Winter is here and BMWBLOG has a list of essentials for your BMW. Just like with most cars, when you drive a BMW doesn’t mean you can just turn the ignition on and forget about the winter weather. If you’re not careful, you can still get into some powdery trouble. Thankfully, there are a few simple ways to keep you and your car moving safely during the colder months. These are things we use to get ready our BMWs for the worst weather winter.

Snow Scraper

If you live where it snows, as we do, you will have to have one of these. BMWBLOG’s favorite is the type that has a scraper on one end and a brush on the other end. These tend to be longer and take up more room on the inside of your car, so it is best to store in the trunk or the back seat. The benefit of a snow brush/scraper is that you don’t get your arm soaked when knocking off snow. I like this FOVAL one because it’s about 2 foot long and gives good reach. In addition, it has a detachable scraper that helps when you get covered in ice.

FOVAL 27″ Snow Brush with Wider Detachable Ice Scraper

Winter Floor Mats

You don’t want to track snow and slush onto your carpeted floor mats. The mats that come from the factory in your BMW can easily get soaked. The slush tends to spill over into the carpet. Therefore, I like a good floor deep rubber style floor mat. My favorites for our BMW are either the OEM winter mats you buy from the BMW or WeatherTech mats. Both of these I’ve bought in the past and still use. I like them in black as it doesnt show the dirt as well. The OEM winter mats do not have the deep walls that WeatherTech does. This means the OEM winter mats are more prone to let slush get into your carpet. I find if I knock my feet off before I get in the car, it’s less likely to happen. See our review of the WeatherTech mats here.

Cell Phone Charges

This year-round essential is especially important in the winter. A dead phone won’t allow you to call for help if you get stuck in the dead of winter. Furthermore, in the cold, batteries are less efficient, so I definitely like to keep my cell phone topped off. We like this charger from Alkin which gives you the option of using either a USB-C or USB-A charging cables.

Wiper Fluid

Though this seems like a simple thing, it is so important. In bad weather, you end up using so much more wiper fluid to keep your windshield clean. Oddly enough, in a given year, I use more wiper fluid in the winter months than I do in all the other months combined. I like wiper fluid that is blue in hue and rated for well below freezing. This one from Peak is rated down to -20F/-29C

Wipers

We’d be remiss to recommend good wiper fluid if your windshield wipers are not also in good shape. If mine wear out, I like to purchase Bosch wipers. My experience has been BMW has used these as OEMs in the past all the way back to my E36 days (mid ’90s). They are easy to install and make a world of difference as old wipers get especially stiff and thus less effective in the cold. Make sure to enter your specific BMW to ensure proper size.

Winter Tires

Winter tires are the most expensive item on our list. I’ve driven on almost every brand of snow tires and the most important thing about choosing the right one is taken care of for you when you get snow tires installed. Snow tires by design are more flexible in the extreme cold and have more traction with more sipes that help grip the snow and ice. Snow tires help not only with traction to get going but also help you maintain control and most importantly stop. Bridgestone Blizzaks and Nokian Hakkapeliitta are just a few of my favorites.

Winter Tips Video:

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