Winter’s not far away and for plenty of us, it’s time to enjoy the last of the good weather by taking our cars out for long, pleasant and spirited drives. For those lucky enough to have toy cars, it’s also time to think about preparing to store these cars for the winter. But the coming of winter doesn’t mean that we have to give up our love for driving. We just have to prepare ourselves a little too, and this means learning or reviewing some techniques that ice and snow driving requires. For residents in the UK, this opportunity comes by way of the Winter Driving Course at the Mercede-Benz Driving Academy in Weybridge. No multi-day course is needed here. An hour’s worth of instruction with a Driving Academy coach in a stimulated environment is normally enough to inculcate a driver with the potential hazards of low traction roads you’ll encounter in a few weeks.

As always, make sure that you have proper winter tires on your Mercedes appropriate to the conditions you usually drive in. And although a personal locator beacon might be overkill unless you drive out in the boondocks, making sure that you have your phone fully charged before every trip is a minor but potentially lifesaving measure.