winter in Canada or similar... to use garage or not?!?

Personally I believe it's better to leave it outside if it's wet, and leave the wind to help dry out nooks and crannies, box sections etc. It's the wet in those places that are more likely to cause problems in an unventilated garage. Even with heating. Mike.

You will probably get all kinds of differing opinions on this.

I always park my cars in a heated garage and have never experienced any rust problems. Pennsylvania winters can be long and cold too.

I live in sunny Southern California where I pull my car into the garage after driving it in the rain. It hasn't caused any problems that I'm aware of, and I can avoid mucking around outside in the rain. Yes, I'm aware that we don't get rain as much as you poor slobs in other parts of the country/continent, but rain makes a car wet no matter where one lives, so my experience should be pretty much the same as everybody else's when it comes to parking a wet car somewhere. My thoughts on the matter are that parking a wet car indoors is probably BETTER than parking a wet car outside where it continues to collect rain and snow.

PS I'd set the garage heater on if I had the option.

Nah. You're missing the whole point here. It is not rain, it's snow and ice. And the car is not just wet... It's frozen and covered with salt spray. The difference in conditions between winter in Cali and Canada are like night and day, apples and oranges, hedgehogs and... well, you get the picture. ;-)

Chris,

I live in Northern New England, which makes my weather a lot closer to yours than most of the other respondants' so far. Here's my philosophy on it:

I don't like to bring a car in and defrost it and allow it to thaw out (get wet) if the car is being used every day. It never really gets a chance to dry out, so your just allowing it to go from frozen to wet and repeating daily, and the moisture mixed with the lovely road salt will kill the sheet metal in short order. So 2 of my cars (325i and Ford Exploder) stay outside all winter. The 325 has Arctic Alpins on it (put them on last weekend) and goes beautifully in all kinds of slop. The Exploder is AWD so it goes OK too.

OTOH, I have one "fair weather car" (my 540i) that I still drive on nice days in the winter, but not in precipitation and standing snow. I don't bother with the snow tires on that car and just have some aggressive all-season tires on it. That gets space in the garage (unfortuantely, unheated). I also have one car that hibernates for the season (Z3). It's been put up already. It has summer skins and doesn't see the light of day till the days get longer again.

So in summary, for daily drivers, I prefer to leave them out in the cold. Best thing might be a cold freestanding garage or carport so you don't have to chip and scrape it out in the morning, but not warm enough to allow it to defrost fully...

YMMV...

I think the common advice is "Don't heat a garage in Canada" because doing so accelerates the chemical reactions involved in corrosion. (rate proportional to kelvin temperature, if I recall) If you have to drive it, clean it regularly (weekly) and keep it indoors in an _unheated space_. I sold my E36 after eight years of ownership and it looked like new. It was garaged 12 months of the year, washed during the winter as often as weather would allow (frozen doors and locks are no fun at all), and minor body damage repaired each spring. I had one minor rust issue on the lower edge of the trunklid, which I fixed just before sale for $300, and pointed out to the purchaser. Cheers Greg

"Mr Physics" wrote

My 330xi stays out when at the ski cabin, and in an unheated garage when at home. But the key advice is: wash regularly. They don't use salt here in WA state, but do use calcium chloride as a de-icer (a great deal on the ski area access road), which makes for good driving conditions but is horrible on the exterior. Not so much from the corrosion standpoint (although it's death on mild steel like brake rotors and wheel hubs) but because it is sticky when wet and acts like a glue to hold all the grime onto the car, ready for any brush by a pad to scratch the surface.

FloydR

Thanks guys, good info.

I think I will garage it when the conditions are dry, and leave it out when wet and sloppy. If it gets crazy cold, I will garage it for sure! I have a hose in the garage, so I can also give it a good rinse after sloppy salt and slush exposure. For Jeff in Cali... come see the winter I am talking about (snow, salt, slush, freezing rain, ice) ... it is a long cry from what you have in your head!!! ;)

| So in summary, for daily drivers, I prefer to leave them out in the | cold. Best thing might be a cold freestanding garage or carport so you | don't have to chip and scrape it out in the morning, but not warm enough | to allow it to defrost fully... | | YMMV... | -- | -Fred W

You'll like my solution to the issue of dew and ice. I place a small space heater in my car the evening before. The cord is run into the garage but not plugged in. I get up, go plug in the heater cord, then get ready for work. When I get into my toasty warm car, the glass is clear (might have to scrape the mirrors, though) and I'm off right away with no shivering waiting for the defroster to warm up. Since I go to work first really early, I put the heater in our truck so that when wife comes out to bring the kids to school, its all ready, and then she moves it into her VW bug. By the time she gets back and ready to go to work, her VW is all warmed up, which for her is a luxury since that heater takes forever to do any good in her car anyway. It really makes a difference when the weather gets really crappy. Also, since my car is a convertible and gets a bit wet from the water, the heater also dries out the interior in the process. Can't beat that!

Formerly, I lived just north of Toronto and we get wet slushy frozen salty sandy snow and goo spread across 5 to 6 months of the year (it's not really all THAT bad) throughout southern Ontario. Sometimes the pavement is bone dry for weeks at a time and sometimes its not.

A while ago for 5 years I was doing a commute to downtown Toronto and parking in the indoor parking facility at city hall, so my first concern was that after travelling 100 kms to work through snow slush etc. I then had to put my car in a heated garage for the day to sit and drip. At home the car was always outside. The cold will not hurt anything but the leather. Keep it well oiled. The plastic you just have to be careful with because it will be somewhat more brittle and yes, vinyl cracks.

Snow and ice will not do one thing to the vehicle assuming the car is properly sealed as it came from the factory. I would say more damage is done by banging the snow broom against the car than by the snow or ice just sitting on it.

I found the only answer was to wash the car everyday. Fortunately there is a car wash built into the lower levels of the city hall parking facility and they had a service called the bottom blaster. I used this feature everytime I washed the car ('86 560SEC) even if it was the middle of summer. You drive into the parking facility head down to the car wash, go through the wash after which it is hand dryed and then go and park for the day.

I decided that having washed off the offensive material before it was able to thaw was a key ingredient. Once the material is reduced to a liquid form a chemical reaction takes place between the salty solution and the steel. All that white stuff you see dried to everytime is harmless if left in a dry form. However the melting of the snow provides the liquid catalyst the slt needs to start working.

If you can, wash it away before it melts.

Michael

Thanks

Michael

And now you have had enough and moved to the Florida Keys....?....

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

Where the hurricanes would get it before the salt? ;-)

I love Florida and I sometimes 'dream' about moving there, forgetting about the occasional severe weather. But this year I/we were all reminded of how severe the weather can get over there, with what frequency.

So I'll just stick with my dear old mild(*) London W2...

DAS

{*) unseasonally chilly at present - it might even hit nearly zero tonight, and it is not even December...

You're missing the nice 71 deg. F weather today. Very nice!

So we get a few storms? It seems to me each climate/location has pros and cons, but its up to you to find your balance of what's most important.

Case in point, we know well in advance when and where {to a large degree) the storms are going and most building etc. are designed for such. Preparation is key.

Never think that what you see reported on TV is representative of the overall situation...they love to sensationalize every little thing.

Here in the chilly south I've had to defrost the windscreen several times already...

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhttttttt. Do not tell them the truth, if all those yanks, snowbirds, northerners' find it, they will move here in big hordes ... not more a Paradise ... Keep it secret, let them think about bad hurricanes every week.