Drivers warned to follow new wing mirror rule despite it being 'silly'

Drivers are being urged to follow a wing mirror rule even if it's "silly". Motorists and road users are being warned they should adhere to wing mirror warnings as we head towards Christmas - in a bid to stop them freezing and visibility being reduced.

Iain Ferguson, Automotive Lecturer at Glasgow Kelvin College, explained: "De-icing your car is an essential safety precaution during the winter, but it’s of course time consuming. Covering your wing mirrors with old socks can help prevent them from icing over, saving you time and even protecting them from potential scratching and cracking."

"Popping on the kettle and using hot water to get frost and ice off your car is an easy mistake to make, but it is also a costly one," he said. "This can crack the glass on your car, leading to expensive repairs – an icy window will be the least of your worries when you get that bill in."

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When it comes to rescuing our frozen door handles, hot water can be used here, or if you have a remote locking system, the manual key can help. "You can just pour water over these, but also a lot of the remote locks, they will also have a key that slides out of the key fob as well and you can turn that in the traditional way," an AA expert previously told Birmingham Live.

"Often it's just that the handle has come a little bit solid, and you just need to pour some water over it because it will have just frozen up a little bit." He also warned drivers today to be cautious of black ice on the roads as winter continues.

"The first thing I suppose is when people are clearing their windscreen the advice is not to use boiling water," he said. "Our AA patrols are often called out to people because they have put a fresh kettle of boiling water across their windscreen, and it cracks windscreens quite a lot."

His advice is to use anti-freeze or lukewarm to lightly warm water instead - never a boiled kettle. "Some plain, warm water or some anti-freeze spray if you have it - but not boiling water."