As I have said many times here, my car is a daily driver that I spend many hours keeping pristine and enjoy both driving and polishing it.

Today, while at school, (I teach high school business and technology classes) we had a storm move in that began with sleet and freezing rain. When I came out to go home, I scraped the windows and noticed that the mirrors were frozen over with high gloss hard ice. I knew that if I tried to scrape them, I would likely damage the mechanisms.

I decided to rely on my rear view mirror and be very careful. I had always wondered just how well the heated mirrors on these cars really worked, but never really knew. I assume that they are tied in with the switch for the rear window defogger, but don't really know for sure.

Anyway, about two or three miles down the road, I noticed that the ice was melted against the glass of the mirror underneath the ice and in just another minute or two had cleared off of the mirrors entirely!!!! WOW, they work great!!!! This is on a fourteen year old car (99's RULE) and works like new!!!!!!

Oh, by the way, it just turned 78,000 miles and means that I have put 10,000 miles on it since the end of May last year without a single glitch. The speakers are dried out, but as Evil Twin has pointed out, they are paper or cardboard so that is inevitable and easily remedied.

Just thought somebody might be semi-interested......

DSTURBD

 

Great feature on DD cars ! I have been caught in nasty storms a couple of times. Heated missors worked fine, tires not so much ---

 

Yes, the heated mirrors are a nice thing to have in the colder climates. Mine has worked well on those few occasions I have needed it.

 

Interesting.......while I don't anticipate driving in conditions that would benefit from this feature, I have to admit that while I was pretty sure our C5s had heated door mirrors, I didn't know how they were activated.

This post had me heading for my owner's manual, and it seems heated door mirrors are included with the dual-zone air conditioning option. And, as DSTURBD suspected, they are activated when you press the rear window de-fog button.

You learn something every day.

 

Thankyou very much for the positive reply!!!! As to tires, I must admit that I still have "summer only" tires on it and am, therefore, quite careful. Tires for these cars are a long-term savings plan for some of us. I do plan to put on high quality non-runflat all season tires this spring, though. Probably Michelin Pilot Sport A/S's

I do have to say that the Nitto's that were on it when I bought it last spring have performed admirably in adverse weather conditions that they were not designed to deal with!!! As I'm sure you know if you drive yours all year, the mantra is "Drive like a genius, not like a dick!" Judging by your signature pic though, I'm quite sure you understand the limits of various tires even better than I do!!

I've been lucky so far and still have multiple appendages crossed 'til the snow ends!!

DSTURBD

 

Thanks to Allred and Vetteman Jack for your replies also!! Allred, you just expressed what makes me so proud to be a teacher!! Anytime you can inspire interest and curiosity in someone, you have just attained your purpose. To teach is not to hand over knowledge that may or may not be correct, it is to generate curiosity and interest to the point that a person will seek out the answer for themselves!!! In this manner, it lasts a lifetime and may be shared many times over!!

Sorry, I don't come here to wax philosophical, sometimes it just takes over, dang it and I have no control!!!!!!! Picture Jim Carry in "Me, Myself, and Irene"!!!!!!

DSTURBD