Yes, your car could use a once over before this next bitter cold weekend too

DALLAS — If there is one thing that 44 years of auto repair business in North Texas have taught Malek Samadian, it's that Texans and their cars do not do winter well. "Ah yes, I agree with you," the owner of ESS Fleet Service in Dallas said in advance of an expected winter blast this coming weekend.

"Because you know people are not going to be ready," I asked him. "No they're not ready," he said in an auto repair shop on Dallas' east side that is already full of last minute appointments. "It already started," he said of the rush to get customers and their cars ready for winter weather.

"You can see the shop." He echoed the alerts and reminders published this week by AAA, reminding drivers to make sure their car batteries are new enough, strong enough, and terminals clean enough to withstand the coming temperatures in the low teens. Radiator fluid should be checked and topped off now, not just when temps start to drop.

Windshield wiper fluid, Samadian says, should be of the chemical variety too not just water like some drivers might think is good enough. "In the freeze, it's frozen, it busts your tank, it busts the pump and everything and you have to spend a lot of money to fix it," he said. And your tires, of course, should have healthy tread and be inflated to their proper pressures: PSI numbers you can normally find on the door jam of the driver side door.

Which brings us to this doozy of a statistic from AAA. "83% of Americans don't know how to check the air pressure on their tires," said Daniel Armbruster with AAA Texas. "That's kind of frightening actually," I joked. "Yes," he agreed with a laugh. Tire pressure sensors, TPMS, in modern vehicles, can alert you that tire pressures have suddenly dropped in severely cold weather.

If you are part of that un knowing 83%, experts highly recommend you have the tires checked and properly inflated by someone in the other 17. "Because if you hit the ice and your tire pressure is up," Samadian said of improperly inflated tires, "your vehicle is going to slide hitting other vehicles, walls, and things like that." "Whether there's winter precipitation or not, just be careful out on the roadways and make sure you use common sense," said Armbruster with AAA Texas.

As for people who don't use this automotive common sense, Samadian takes us back to that first bitter cold morning three years ago and the North Texas roads that were covered in ice and snow for an entire week. "I have a lot of my customers call me and say hey I'm stuck, can you get the wrecker?" He says don't be that guy this time.

Have your car ready for this next winter experience too. Automotive experts also recommend you keep emergency supplies in your vehicle at all times, especially during severe weather. Items such as warm clothing, flashlights, a first aid kit, jumper cables, and emergency non perishable food in case you do become temporarily stranded..