Driving in Winter.

The only problem I've ever experienced with locks freezing up was that the tumblers froze, not the entire locking mechanism in the door. In those cases, just heating the key up good and hot with the cigarette lighter and then inserting it in the lock for about 15 seconds always took care of the problem.

I have owned 2 Passat 35i before and my dad owned one, too. In total I am familiar with more than 4 of them. There never was there a problem to open the doors no matter how bad the weather was. Except once and this was after fixing the window mechanism in a hurry and misaligning the inner sealing foil of the door so it doesn't count.

Instead, the door latch hook itself which has to be outside the door often becomes stuck after opening the door. So when the car has a thick ice coating, it is very likely that you can get the doors open without any problem but you can't close them any more until you drive 6 miles or so. I often had to roll down both windows on one side and use duct tape, a wire or a Velcro strap to secure the door.

Currently it's worse. It keeps raining all evening and then it all freezes over night. So excessive ice scratching every morning and everything thaws away two hours after you have arrived your workplace.

Driving in snow doesn't bother me much, but I hate ice. Last Friday my wife and I went to a Christmas pipe organ concert about 30 miles from home. When we came out, everything was covered in ice. Fortunately, we had taken my wife's Excursion which is a heavy vehicle with 4WD. It handled the ice as well as could be expected, but many of the smaller cars were having a lot of trouble staying pointed in the right direction.

The main problems around here is heavy foot and light ice.
Many cars are yet to learn "Gently"?...
Those that do, pass by quietly.
Those that dont, you hear them gunning the engine, and a the screeshhhh of tortured tires.

Last Friday I almost crashed. My "new" car is equipped with ABS so when someone disregarded my right of way, there was less than an inch left when my car had finally stopped.

As I said before, all ABS is not created equal. When the ABS kicks in on our Astro van, you better be able to steer because you sure aren't going to stop. My son has a newer Toyota Forerunner. The ABS on that is very impressive.

You have a siren. You don't need brakes.

I have had several opportunists to use the ABS on my Toyota....
First, you hear a graunching sound, not exactly grinding, not exactly scraping, but you hear the brakes at work, and that aint normal noises. And it aint the noise of tortured tires either, which you were expecting?.
Then you note the brake pedal is a lot higher than its supposed to be.
Then you note that you CAN STILL STEER, and for those who didnt get to learn in a ABS car, that aint normal.
Then you start to notice you aint sliding, your stopping... maybe less slowly than normal, but you are stopping....
Then the brake pedal goes all soft... which can be alarming at first, but you get the idea soon that as you are now doing less than 1mph and are indeed stopping, its just the ABS switching its self off as "You have it under control now"

For those that are used to ABS, I am preaching to the choir here?.. of course, thats how ABS works isnt it?.
For those that dont know, expect "something" like the above.

In some trucks, you get similar, in some you get feedback, in that the brake pedal "vibrates" a bit when your on ABS "SH@T! I NEED TO STOP!" mode, in some you get the strange noise, in some there is a buzzer if your using ABS, because maybe the trailer aint got that and you risk it overtaking, in some, and I love the description TLW used "Spongebob", yeah, I drove trucks like that, you just get a soft pedal and start to pray a little...

But the reaction of other motorists?.
I presume they hear the same as me, because I get some strange looks from pedestrians when my ABS in the car works, it get attention MUCH better than a blast of horn.
ABS in trucks, you get a staccato hiss tss tss tss tss tss tss of brakes sometimes, or the heavy grind of huge brakes, but mostly its the look of "I must watch this because its going to be memorable one way or the other" and the "Go and get Gran, she aint never seen a truck crash..."

The time I "Drifted" a 12 tonner down a high street on sheet ice, I dont know if they gave me a standing ovation or a look of "Bloody lunatic", I was a bit busy?.. No ABS, awcr@p moment for sure?.

With all the toys I dont exactly need, ABS is one I would give away even a Radio to have on a vehicle, because its the best thing since synchro-mesh, and has saved me more times than I care to think about.
Stability control, yeah, its nice on a tall vehicle.
Traction control, if you have more Horsepower per ton than IQ, yeah, its sort of needed, but otherwise?. Its good for a 4wd in winter though, so yes good, but not always.
Launch control... why?... If you use it, its going to probably be illegal.
Synchronised anti-fog cup holsters, and all the other alphabet spaghetti, is it all needed?.

But ABS, in todays world, its a "Must", because the alternative is understanding you ARE sliding and being able to react to that.

And sometimes the ABS gets there first with me, and when it does, it has saved my backside before I realised it was needed?.
Yeah, if I did "Do-over" on the same corner, I could have got there without the ABS maybe, but thats hindsight, and when you just hit black ice on a corner and didnt suspect it, hindsight is always 20/20 isnt it?.