The leaves are turning colour, Thanksgiving is behind us and the puck has dropped on the 100th NHL season.
It can only mean one thing: Winter is right around the corner. We all know what winter brings with it – snowfall, icy conditions and salt to help keep the roads clear and safe. Even though the salt helps make driving safer, it is no friend to your car.
“Not only can the driving conditions in a Canadian winter be horrible, they are also just brutal on your car,” says Megan Currie, Senior Marketing Manager at Armor All brand. “The roads are a slushy mess, and all the salt used to melt the ice can be corrosive on the body of your car. What’s worse, you track all that sloppy mess into the car with you, leaving an ugly, crusty residue behind.”
The weather conditions in winter also make it unappealing to stand out on the driveway, hose in hand, washing your car. But that doesn’t mean it should suffer months of neglect as it withstands the worst of winter.
Megan offers the following tips for keeping your car clean through the long, cold winter:
• Remove salt. There is nothing more damaging to your car inside and out than winter road salt. It is corrosive and unsightly, and causes physical damage to your body and upholstery. An industrial-strength carpet and upholstery cleaner with foaming action is perfect for cleaning the salt from the carpet and car mats in your car. It is also good for lifting ground-in stains from the other three seasons as well, including grease, oil and mud.
• A clean dash. Get rid of the last of summer’s dust with a thorough cleaning of your dash, console and doors. Take care of your dashboard and interior trim with a multi-use auto cleaner, and keep it clean and safe from UV damage with an interior protectant.
• Spring fresh. The temperature may be dipping below zero, but you can keep you car smelling spring fresh with an air freshener. Whether you prefer a vent clip or something that hangs from your rearview mirror, an air freshener will help keep your car smelling great.
• Clear windows. You can’t see out of dirty windows, and when your windows start to fog up even a little bit in the dead of winter — and they will — every streak becomes obvious. Restore the clarity to your windows with a specialized automotive glass cleaner.
• Preserve your seats. Leather seats are a nice option in a car, and you will want to preserve them as much as possible. Protect the leather in your car from wayward splashes and salt with a restorer and protectant that will rejuvenate and preserve your leather interior.
• Run it through a wash. When spring rolls around, you will want to ensure your car is free of rust and corrosion so that you can get back to giving it that custom shine car enthusiasts love. Give your car a regular wash in the winter, especially the undercarriage, to clean away any salt residue. For an added level of protection against winter’s worst, brave the cold for just a few moments and apply a spray-on wax, which can be applied to a wet or dry vehicle. Simply spray on the carnauba wax and enjoy a mid-winter high-gloss shine that also protects the clear coat on the paint.
• Tires & Rims need cleaning too. Whether it’s a coin op, or your local car wash, you can easily clean your tires and rims to help prevent salt and road grime from pitting the rims and diminishing the look and moisture in your tires. Before you turn on the water gun, or drive through the car wash, use a touch free tire and rim cleaner like Armor All Quicksilver Tire and Rim Cleaner and have the water do the dirty work for you.