Handling Canadian Driving Conditions

For about seven months of the year, Canadian driving conditions are not a lot different than those anywhere else in the world. Those with a postal code on a piece of Middlesex Ontario real estate will experience similar driving conditions to a person living in France. That is, generally smooth sailing, the ideal weather for motor bikes, luxury cars, and driving where the weather is not usually an issue.

Then, of course, comes the famed Canadian winter. Nursery supply stores close down, the hockey bags come out, and every citizen prepares for the deep freeze. In some parts of the country the cold will be worse than others, of course, but one thing you can count on is that driving conditions all over the nation will be very poor.

Snow is the common concern when it comes to Canadian driving, but the main risk when driving on any Canadian road from November to March is ice. Bare roads are not necessarily safe in winter time in this country, so it is important to know that the vehicle you are driving can handle well in winter conditions.

In Canada, we tend to operate under the happy myth that our domestic auto makers have a good idea of the conditions we are dealing with in this country, and supply the vehicles they make accordingly. We take extra safety equipment, stability, and so on for granted. It might surprise you to learn, however, that when it comes to Canadian driving conditions, may foreign models are more reliable than those whose advertisements are registered with a Canadian trade mark firm.

In fact in many cases, the domestic auto makers are following in the pioneering footsteps of European manufacturers when it comes to safety, if they are taking extra steps at all. There is no clearer example of this than in that of electronic stability control. ESC has been rated as the most important safety device in driving after the seat belt. It's a relatively new concept, wherein individual brakes are applied when the vehicle senses a loss of steering control. The device was first used by BMW, and followed by Toyota in the mid 1990s.

Today, two of the big three North American auto makers have pledged to have this important technology as standard on all of their vehicles by 2010 (Chevrolet has made no such commitment). However, one can't help but wonder how many steel metal accidents this commitment could have prevented had it been made a decade ago, following the examples of European manufacturers.

Another area where the European makers tend to outclass domestics as far as winter driving goes is in comfort. The luxury car makers aren't alone in providing winter warm up technology as standard in their cars; Volvo, Subaru, and even Mitsubishi all include winter creature comforts such as heated seats, steering wheels, and remote car starters on their models.

It is not a great leap of logic to assume that the car manufacturer with its headquarters closest to your piece of Halton Hills real estate would make the best car as far as handling Canadian driving conditions. However, we should keep in mind that many European countries experience similar conditions. Most of them, unfortunately for domestics, include many innovations that domestics either leave out or have to scramble to include.