In December, I put some good snow tires on both cars: Gislavics for my wife’s Honda Odyssey and Pirellis for my Jaguar Sovereign. We had no trouble driving on the backroads to Pennsylvania in December despite the snowy weather. And some of those hills were pretty steep! As a family, we ask God to keep us safe no matter where we go. But we were especially thankful for safety in the recent snowy weather.
As I was driving to Pennsylvania and back, I thought of a lot of tips to fill this article, but most were a bit sarcastic due to foolish driving on the part of others on the road. For instance, when you dim your high beam headlights, wait until you have passed the other car before flicking them back on. Common courtesy isn’t very common, I guess. Another tip involves AWD/4WD vehicles. Having that capability don’t make you impervious to slipping on ice. And lastly, it is okay to drive below the speed limit when conditions require it. Just be safe!
If you would like to read some common sense about winter driving, check out Erin Riches’ article on Edmunds.com entitled, The Basics of Driving a Volvo in the Snow. The journalist gives several obvious but often ignored pieces of advice such as…
- Spend the money on snow tires.
- Slow and steady wins this race.
- Don’t rely on the brakes.
- Get yourself some long underwear and a good pair of boots.
Those are some good ideas no matter how advanced the AWD system in your car is. But take a look at the rest of the article. It’s a good read. It will probably give you some extra confidence for the rest of your winter driving.
Drive safely!