We're about to experience overnight low temps in the teens and daily highs in the 20s. My car is 8 years old and though it has relatively low miles (60k), I'm increasingly mindful of increasing odds of breakdown. If the heater were not functioning, even an hour or two inside the Beltway waiting for a tow truck could become uncomfortable in such cold.

So I put more cold weather gear in the car (an SUV). The car inventory now includes:

fleece hats/neck gaiters/fleece sleeping bag liner (2)
down booties + down mittens
Smartwool socks
chemical warmers (I buy boxes of them from Costco)
Gore-tex hiking boots + Gore-tex gaiters + rain pants


For longer periods and periodic outdoor activities, I have in there:

long underwear
JetBoil
Cup 'o Soup packets, tea bags, cocoa, snacks (+ water, of course)

And emergency gear, incuding fire-making (lighters, matches, firesteel, beeswax candles, fatwood).

I have a 48-gallon Rubbermaid Action-Packer for storing this stuff in the car so the list goes on....

Are you ready to spend a few hours, or more, in the car on a bitter cold day?

We've had other threads on the subject of car survival but it is a discussion worth repeating and usually instructive.