If you leave the house with good driving conditions and a cold front moves in during the day, that trip home is a lot different than the morning drive. And this is when parking in the warm garage isn't helpful - until you can get home first. This is the kind of drive when the kids were paying attention and when the advice to avoid the brakes was delivered.

I haven't been able to find a nice-driving standard transmission vehicle for a reasonable price for many years. (If I want one now I have learned from a local friend and from Charmion's posts that VW is the way to go.) Trucks are untouchable now.

In winter in my old pickups I used to put a piece of 2x4 across the back at the tailgate side of the wheel wells and then load in 200-300 pounds of bagged potting soil, humate, and sand that would stay during the cold months and then get used in the garden in the spring. That kept the back end under much better control. The plank kept the bags from sliding forward.