DETROIT, Mich. (WXYZ) — The temperatures across metro Detroit have been frigid — and they're causing some drivers big headaches when it comes to their vehicles.
“Whenever it’s cold, one thing the cold will share with the vehicle owners is everything that’s wrong with your car,” said Lavish T. Williams, owner of Lavish Towing.
He’s been very busy these past two days.
“We’ve been getting a lot of calls for dead batteries, locks outs and just no starts,” said Williams. “The cold weather has played a part in a lot of these vehicles not start starting.”
I went with Williams on one of his calls on Wednesday.
While we were out on the call, I met Detroit resident Shadaisha Phillips.
She called Williams to tow her car to the mechanic shop after it wouldn’t start.
“When did you figure out your car wasn’t starting?” I asked.
“Yesterday at work, I’ll normally let it run for 20 minutes because it’s a little older,” said Phillips. “Yesterday… was the second day of it being extremely cold like it was, so I figured that was what it was, I sat on the side of the road for a good two hours.”
Related Video: Tips to keep up with car maintenance to start the new year and deal with winter weather
I also came to the Telsa charging station at the Meijer off of 8 Mile in Detroit to see how people with electric vehicles are doing in this cold weather.
“It sucks, I don’t have a charger at my home, I think if there was one in my home, it would be better,” said Stephanie Johnson of Detroit.
Detroit resident Stephanie Johnson says she believes the cold weather played a role in her Telsa dying on Tuesday.
“I went to work yesterday with about 60 miles, I got to work about 13 miles from my home, got in my store about 7:30 in the morning, got off around 7 p.m. and it was at 0,” said Johnson.
As for Lavish Williams, he shared some tips on how to prepare your car for the cold.
“Preventive maintenance is always the way to go… get your batteries checked, because a lot of the failures start from the batteries,” said Williams. “These batteries, they don’t like cold weather.”
