Readying Your Car for New Jersey’s Winter

As September ends, you may be feeling the air freshening and the temperatures dropping to create our most beloved fall season. While you’re enjoying the beautiful foliage and temperate weather, however, you should also keep in the back of your mind the need to prepare for the inevitably savage New Jersey and northeastern winter. In this article we explore several ways you can ready your car for what’s to come.

Be ready for longer everyday trips

Even the most familiar and everyday journeys can get extended in the winter, so start readying yourself for an earlier departure for the school run or other journey. You’ll have to be driving more slowly and more carefully, and the light will disappear much faster so it may take you longer to find places you’re going to for the first time. In short, start giving yourself more time.

Get ready to switch to winter tires

You may think driving on all-season tires is fine, and for most of the year you’d be right. But in the winter, there is only one choice – winter tires. The northeast winter is harsh and unforgiving, and can create some of the most dangerous driving conditions in the country. You need every advantage you can get. Winter tires will give better traction; the tread is designed specifically with brutal winters in mind. All-season tires are for temperate zones where the extremes of summer and winter rarely touch.

Check your fluid levels

The extreme temperatures of summer and winter do a number on your car’s vital fluids — engine oil, transmission fluid, power steering fluid etc. — after the long summer, during the short fall season and before the long winter, make sure you take your car to the dealership for a checkup of those crucial fluids.

Check your brakes, steering and suspension

Again, these crucial systems are often the most negatively impacted by cold weather, and they are not exactly what you’d call DIY maintenance projects. To ensure safer journeys and greater peace of mind, get these things checked out by the professionals before the cold season sets in.

Prepare a winter emergency kit

If you take longer trips, especially where you will be on roads passing through empty land between cities, you’ll need to be ready for the worst. Pack emergency supplies in your car just in case you find yourself stranded and unable to rely either on your car’s heating or quick-arriving help. Your kit should include: blankets, extra warm clothing, band-aids, antiseptic, aspirin, antacids, non-perishable food items like crackers, nuts and dried fruit, a cell-phone charger and backups to any regular medication you need.

Stay safe in the winter months! Bring your car to the dealership to perform any pre-winter maintenance, and let us help you get ready.

Samantha

Samantha hails from Virginia and is a proud wife to a retired Deputy Sheriff and mother to two amazing little boys named Jack & William. A veteran product reviewer; Samantha has been reviewing products for 8 years and offers high quality product reviews with original photography.