Having put so much thought in to choosing the very best car finance, before you head off to the snow this winter we have put together some useful tips for surviving the extreme environments often faced when heading up to the snowfields.

It pays to ensure that your vehicle is prepared in advance and that you have some basic skills for transversing the winter terrain.

Prepare in advance – we recommend booking your car in for a pre-winter service and safety inspection.

Check you tyre pressures – to ensure that are inflated to manufacturers guidelines.
Reduced visibility and reduced traction are the two main challenges faced when driving in winter conditions. Driving can become hazardous at each new corner you can be faced with new challenges.

Good visibility – when you return to your car invest some time to clear snow, frost and ice from your windows. Failing to do the basics can mean extra time travelling and can make driving more hazardous than necessary.

Don’t look for shortcuts – when it comes to safety, don’t use warm water to clear your windscreen of ice and snow as you will find in more cases than not a sudden change in glass temperature can cause your windows to crack.

Often overlooked but just as important is to check ice and snow cover on front and rear lights to ensure clear visibility as well as your reversing mirrors.

Smooth diving is the key – avoid allowing your tyres to spin or slide by maintaining your momentum at all times. Depress the accelerator pedal slowly to avoid wheel spin and when your wheels do spin just ease off a light until you are able to regain traction.

Steer through corners at a safe speed – this can be achieved by lightly braking as you enter your corners and works by reducing the likely hood that you may need to apply heavy braking whilst steering through the corner, which can often result in the car entering into a slide.

We wish all our car loan and car leasing customers a wonderful winter for 2008 and urge you to take caution at every turn.