[HarryT]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

I have a car related question for our European friends.

Here in Quebec, during winter time, they sprinkle salts over the roads to melt snow and ice. Do you have the same kind of road maintenance in your regions?

In the UK, yes, absolutely. They spray a mixture of salt and sand onto the major roads overnight whenever it's below zero.

This... proccess does incredible damage to cars, so much that most all vehicles must be discarded soon in the vicinity of their tenth year due to corrosion unless one has the means to wash vehicles after each use. Heh!

Most modern cars sold in the UK have extremely good anti-corrosion coatings which withstand it pretty well. In the "old days", before such coatings were developed, it used to be a major problem.

Try that at -35C!

There's absolutely no point in putting salt on the roads at -35C . The reason they do it is that a mixture of salt and water has a much lower freezing point than water alone, so it stops ice forming, but it only lowers the freezing point down to about -15C, so if it's colder than that (which it almost never is in the UK) it doesn't work.