Toyota and the cold

Four degrees F ?!?...cripes, that's like -15C !...where do you live that it's been THAT cold yet this year?...it's the coldest that it's been here this year right now...and it's about -5C (about +25F). I'm in Eastern Canada (PEI)

Northwest of Chicago... we are in record freeze... even a story on CNN about it...

Chicago's been very cold so far this December... it was single digits farenheit here overnight yesterday... and proabably the last few nights...

Nirav

Dan must live closer to the city. It was 1F at 6:00 AM in the Schaumburg area, the radio said it was below zero in Aurora, IL. It's supposed to get back into the 20's this weekend.

Wow...it only occasionally get's that cold here in the dead of winter for short periods...we have the Gulf Stream going by us here which moderates it some...there's three Toyotas in my yard, none are ever plugged in and none have ever given us problems starting in winter...

I am SO glad I moved. Oak Park this time of year SUCKS. The only good thing is walking on Lake Michigan in Jan, stepping over the frozen waves. :)

The Chicago area is much colder than the Boston area, where I used to live. I used to make the trip to Burlington VT quite often, and the weather there was about the same as Chicago.

When I first moved to the SF Bay Area from Chicago, I scoffed at the people wearing winter jackets on Labor Day in 50 degree weather near the Golden Gate Bridge - I was still wearing T-shirts and shorts. Of course, about a year later, I had become acclimated to the nice California weather and was wearing my winter jacket when the mercury hit 50 ;-)

Luckily, my body has re-adjusted to the Chicago climate - I was OK with a fall jacket at 15 degrees, although I finally broke out the winter jacket yesterday. Pretty soon, I'll have to ear a cap and gloves!

The hard part about walking on Lake Michigan in Jan is being able to breathe the cold air whipping off the frozen lake!

If you're standing on the CTA platform waiting for a train in the middle of the Eisenhower or Kennedy Expressway when it is 0, the semis and trains zipping by do add a bit to the wind chill. Or, you can do like the natives do, stand at the bottom of the stairs where the overhead heaters still work because that's where the CTA employees are and then make a dash up the stairs when you hear the train coming, hoping that you don't slip on the icy stairs.

Actually Cary - and you are right, my home thermometer showed -1.5 F last night... i just verified with the wife (its an electronic gizmo that keeps a

While we do park in an UNheated garage, we have seldom EVER plugged our 99 Camry 6 cyl in. Winter temps here plunge to MINUS 40 C/F, on occasion. Oh, I run synthetic oil. Often, it sits outside ALL day, while my wife is at work. Starts instantly, even after 6 years.

You're northwest of me. Cary usually seems to be at least 1 or 2 degrees colder than the Schaumburg/Hoffman area. We have one of those Oregon Scientific wireless indoor/outdoor thermometers that records the max/min but I haven't figured out how to read what the max/min temps are. Our cats seem to be pretty good at predicting how cold it will be outside. If it is less than 100 outside, we will have 1 cat in our bed at night. Less than 40 degrees gets us 2 cats, and if it 0 outside, we will have all 3 cats.

When it is that cold outside, it is more difficult for me to grasp the key and turn it in the ignition than it is for the car to start!

Good God!...you poor sods way out there in the frozen West...

I must have a smart brain 'cos it won't let -me- grasp the door knob to go outside at those temps... :(

I know it is a sign of old age to say this, but I'll say it anyway... Back when I was in 8th grade, I used to wake up at 4:00 AM to deliver around 150 newspapers on about a two mile route. Not only was the entire route uphill ;-) but I recall the winter temps being about 10 below and thinking nothing of it. We kept rubber bands inside our jacket so they wouldn't get hard and snap when we wrapped the papers to toss through windows and into bushes. The people who deliver the paper to our house now have it easy - they drive by in a car and toss it on the driveway.

By about February, a warm place like Arizona, Texas, or Florida starts to look real attractive!

Let's hope you don't get many 4-cat winters.

I have this daft soundtrack running in my head, of a radio with a frantic announcer: "And now an extreme cold weather advisory. As of ten minutes ago, the federal 3-cat warning of 1600 hours today has been upgraded to a full 5-cat. Friends, take this seriously! Be sure you have laid in stocks of kibble and kitty litter..."

I live near Ottawa, and the temperature hovered around -10 C (14 F) today.

But last December, 4 days before Christmas it was about -20 C (-4 F). And

Back in 1990, or then three-year-old Corolla FX 16 only froze up once in its still-going life (Sorry, Hachi)...in minus forty degree weather, in Cole(COLD)brook, New Hampshire, which borders Canada.

It never did that again (We got the hell outta there!), and now it's in Florida with my mom.

Natalie