How many times have you found yourself in this scenario? The forecast called for temperatures somewhere in the 20′s, and you find yourself leaving early to take the kids to school before work. Everyone piles in the car shaking and shivering. You turn the key and are welcomed by a blast of ice-cold air from the dash vents, an excellent way to wake up but not nearly the most pleasant. Fast forward a few minutes later, and your vehicle is now nice and toasty just in time for the kids to hop out and head into school, runny noses all around from the 10-15 minutes freezing in the backseat while your ride warmed up en route. At this point, you also find yourself with a case of the sniffles, freezing feet and numb hands from gripping that ice-cold steering wheel. Does any of this sound familiar?

If this is your typical winter morning experience, it’s time for a change. Introducing – Remote Start Systems from DeDona Tint & Sound! Many people are still confusing this feature with keyless entry, but although they normally work hand-in-hand, they are two entirely different animals. Regardless of whether your transmission is automatic or manual, remote start can likely be installed on your vehicle, and the benefits really stack up!

We’ve briefly covered this particular feature in the past, however the winter months are suddenly upon us once again (bringing along those bone-chilling cold morning starts along with them) and remote start systems are at peak usefulness at this time of year. Of course, the same is true for those blazing hot summer months, remote starting the vehicle to allow a few precious minutes for the air conditioning to work its magic, so you and your passengers don’t feel like you just stumbled into a sauna.

Anyone of us who have nearly frozen on a cold morning, our breath fogging the windshield, know how useful remote start can be. The suffocating heat in summertime can also be a fresh reminder of just how pleasant your driving experience might be if you had the ability to remotely start your vehicle. Simply start your vehicle’s engine from inside your comfortably heated (or air conditioned) home and allow it time to warm up for a few minutes, then instead of stepping into an icebox or oven, your engine will be properly warmed up and cabin temperature much more comfortable for you, family or friends.

The benefits don’t stop at personal comfort, though. Starting and immediately operating a vehicle in cold weather results in some fairly severe conditions for the engine itself, especially in city driving rife with stop-and-go traffic with lots of acceleration. Strenuous operation in cold weather without adequate time for warming up can reduce the lifespan of many engine components and can generally cause a hard hit to performance in the long run. Remote starting the vehicle and allowing even a few minutes for the engine to properly warm up really works wonders for overall engine health.

It is highly recommended to use a remote system that has an effective range of 400 to 500+ feet. The large distance offered by some systems makes remote starting much more accessible, especially in areas such as parking lots, or if your vehicle is normally parked at a substantial distance from your home.

If you’d like to have control of your vehicle from anywhere, not just a few hundred feet away, there are more advanced systems available allowing for remote start of a vehicle from literally any location. A prime example of a system like this is the excellent Drone Mobile service offered by CompuStar (we carry this system too! See our blog post covering this system for more in depth information), which allows users to start and stop a vehicle’s engine, operate windows and trunk release, and even track where the vehicle is, how fast it is going, and many other useful features.

Don’t let another biting-cold winter season come and go without experiencing the true convenience and comfort of a remote start system.