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2025 Buick Enclave vs Honda PilotBest Car Features for Winter
If you’re used to the cold chill and heavy snow of winter, then you’ll want to know these features when shopping for your next car.
Owning a Car During Those Cold Months
Some people may love winter for its fun activities, holidays, and those picturesque moments, but it makes car ownership a lot harder. You need to remember to warm the car up before you leave, clear the driveway of snow constantly, scrape the built-up ice off your windshields, be careful not to lose traction over the icy streets, try not to get stuck in deep snow, keep the vehicle clean inside and out, and keep yourself warm too. If you’re all too familiar with those wintertime woes and you’re shopping for a new car, we’ve pinpointed some of the best car features for winter you should make sure to have. These features will help you cruise through the snow-covered streets with ease, make your daily winter routine a lot easier, and allow you to enjoy November through February a little more.
Best Car Features for Winter
Heated Seats & Heated Surfaces
When you’re dealing with below zero temperatures coupled with added windchill, you want to be presented with a cozy environment after making the trek to your car. One way to promote an enjoyable cabin space away from the cold is to get heated seats. These will warm up your body as you go for a drive and can be adjusted to your liking. But what about your hands? Griping a frozen steering wheel is never fun, so getting a heated steering wheel is a must for winter car shoppers. There are even other heated surfaces in some vehicles that help warm up passengers, like the heated armrests and upper door cards on the Mercedes-Benz GLE. The GLE even has heated front cupholders to keep your hot chocolate warm too!
Heated Mirrors & Heated Windshield
Those defroster vents are standard equipment on every vehicle, but your visibility during the winter can be even better. Ice and snow are easy to clear off with a brush and scraper, but it gets awkward when it comes to those side mirrors. If ice gets packed on there and you try to remove it with a scraper it almost feels like you’re going to break the mirror, and it is never fully cleared. Heated mirrors alleviate that issue by clearing away the snow and ice via electric heating like a rear window typically uses.
It sure would be nice if we had that kind of technology on the front windshield too, wouldn’t it? While it’s a rare feature, it isn’t impossible to have as models like the Land Rover Defender and Porsche Cayenne feature fully electric heated windshields. This helps clear the windshield a lot quicker on startup and virtually removes the need for a scraper up front.
Heated Windshield Wipers
Windshield wipers are an important tool while driving through the snow, but ice is always getting packed around them and that can be a hassle to clear or even damage the rubber wiper blades. Some models like the Honda Passport feature a heated wiper zone that has similar technology to heated windshields. This strip of electric heating is only prevalent along the bottom of the windshield and quickly heats up the area beneath the windshield wipers to quickly clear them of ice. Some manufacturers have even turned toward heater wiper blades like the VisioBlade technology found on the Lincoln Aviator. Rather than heat up the blades to de-ice them exclusively, this feature heats up the wiper blade itself. This not only clears the wiper of built-up ice but spreads the heat along the windshield when being operated to further clear the viewing area of snow and ice.
Remote Start
This one is an easy slam dunk as a winter car feature, a remote start. Whether it’s directly installed by the manufacturer or an aftermarket addition, remote starts can be great during the winter. Not only can you start warming up your car from the comfort of your cozy home, but some have even included extra HVAC controls via a fob or an app. The Kia Telluride for instance can be controlled via the Kia Connect app to start the SUV and have the climate set to your preferred temperature all before you get out of bed.
Rubber Floor Mats
Where does all that snow, slush, gravel, and salt go when you step in your vehicle in the winter? Straight into your vehicle’s carpet where it can be stained, grow mildew, or be quickly damaged from constant wear thanks to the added grit. One add-on feature that can be checked off before you get off the lot is adding rubber floor mats. These weather ready, rubberized mats protect your vehicle’s carpets from damage, keep the melted snow in its recesses, and make cleaning a breeze. Look for bucket options too that further protect the investment in your vehicle by covering all the carpeted surfaces.
AWD or 4WD
Rear-wheel drive turns into a struggle when the snow hits while front-wheel drive will suffice, but the drivetrains you’ll really want can send power to all four wheels. All-wheel drive always keeps your wheels turning, which will give you some extra traction when you need it over slick surfaces or through deeper snow. Four-wheel drive is the real champ when it comes to powering through snow though as it’s commonly found on trucks and SUVs which couples the drivetrain with a higher ground clearance too. That’s part of the reason that 4WD is the only choice for snow wheeling.
Anti-Lock Brakes & Electronic Stability Control
Having Anti-lock brakes (ABS) and Electronic Stability Control (ESC) are a must for the winter. These safety features are designed to keep you on the road should you need to hit the brakes or lose control over those slippery winter roads. ABS prevents the wheels from locking up while braking and works with the ESC to maintain traction over the road. ESC also detects when the driver loses steering control and applies the brakes to individual wheels to right the vehicle’s path. These safety features are standard on all new vehicles in the US since 2012, but they’re important features to consider when shopping for used vehicles produced prior.
All-Weather Tires
Winter tires are the ideal candidate for driving during those cold months, but they aren’t always available direct from the manufacturer and need to be swapped when the snow thaws in March. All-season tires will be fine, but finding some all-weather tires is ideal. All-season and all-weather may sound the same, but the two hold different designations. All-season can be used all year long and handle just fine over snow. All-weather tires can also be used all year long, but they’ve been given the 3PMSF standard that means they can provide exceptional traction over snow in comparison to the normal all-season tires.
Actual Door Handles
With the arrival of electric vehicles, door handles are sometimes being recessed into the door itself. Teslas in particular feature recessed door handles that have been documented to leave the EVs inaccessible when ice builds up over them. Even remotely pumping the heat inside takes a long while to correct the issue. Some owners may point to the Tesla App feature that remotely pops the door open, but other users have reported that the feature may not operate correctly if too much ice covers the door. The simple remedy to this – actual, traditional door handles. No gimmicks, just the ability to get your hand in there to get the door open regardless of last night’s weather.
Engine Block Heater
An engine block heater is nothing new to those with diesel trucks, but it can be a boon for non-diesel vehicles too. Engine block heaters are a heating element installed inside the engine block that helps keep the oil inside the engine warm essentially “pre-heating” it while not in use. This is an ideal feature to have if you live in a location where temperatures regularly drop to the single digits and negatives. Leave the block heater plugged in to an outlet overnight, remove the plug in the morning, and then drive away. It virtually removes the need to warm the vehicle up.
