How to Keep Your Ford Vehicle in Great Shape this Winter

Winter is upon us, but there is still time to get your Ford vehicle ready to face the coldest months of the year and their harsh conditions. Here are a few things you should know:

Use appropriate winter tires

While winter tires are not mandatory in New Brunswick, their use is encouraged because of their increased safety and performance over summer or all-season tires. Indeed, winter tires provide a superior level of grip on snow and ice due to their more aggressive tread pattern, but this is also true on dry concrete and asphalt. Indeed, winter tires are made from a more flexible rubber compound that stays soft even at very cold temperatures. On the other hand, summer and all-season tires tend to become very hard once the thermometer drops past 7 degrees, which renders them much less effective at transferring the vehicle’s motion to the road. It is also important to keep in mind what kind of driving you do when purchasing winter tires as someone who regularly tows on icy roads will need more aggressive tires than someone who mostly drives on salted city streets.

Keep up with maintenance

Having all due maintenance done before winter ensures that your Ford will be reliable and safe all winter long. Indeed, winter can be quite tough on vehicles due to spells of extreme cold as well as heavy use of road salt and abrasives. When you visit our service center, our qualified technicians will be able to perform all of the maintenance your vehicle requires, such as oil changes and coolant testing, something which is very important to do before winter, and yet often overlooked. Another important thing to check going into winter is the condition of your battery as it will be heavily solicited over the next few months, and all of your efforts to prepare will be moot if your vehicle refuses to start as soon as it gets truly frigid.

Protect your vehicle’s paint and body

In order to keep your Ford looking new for a long time, it is important that you protect its paint and bodywork by cleaning it regularly over the winter months in order to prevent an accumulation of salt, calcium, sand, or other de-icing abrasives that can damage the paint finish and cause corrosion to start prematurely. If you regularly drive on gravel roads, it might be a good idea to invest in paint protection film, which our detailing department can apply over the most sensitive areas of your vehicle in order to prevent the formation of rock chips and rust. Before and after winter are also great times to have a professional detailing job done in order to fully remove contaminants and attend to imperfections that might have formed despite your best efforts. Here again, our detailing department is a great choice to have this work performed since they know your Ford vehicle better than anyone.

Contact Us to schedule a service appointment!