Remote Car Starters – Freezing cold Maine temperatures have arrived! For most of us, that means cold mornings facing a cold vehicle to head off to work in. No one enjoys suiting up, running out to the car to start it, and running back in to finish getting ready for work. If you’re tired of freezing for the first five miles of your drive, a remote starter might be for you.
A remote vehicle starter is an installed wireless, radio-frequency-controlled device that starts your car’s engine using a remote control fob or phone app. The distance the remote can operate the engine depends on the model of starter installed.
Although there’s no doubt a remote starter will make your drive warm and comfortable, there are actually several other benefits to installing one in your vehicle:
Your car is a cold icebox in the morning for your drive to work. It’s just as cold again after sitting in the parking lot at work all day. Using a remote starter allows you to start your car from inside (where there’s heat!), and let it heat up before you have to get in and drive it. You and your passengers will enjoy a much more comfortable ride during cold months.
We all do it. Get in a frosty car and being too impatient to wait for it to heat up, so we drive off barely able to see out the windows. When you can warm up your car ahead of your drive, the ice and frost has a chance to melt on the windshield and windows. It is much easier to scrape away or simply use the wipers to remove the remnants. A warm car makes for a much safter commute because you can see all around you clearly! A warm car also melts snow and ice on headlights and brake lights so you can be seen better by other drivers.
When an engine is warmed up and all the fluids are moving easily, the engine doesn’t have to work as hard as with a cold engine. Therefore, gas mileage is better.
When you use a remote vehicle starter, the doors lock automatically once you activate the engine via the remote. No one can get inside the car unless they have a key. Many remote starters also have a set time that the motor will run before shutting off if a key hasn’t been inserted. Many also are designed to stop the engine immediately if a pedal is pushed without a key being inserted (which is what a thief would try to do).
GPS-enabled remote starters with a smartphone app let you track your vehicle on your phone so you know the location of your vehicle for safety and security purposes at all times.
Cold weather affects your car’s engine and motor oil. Things simply don’t work as well when they are freezing cold. Running a car cold is harder on the engine. The oil is also thicker cold, making it more difficult for it to flow properly through the engines’ parts. When you drive off right away on cold days, your engine has to work harder and therefore consumes more gas.
Using a remote car starter gives your vehicle extra time to reach normal operating temperature. Warming the engine up before driving a vehicles makes the oil less viscous which allows it to flow freely through the engine. With a warm engine, there is also less wear and tear on the internals of the transmission. Allowing your vehicle time to warm up before driving increases the life and performance of the engine and other mechanical parts.
In Maine, people appreciate the value of a warm (or cool) vehicle! Vehicles with a remote car starter installed are shown to have higher resale values than vehicles without them.
There are a lot of remote car starter systems on the market, and Downeast Audio installs the highest quality options. Many have phone apps that accompany the product so you can check on all sorts of vehicle details from your phone.
One thing you don’t want to do is trust the installation of your car starter to just anyone! Our installers are trained, certified and experienced in the precise requirements of remote starter installation.
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