On days like this, freezing rain's left many Portage la Prairie motorists with frozen vehicle doors. Craig Dunn Motor City operations manager Joel McPhail has some tips.

"Pouring hot water around the frame of your door works really well," says McPhail. "It's obviously going to give you quick access. Another thing that works well, that most people don't realize, is taking a small credit card. It all depends on your vehicle and the application that works, but you can run the credit card around the door handles and around the windows. That'll break that little bit of ice around there."

He notes you should never use an ice scraper to open your doors, seeing as you'll remove paint from your vehicle. McPhail says another common problem includes wiper blades frozen to the windshield. If you turn on your blades without checking, you could tear the rubber off the blades, or worse -- damage the wiper blade motor.

McPhail recommends you avoid getting into your car from the trunk, seeing as once you're inside and you try pushing the doors open, the ice is still there and you could damage your door panel. 

He says another common problem includes wiper blades frozen to the windshield. If you turn on your blades without checking, you could tear the rubber off, or worse -- damage the wiper blade motor.

McPhail adds window regulators are motors that move your power windows up and down. If the window's frozen to the door, and you try to use the power windows, you could break the motor. He explains we just need to use a little common sense. If something's frozen and you have tried it once without success, don't keep trying to make it work. You have to do something to thaw the ice first.

Lock de-icer is always handy. It depends on the model of your car. Many cars now have key fobs that unlock the doors without a key, making de-icer unnecessary. On older models, lock de-icer does work well. If you are unable to stick your key into the key cylinder, if there's any moisture inside it will freeze and disallow it. 

Many think gas-line antifreeze is necessary to put in your gasoline tanks during the winter. McPhail says that's unnecessary. He explains there are additives put into gasoline that are listed on service station gas pumps. You don't need the antifreeze, but it won't hurt anything if you do.