Is YOUR car ready for winter in Weymouth?

I bought a car in August and passed my driving test earlier this month. So I’d only been on the roads for two weeks when the snow hit Dorset on Friday night! I could not believe I was crawling at 15 mph through a blizzard down a country lane at 6.30pm in second gear, sliding about like the car was on ice skates. And when I got to my friend’s house and woke up in Maiden Newton the next morning, there was two inches of snow on the ground! 

Luckily my boyfriend had been nagging me for ages to get my Astra ‘winterised’ so I wasn’t caught completely on the hop. I had bought a windscreen scraper, engine coolant/antifreeze and a can of de-icer from Halfords in Dorchester a fortnight ago. I even had a sleeping bag and a high-energy chocolate bar in the boot, in case of emergencies! 

I bought my Y-reg car from the Dowsetts Garage in Wyke Regis and they are normally happy to check things out for me - I was a bit worried about my tyres recently, so they had a quick look on the forecourt the other week. Nothing was out of the ordinary but it’s worth making sure, with a second-hand car. Even if I do look like a clueless lady driver...

My boyfriend checked my engine coolant levels the other morning and went to top up my oil - and found it was nearly dry! Which was a bit weird as the oil was checked in a routine service a couple of months ago. So he poured in a litre and gave me strict instructions on where to buy oil and how to top it up. I ignored all of this and took the car to Lanehouse Vauxhall in Bridport during my lunch break. There, for a fiver, she was hoisted onto a kind of crane where a mechanic peered into her bowels and found a lot of oil - but he was not sure if  it was old or new. She’ll need a clean up soon and then I can start keeping an eye on any leakages. But for now she seems OK. And the nice man topped her up again.

I wasn’t sure about the antifreeze levels so ended up buying a DIY testing kit from AutoBitz in Bridport. But my boyfriend managed to break that by poking a key into it, so he was forced to buy me a new one from Halfords in Weymouth. This very easy to use kit consists of a pipette that sucks up some droplets of coolant. Coloured balls will float in the tube to indicate your antifreeze levels are sufficient - or sink if they’re not. Happily, my tester kit showed the Astra has got enough antifreeze in her coolant to get us through cold snaps of up to minus 30 degrees! Brr!

My advice during this unpredictable weather is always keep your fuel levels high and plan your route in advance if you don’t know where you’re going. Dorset County Council is reassuring motorists they are prepared, with the fleet of 26 salt spreaders fitted with snow ploughs and sent out on all of Dorset’s salting routes to grit the county’s 680 miles of salting routes as a precaution against ice and snow. Officers will be closely monitoring conditions and prepared to clear snow if necessary. 

Spreading salt across the winter treatment network will help stop ice from forming, as salt lowers the temperature at which water on the road surface will freeze. It is also enough to melt light snowfall. However, it is important never to assume a road has been salted – and even treated roads can have slippery patches. Motorists should take extra care when travelling – the advice is to reduce your speed, keep your distance and avoid sudden acceleration or braking. Peter Finney, Dorset County Council Cabinet member for transport, said: “For salting updates, winter driving advice and information about whether council services are affected by the weather, go to http://www.dorsetforyou.com/winter”