Protect Your Health and Your Car with These Sanitizing Tips from Arlington Toyota
By now we all know the basic rules to stay healthy: wash hands with soap and water for 20 seconds; use hand sanitizer in the absence of soap; and try to keep your hands from touching your face (which can be hard to remember!). As Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread, we remain vigilant and are taking every precaution to keep our Arlington staff and customers as safe as possible.
Here at Arlington Toyota, we have full-time cleaning crews working seven days a week and we’re also frequently sanitizing commonly touched surfaces around the clock. We are open for business, though instead of a handshake to congratulate customers, we’re instead using elbow bumps, foot taps and smiles to celebrate new purchases. And if you prefer to buy from home, we’ve got that covered, too. You can complete your purchase online at arlingtontoyota.com and we’ll deliver it to your door. Need parts? We’ll deliver those, too. And for service, just drop your vehicle and we’ll give you a free ride home to limit your interaction as much as possible.
We’re also checking the most trusted health sources multiple times each day to ensure we are up to date with the latest recommendations and we encourage you to do the same. Those sites include the CDC, WHO, EPA and locally with the Department of Health and they all encourage frequent sanitizing to stay as safe as possible.
But what about the car you drive every day? If you think about it, everything your hands come in contact with eventually touches your door handles, steering wheel, radio and climate control knobs – – and it all adds up to prime breeding ground for the presence of germs. That’s the nasty news. The good news is, we’re sharing some easy ways to keep your car sanitized and protected with tips you can use long after coronavirus has gone.
If you have leather seats, think of them like your hands and use a mix of household soap and water, making a nice lather for at least 20 seconds. It’s best to start with a pair of disposable gloves, then use a small amount of water to get your leather surface damp before working in the soap. Soap breaks down the lipid (fatty) bilayer of many viruses, dissolving the fat membrane and killing pathogens while also being gentle on leather. To further protect your seats, you can apply a leather conditioner after cleaning your seats and letting them sufficiently dry.
Soap and water are also best for your dashboard but be careful of buttons and controls. Use a cloth with soap and water for larger surfaces but use an alcohol-based wipe or other virus-killing cleaning for your controls to minimize moisture exposure. You can find a full list of cleaners that can kill viruses by visiting the EPA’s website here.
Of course, the most frequently touched surfaces in a car are the steering wheel, seat belts, door handles and gear shift and for those, it’s best to keep a container of sanitizing wipes in the car and use them each time you enter the car. If your steering wheel is leather, soap and water are still the most gentle, but staying healthy is what’s most important so use good judgement and do your best.
The coronavirus is certainly strong but this we know for sure: our community is stronger.
We thank you for your loyalty to Arlington Toyota and encourage you to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have; we’d love to hear from you and wish you the best of health in the days ahead.
