Has Remote Start Become an Oklahoma Necessity?

With the morning temperature in the teens and the wind chill even colder in the single digits, I started to think about whether remote start on a vehicle has become a necessity in Oklahoma these days.

No lie, having grown up in Denver, there is no cold like the Oklahoma cold.

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Much like people like to talk about how dry heat is somewhat gentle, the arid icy weather in the mile-high city isn't that bad. We regularly went skiing in jeans and t-shirts.

You can't walk around without a heavy coat on when it gets this cold in Oklahoma - yet it's not as cold as it is in comfortable Colorado. It's weird, and probably due to the humid nature of out winters.

As a typical Millennial shorts-and-hoodie-wearing winter weather guy, one step out of the house this morning and I realized how much I miss the remote start I had on the Sierra Denali truck Southwest GMC loaned me over the holidays.

Side note - it's amazing how lush and green everything was at Thanksgiving.

Every morning while I had that impeccable ride, it was like a ritual. In the moments before gathering all of my work stuff - my bag, snacks, water bottle, etc - I would hit the start button on the remote.

While, at the time, I did it less for the warmth of the cab and more for the ridiculously throaty exhaust note out of that 6.2liter beast (honestly, I don't know how they got that exhaust passed through the EPA - it sounds mean), cold mornings like today have me missing the already heated seats and warm steering wheel.

Here's the lingering issue.

I'm a typical guy of my age. I've reached that point in life where WWII history is fascinating. Smoking meats is the best way to eat every meat. And I prefer the older things from past lives.

My better half likes to refer people to my decorating, saying my house looks more like an old-timey gas station than a home, so you get the point. My trusty and beloved old truck doesn't have a remote start - so something as impotently innocent in the finest example of a first-world problem is that.

The hum of the exhaust on a cold start, the warmth of the seats first thing in the morning, and the gentle heat as I grip the steering wheel as if I'm shaking hands with an old friend.

It's enough to inspire inviting the most technologically advanced vehicle on the road back into my driveway. After all, the thing will not only drive itself but will haul and tow just about anything I could hook onto it too.

It's just something else to think about while the cold has us all locked away in a warm house.

Content sponsored by Southwest Buick GMC.