Once upon a year, the SO, a cat, and I were making a major trip away from our usual domicile in the ‘way south territory to somewhere Cold. It started raining, then sleeting, and then we discovered that the windshield reservoir didn’t have the non-freezing stuff.
Major problem. Wasn’t like we could just turn around and go home, and it was another 150 miles or so to go in the dark with salty, dirty slush being thrown up by traffic.
This was back when Sears had large auto departments attached to their anchor stores in large malls. Threw ourselves on the Service Manager’s mercy: Said we’d buy the best windshield washer antifreeze they sold, dump it into the washer tank, and could we please park the car in their service department in the warm? For a half hour, tops, complete with the cat?
He gave us a fishy stare, thinking that maybe we were just looking for a close parking spot. But the filthy windshield, the subcompact loaded to the gills, our young, frustrated demeanor, and maybe the cat convinced him.
He let us leave the car in there while we went into the mall and Found Cocoa. In a half hour the hoses had thawed, we ran them and threw in more low-temp fluid, and all was well. It was a long time ago; I don’t think they charged us.
But big service areas like that aren’t as common as they used to be. Dealers, maybe, but it would be awkward with a Tesla in tow, unless you made it to a Service Center. AAA’s around here have big indoor service areas and might be amenable to the idea. And if you can find somebody’s garage with a door that shuts and a big enough space heater…
Good luck!
