If your vehicle has seen better days, now might be the perfect time to take advantage of a new or used car price guide to help you find a great value replacement.
After all, conditions on the roads are getting worse as wintry weather sets in and at this time of year, it’s especially important that you have access to a reliable motor.
As well as using car valuation services to help you pick up a new set of wheels, it may also be a good idea to get some driving advice.
Top tips
Recently, Which? offered some tips to help road users stay safe over coming months.
In general, it’s a good idea to avoid journeys in bad weather, the organisation noted.
About this, it stated: “Winter has well and truly set in now, with flooding in some parts of the UK and snow and ice forecast.
So what can you do to make sure getting from A to B is as safe as possible? Before setting off in adverse conditions, it’s worth asking yourself if the journey is really essential.
If it can be avoided that’s normally the best course of action.”
Check tyres
However, if you must make a journey, it noted you should check your tyres.
According to Which
Water depth
It can also pay off to research the ground clearance of your vehicle. Which? pointed out that cars with a higher ground clearance are generally more suited to driving through flood water and it recommended checking the depth of water before trying to drive through it.
One way to do this is to park up and watch other vehicles go through. As a general rule, it’s inadvisable to enter standing water that’s deeper than six inches.
In addition, when travelling through water, you should take it slow. Which? remarked: “There is often a temptation to drive through flood water as quickly as possible.
This is not advised and could cause internal damage.” Instead, keep a reduced speed and try to maintain the revs. Then, once you emerge, test the brakes as they may need drying out.
Keep your distance
Meanwhile, during bad weather, it’s vital to stay well back of the vehicles ahead because stopping distances dramatically increase in slippery conditions.
According to Which
Other tips
The organisation said drivers should avoid hard acceleration and braking and should remain in a high gear on snow and ice. Also, it’s helpful to stick to busy roads and to plan routes carefully.
