How to care for your vehicle in the winter

Little Rock, Arkansas – There are various things you can do to ensure your car is winter-ready, experts have explained, even though getting stuck on the side of the road can be terrifying and stressful.

“Dead or disabled batteries, those types of calls can account for about 30% of all of our call volume throughout the winter months,” said Nick Chabarria with AAA.

Those calls typically don’t start rolling in until December, but this year has been significantly different, according to Chabarria.

“November calls have been up compared to this time last year,” Chabarria added.

Drivers have experienced issues beyond batteries.

“Flat tires, or even low tire pressure this time of year is a big one,” said Dee Coleman, owner of Coleman and Son Automotive.

Coleman added that many customers have previously taken initiative to ensure that their automobiles are prepared before the true chill comes.

“We’ve seen an influx of customers come in and get those tires topped off,” said Coleman.

Coleman stated there are other things you should pay attention to besides tires and batteries.

“You have your water pumps, your radiators, things like that, that do malfunction in the colder winter months,” said Coleman.

These are particularly crucial because some of those mechanical components have proved challenging to locate.

“We’ve seen two weeks backorder or and we’ve seen six months backorder it just depends on the part,” said Coleman.

Coleman also mentioned that they anticipate experiencing increased traffic in the upcoming months, but they advise drivers to check their cars for readiness now.

“If it’s 30 degrees now and it becomes 20 degrees, that tire can lose a pound of pressure,” said Coleman.