Don’t Let Your Eyes Fail You This Winter

At about this time every year, we highly recommend that you contact us to book a car service in South Auckland. A pre-winter car check and service in our fully equipped workshop will ensure your vehicle is in the best possible shape for cold-weather driving. Breaking down at any time of year is bad enough, but it’s even worse in the middle of winter. Do you really want to be stuck on the side of the road when it’s dark and freezing cold? We thought not.

Once you’ve booked in a car check at our Drury workshop, maybe you should make a booking of another kind? We’re talking about contacting an optometrist and scheduling an eye test. At this time of year, you’re going to be driving in the dark for significant amounts of time and If you usually struggle to see in such conditions and at night, it’s finally time to book yourself in for a much-needed eye exam.

Poor eyesight can affect your vision when driving in the dark, but other things can have an impact as well. Staring at oncoming lights is just one of them. Your eyes automatically adjust to the amount of light available so when you stare into the headlights of oncoming cars, your pupils contract. Then, when the light source has driven by and it becomes dark again, your pupils dilate. During this transformation from contracted to dilated, your eyes take a bit of time to adjust back to the darkness. This can leave you driving with significantly reduced vision for a period of time. The best thing to do when traffic is approaching is to keep your attention on the left-hand curb rather than focused on the oncoming lights and try to keep your speed steady.

Other things you can do to improve visibility is to keep your windows, lights and mirror clean. Doing this will be a big help in minimising glare and condensation, which will improve visibility at night. And when someone is following you and their lights are shining in your mirror use the snib underneath to angle the mirror down. This will reduce the distraction, while still allowing you to see if someone is following you without being blinded. One other tip; if your car has the functionality to do such a thing, dim your dashboard lights so they’re not as distracting while you’re looking out the windscreen.

All of these things will help you stay safe on the road. So book in that eye check, and contact us to book in that car service too!