Ron Ananian discusses the importance of warming up your car, especially in cold weather, emphasizing both comfort and safety. He explains that while newer cars may not require extensive warming, a brief warm-up can help with oil circulation and visibility. The conversation also touches on the dangers of using hot water to defrost windshields and the significance of understanding local idling laws. Additionally, Ron offers insights on gifting cars, stressing the need for the recipient to test drive the vehicle to ensure it's the right fit.
On this episode of Mendte in the Morning on WOR Radio 710, Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor, clears up one of winter’s most debated questions—should you warm up your car before driving?
Ron explains what modern vehicles really need, why safety and visibility matter more than internet myths, and when a short warm-up actually makes sense—especially in cold Northeast mornings. Plus, why using hot water on an icy windshield is a very bad idea, how idling laws factor in, and what older vehicles still demand in freezing temps.
The conversation wraps up with advice on buying a car as a gift—why the big bow looks great in commercials, but real-world car buying should be an experience, not a surprise.
Catch Ron every other week on Mendte in the Morning, WOR, and listen to Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor wherever you get your podcasts on the iHeartRadio app.
"You know, Ron, you made me think when you were talking earlier about de-icing your car, I was seeing all these videos over the weekend..."
When a car’s windows are covered in ice, people try to melt it so they can see. This is called de-icing and can be done with special sprays or by gently warming the glass.
De-icing refers to removing ice from a vehicle’s exterior, especially the windshield and windows, so that visibility is restored. Common methods include using a scraper, applying an ice melt solution, or carefully heating the glass.
"People who take hot water and throw it on their windshield to get the ice off, and then the windshield cracks, or literally shatters."
If you pour hot water on a very cold car window, the glass can break because it suddenly expands and contracts too fast.
Applying hot water or heated liquid to a cold windshield can cause thermal shock, leading the glass to crack or shatter. The rapid temperature change creates stress that exceeds the glass’s strength.
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Larry Mendte on the voice of New York. It's Mendte in the morning on 17 W.O.R.
And now it's time for Ron and Nanny and host of the car doctor, which is available weekly on the iHeart radio app.
An owner of R.A. Automotive in Waldwick, New Jersey. I love this question, Ron, about warming up your vehicle before driving.
Do with these newer cars, maybe it's with the older cars, too. You'll tell me, do you need to warm up before driving?
Good morning, Larry. Well, it's a brand new car right out of the gate. Theoretically no.
But how cold are we talking? A day like today? It's pretty cold out there today. It was 20 degrees in Mawa today.
It was almost 19 at 5am when I went to the gym. That's pretty cold. And there's a benefit to it. There's a benefit in my opinion. I'm a warm up the car guy.
Because I want heat. I want heat within the first minute of driving. I'm just more comfortable.
And then the other issue becomes if you don't warm up the car and there's frost on the glass, and you're going to work in the dark,
how do you defrost the windshield? And now it's a hazard. Now you're on the road. Car's coming at you in the dark early morning glare from the headlights.
You can't see. Is there a visibility and a drivability problem?
Yeah, I'll tell you what. I've seen people that have some frost on their window driving, and I just get out of their way.
I try to avoid those people because it is dangerous.
So let's all use DICER. DICER is an aerosol spray. Is that bad for the ozone?
So we're trying to protect the environment by not warming up the car, but we're going to use more ozone devices to damage.
And in the process, make it so we can see out the glass on the car we didn't warm up that we're still cold in.
Now that's on newer cars. Let's talk about an older car, Larry. Let's define this. Something more than five years old.
You get in your five-year-old or older vehicle, and you get five blocks from the house, and you find out that in the sub-zero temperature last night, a heater hose snap or a plastic fitting crack, or something didn't withstand the cold well.
And now you're leaking coolant, and now the car is overheating in your five blocks or further from the house. When do you want to find out that the car is broken?
I get it, but so with the newer cars, but it's the only thing that's necessary. It's not going to hurt the engine you said for the most part with the newer cars.
For the most part, right, for the most part. But I always go back to the analogy, hey, Larry, how well do you work jumping out of bed at three o'clock in the morning and the cold?
But you kind of need to warm up. Cars are kind of the same way, brother. They just are.
When you find somebody that can bounce out of bed at three a.m., no coffee, their car probably doesn't need to be warmed up either.
But until then, I say we all warm them up, give it a chance for the oil to circulate.
You know, Ron, you made me think when you were talking earlier about de-icing your car, I was seeing all these videos over the weekend, and I do not know if this is true.
People who take hot water and throw it on their windshield to get the ice off, and then the windshield cracks, or literally shatters.
Would that happen?
Absolutely. Oh, sure. Yeah, listen, I can attest to that. I sort of had something similar happen.
Not automotive related, but I can tell you the hot cold theory. I made Yorkshire, well, I made the Yorkshire pudding one year for Christmas.
And I followed the recipe, and I took the pyrex dish, which I had in the cold refrigerator, and I put it in the hot oven.
Right.
Boy, I'll tell you what, you had to see the fire that created, and you did the same way.
My wife got an oven for Christmas.
The fire department showed up to put it out. That was a whole nother's.
Wow.
Yes.
But you know, and then what happens?
You put that warm water all over the frozen windshield, and if it's still cold out, where does the water go?
It goes down into the car, into the hinges, into the mechanism.
It freezes the wiper linkage. It's, you know what, warm the car up.
Give it two, three minutes, and then take it on the road.
Now, the one caveat before we close this out is certain parts and most parts of the country in the areas we live, there are idling laws.
And you have to find out what those are. They don't want you idling in the car longer than three minutes or four minutes in certain places.
So we don't want to break laws, but we also want to be safe. We want to be comfortable.
Absolutely. And you're right. I mean, I warm up the car just a little bit, just so it's warm inside for me.
I'm not even thinking about the engine. I just want to be comfortable. That's it.
Right.
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Let's talk about giving a car as a gift.
Oh, my dad gave me a car as a gift and I'll always remember it.
But you're saying that there's some things you have to look at before you buy a car for a gift, right?
How have you bought a new car in the last five years, Larry?
Sure, I just did. Just did.
And how long did it take you to do that? I mean, what was the process like?
Right? Think about that. Did you just walk in in 20 minutes and I take that one, wrap it up. Let's go.
Well, I'm a little different than most because I'll tell you why because my wife is a talk show host in Philadelphia.
And it was one of her her sponsors. So yeah, I did walk right in.
But you've got to, you know, do you fit the car?
Listen, when people call the radio show, when they call the show and they ask me, Hey, Ron, I want to buy a new car.
What should I buy? I always tell them you got to go drive the car in the daytime.
You got to go drive the car in the nighttime. Cars have a different personality in the dark than they do in the light.
Can I find the buttons? Can I hit the switches? Can I find the heat? Do I have good visibility?
So you've got to be sure the person you're buying that car for has that visibility?
Has that control? Has that, you know, can I find what I want to find?
What I suggest, all right, and I've been through this where I've, you know, helped people buy cars.
And listen, I gave my daughter a Jeep one year at a high school and I restored it.
It was like, where are we going to hide the Jeep this week so she doesn't find it.
She can come to the shop thinking what's with that doing all these hours, right?
What I suggest is, I suggest, if you want to buy your partner, your spouse, whatever a car for Christmas, make it an event.
Hey, let's go out to lunch. And then after lunch, you have an appointment at the dealership.
Yeah, I just want to stop by here, right? And then it's a date. And then it's a memory.
And then you're sure you're getting the right $50,000 car, all right?
Not only if your husband's listening, I hope he's got this.
She was up on your doorstep.
I just, I want to walk out like in the commercials.
I want to walk out to my driveway. And I want to see that Lexus with a big bow on it.
Just waiting for me. And I know, is it the right fit tonight?
I'm telling you, it's probably better than the car than I'm driving.
Well, that's always true. And I'll leave it here, right?
When Katie walked out and saw her Jeep with the big red bow, I mean, she just broke down in tears.
It was just like joy, just, yeah, just like nothing she'd ever been through.
She'll tell you the joy she had for that Jeep. And she took it everywhere.
She was very attached to it. So it's a great feeling.
It's just, you got to do it right.
Okay. And my last real quick question.
Can you get Natalie's husband a deal in Alexis?
With a big bow on it.
I don't know, but yeah, I could probably get him the bow.
You know, getting the bow is the hardest part. I've got to tell you.
It really is.
I gave my wife Alexis two years ago. I said, can I get a bow at Christmas?
They said, no, we don't have any of those.
Oh, I got a new business, new business to go.
Barbos.
Ron and Nadian is going to be back with us in two weeks at 9.35.
Thanks a lot, Ron. Good to talk to you.
When we come back, my final thoughts are recap of today's show and the talk back of the morning.
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