If You Have To Leave The House With Your Car, Follow These Tips To Stay Safe

• Our cars and SUVs are loaded with surfaces we touch and they need to be cleaned.
• Skoda, one of Volkswagen’s holdings, has put together a clear list of what needs attention.
• The best thing to do is stay indoors but many of us still need to go out.

Although we should all stay home (if you do, we’ve got a great list of stuff to watch), sometimes you need to leave the house to get milk for the kids. We generally pay no mind to the surfaces we touch, both on the inside and the outside of our cars, but in these times of the spreading coronavirus, they’ve become important areas that need cleaning.

Here are the 5 ways to stay safe in your car during the Coronavirus pandemic:

1. If you have to go anywhere by car, go alone.
2. If you can’t go alone, protect yourself and all the other passengers with respirators or at least face-masks. Make sure you have all the contact details of all the other passengers.
3. Disinfect your car thoroughly. Focus on the places you touch most often. Don’t forget to wash your hands!
4. Use protective gear: face-masks and respirators. You might fid a face-mask in your car’s first aid kit.
5. Fill up safely. Use contactless payment methods and mobile apps whenever possible.

Skoda has taken the time to detail and image all the areas and surfaces we touch when we use our cars. They spoke to Jana Parmová, senior doctor at ŠKODA, and she said that despite the car being something like an isolation pod, once at the store, we touch surfaces and eventually do the same once we return to it.

Here are the interior and exterior parts that require attention as indicated by Dr. Parmová:

“Disinfecting the steering wheel, gearstick, handbrake, door handles, radio and infotainment controls would occur to everyone, but don’t forget the stalks on the steering column (indicators and windscreen wipers, cruise control), elbow rests, seat position controls, door frames and exterior door handles or luggage compartment handle.” On the outside, make sure to scrub the door handles, door and window frames and the luggage compartment handle.

As for what to use to clean the car, a solution with at least 70% alcohol will be effective against the coronavirus, and isopropyl alcohol won’t damage surfaces. Within this part of the release, Skoda provides a link to Consumer Reports where they recommend what household products to use when cleaning.

Skoda’s good Doctor also offers other tips for when filling the car up and when not travelling alone. As much as we might not like this, this is now required reading.