Winter is here for good this time.

Winter weather blew into our area over the last couple of weeks. Daytime high temperatures just below freezing, with high winds and a combination of powdery drifting snow, and wet teflon. Naturally this means that everyone around here promptly forgot how to drive in snow conditions and the accident rate went through the roof. I've said it before on this blog, and I'll say it again : winter tyres. Don't mess around with all-weather tyres if you live anywhere with a decent amount of snow and cold roads - just do it. This year I'm sporting two-wheel drive, having given up all-wheel-drive for the weight and mpg advantage. So this morning I had my first proper test of a moderately chunky SUV with 2WD and snow tyres, on packed wet snow from a standing start going uphill. It passed with flying colours. As I quietly made my way past all the other cars who were nicely polishing the road to a glossy black-ice finish with their summer- and all-weather-tyres on the same hill, I noticed the traction control light flicker on a couple of times, but it was nothing dramatic. The super sticky rubber compound, aggressive tread and plentiful siping on the tyres was doing it's job nicely. Seriously people - if you've never driven on modern snow tyres in the snow, it's a revelation.

Finding an alternative window cleaner

After the dismal performance of Armorall's customer service, I've been looking around for a suitable alternative, and I stumbled across this : Lifter-1 ProGlas. I'd never heard of this particular company before but that seemed like an opportunity to try something different. What a pleasant surprise. Their product is an aerosol but once it's been shaken up, it sprays a relatively thick, gloopy foam that sticks to the windows pretty well. A quick wipe with a cleaning cloth and a buff with a dry cloth and the inside of my car's windows are spectacularly clean again. It did a sterling job of cutting through the plastic vapour haze that builds up after a summer of being parked in the sun, and it shifted all the goop from various placements of my GPS suction cup too. It did the job quickly, with very little fuss, and the after-smell was not at all objectionable. If you're in need of a glass cleaner for your car, give them a try and let me know what you think. I really liked the job it did on my Honda which is why I'm giving them the free plug.