For years I've kept a folding entrenching tool type shovel in my car. I went to college in Vermont and lots of people carried full sized snow shovels in their cars. My feeling was always that a snow shovel is great at home for clearing fresh snow, but if I'm off the road someplace, or trying to get over a mound of snow at the curb, it is likely that my car will be high centered on packed snow and a plastic or even metal snow shovel wouldn't be up to hacking away at the compacted snow.

What does everyone think? I've never needed my entrenching tool, but I'm working on getting my girlfriend's car in shape and she looked at me funny when I showed her the cold steel shovel I ordered. I explained why I went with it and she seems to get it now.

Am I doing the wrong thing and leaving my girlfriend poorly equipped? Also, I ordered the same shovel as a gift for my brother, to keep in his Suburban. Back when that truck belonged to my dad we got it high centered and didn't have anything to get it off!

I'll concede that having both might not be bad, but space is somewhat at a premium, so if you had to pick one...