea. It will keep your kids’ hands warm during the drive.

You can activate your hand-warming packets around 10-15 minutes before getting into the car and place them on the seats before the kids get in.

Social media is full of car hacks, but remember that sometimes the users who upload these videos are not car experts.

For example, a quick and easy car defrosting hack has gone viral on TikTok, as drivers demonstrate defrosting their windscreen using a carrier bag filled with hot water.

However, Graham Conway, Managing Director of Select Car Leasing, warned: “Putting warm water – as opposed to boiling water – into a sandwich bag before sealing it and dragging it slowly across the face of the window is a relatively safe hack. 

“But if you make the mistake of using red-hot water, you’re asking for trouble.”

“Just like pouring boiling water directly onto a windscreen, the rapid change in extreme temperatures could cause the glass to crack.”