Sadly, lots of motorists spend the winter months commuting in a cold, damp box of misted up gloom. If you’re going to be that miserable you might as well be on a bus. However, it’s quite easy to keep the car dry, warm and comfortable until you can open the windows again without getting a soaked shoulder. The next time you find yourself having to wipe the inside of the windscreen, try these and get back to enjoying the car:

1) Get the inside of the windscreen squeaky clean – the build up of grime from the demister attracts moisture and makes misting up much worse. As a general principle, keeping the inside of the windows clean dramatically reduces misting up and means you use the heated window and aircon much less, which in turn means you use less fuel. Clean the windows and save the planet!

2) Lift the bonnet and look into the plenum chambers (chambers at the back of the engine bay, in the corners just below the windscreen). The heater air intake comes from one of them so make sure there’s no water lying in the bottom, otherwise damp air will be drawn it through the heater and blown onto the windscreen. There will be a drain to prevent this but they often get blocked with leaves or general debris.

3) Check pollen filter cover is on properly – these can be mis-fitted when the pollen filter element is renewed, leaving the filter to get wet and send damp air through the heater system.

4) Check for other dampness inside the car – feel the carpets etc. Door membranes were a problem on some Golfs, leading to water in the rear footwells. Lift the boot floor and have a look in the spare wheel well too – an often forgotten area which can gather water which then evaporates through the inside of the car.

5) Check the fresh air/recycling switch position and make sure the flap’s working – you should hear a noticeable difference in the heater noise when it moves from one position to the other.

6) Finally, take any wet coats, schoolbags and umbrellas out of the car when you get home – nothing makes a car mist up overnight more effectively than a coat soaked in last night’s downpour on the way to the car park.