Every Michigander should know these important tips.

Now that the weather here in Michigan has finally started to feel like winter, and the snow on the ground has started to accumulate. Driving in the snow and ice has become a necessary evil. Michigan isn't like other states; when it snows, nothing shuts down due to our salt trucks and plows (and if it did shut down we would be at home for six months straight). A lot of us have either forgotten how to drive in the snow because it has been so long, or are from out of state (why you came here instead of staying in your sunny state is beyond me) and have never driven in the snow. Of course, if the weather is extremely bad, use your judgment and simply stay home. 

 I teamed up with my brother, Jonathan Griffin, who was on the winning champion Dodge SRT Viper race team among other car related notches on his resume. Needless to say, he knows his stuff. I teamed up with him to come up with the following easy tips to drive safely in these winter months.

1. If you drive a stick, ease onto the throttle when taking off from a dead stop and start off in second gear to keep the tires from spinning. If you have an automatic like me, don’t gun it on the accelerator; it will cause you to slide.

2. Don’t stop going up a hill. It may seem like it would be better to go extremely slow but you can risk getting stuck that way; in certain situations it is actually beneficial to apply more pressure on the accelerator than you normally would so you don’t have to have your passenger get out of the car and push you (chances are they will hate you forever).  

3. Let your car warm up a little bit before simply driving off. Chances are you will have to wait anyway and scrape off your car, but if for whatever reason you’re still in a hurry even a couple of minutes of letting the engine run gets the oil circulating.

4. Be smart and keep a scraper and brush in your car at all times (this is coming from the Michigander that never even took hers out of the car in the summer). Keep some of that blue window washer fluid in your car at all times because you never know when you may run out if you are somebody like me who doesn't exactly check. Know if you have AAA and how to call them if you do get stuck somewhere. An extra pair of gloves and a hat in the back seat never hurts, and always keep your gas tank as full as possible (I never like to go below a half tank in the winter but especially don’t go below a quarter).

5. If you don’t know how your car is going to react in the snow and icy road conditions, take it someplace close by like an empty parking lot to get a feel for it. Try stopping to see what the brakes are going to feel like. Or practice “evasive and defensive maneuvers” as my brother calls them while you’re there.

Most likely you drive a car with ABS (unless it’s an oldie—and I don’t mean the abs like a 6-pack) and if you slam on the brakes the pedal will pulsate which is indeed normal, I asked. Jonathan says that what you feel under your foot is the ABS module actuating, so get used to it and don’t be startled by it when you’re driving on the road. ABS is there to keep the brakes from locking up during a heavy braking situation, so that you can steer your car. So appreciate that ABS people. 

6. Jonathan is a big believer of winter tires, which make all the difference. “The rubber compounds are different on winter tires compared to summer or even all season. The different rubber compounds allow more traction on colder pavement.  The tires also have a tread pattern that allows them to “claw” their way through the snow,” so if you can put different tires on your car, it doesn’t hurt. He added that there have been studies on the stopping distance with winter tires and they have been proven to stop a shorter distance in the cold weather than any other tire. Which brings me to my next point… 

7. Leave room when you stop! Leave room around your car from anything else when you’re driving. Pretend there is a giant plastic bubble around your car if you have to. This is not the time to tailgate another car. Leave double what you normally would leave because that extra space is going to be the difference between you getting into an accident and arriving at your destination safely.   

8. When you start to slide there are a few things you should do (besides remain calm because if you make a rash move it will most likely make things worse). If you drive a stick, make sure you downshift. Look around for an “out” or a safe place where you can try to get to if your car is not going to stop sliding. This could be a median or a shoulder, but hopefully there is one. Grab your handbrake, pull it up, and turn the wheel and the car will usually slide in the direction you need (but Jonathan warned to use that sparingly); “that will turn an understeer situation into an oversteer situation, and an oversteer situation is much easier to control.” And we like to be in control, don’t we? 

There you have it, folks. We all know that winters in Michigan make us look like this:        

Coming from somebody whose car was frozen shut and in order to get in and start it I had climb through the back embarrassingly, driving in the winter isn’t fun. So remember to drive safely, or when in doubt just stay home.