I made a huge mistake! I am a recent immigrant to the north and this is the first time I’ve encountered snow and ice.
The first time I drove in snow, I was proud of how well I did. I took it slow and careful and I ended up making it home safe. However, I understand that the city salts the roads and I have seen what salt does to the vehicles around here, it rusts them out. That’s why I decided I should rinse my car off, when I got home, with the garden hose. This was a huge mistake. In the morning, my car was frozen solid to the driveway. This included the doors; they were frozen shut. There was ice all over the car. My neighbor, saw my predicament and came and helped me. I can tell he was trying not to laugh but he came out with a big space heater and an extension cord and we use the space heater like a large hair dryer to thaw my car out. It took a long time before the ice melted enough for me to move the car into the garage. There, we left the space heater running in order to get rid of the rest of the ice and to let the car dry off a bit. Finally, we both went into my comfortably warm house and warmed up again. I was freezing. But thankfully, my furnace works really well. no, I will not be rinsing off my car in below-freezing temperatures ever again. I learned my lesson.