Why You Shouldn’t ‘Warm Up’ Your Car This Winter

Cars have changed in the last 20 years, including the way they run. Which is why you really shouldn't 'warm up' your car anymore.

If you own a car that was made before the 1980's, feel free to keep warming that sucker up. But there was a change made to the way cars run in the 80s and 90s that makes warming up your car a bad thing.

I know, people mainly do this so they aren't freezing their buns off while they drive to work. But it's also shortening the life of your engine. Better to be a little cold, and then gradually warm up, than to have your car just die on the road and you have to sit there in the cold freezing your butt off waiting for a tow truck.

*Side Note: Warming up your car also leaves the potential for little cold animals to hide under your car for warmth (or in an exhaust pipe, or on the tires, or in the engine...) You're just inviting a lot of cold fuzzy creatures to your car that you might not know about when you come back and pull out of your drive way. (Sadness will ensue.)