When you know bad weather is coming, give yourself plenty of time to dig your car out. How long it will take to remove the ice from the car depends on how thick it is and the time of day. If it's early in the morning, you'll be chipping at solid ice, but if you can wait a few hours, the sunlight can make your job easier.
Turn on your car and set the defrosters for the windshield and the back window as high as they will go.
Brush off any excess snow, starting at the roof and working your way down. Use a long, sturdy window scraper with a brush or a broom so you don't scratch the paint.
Spray windshield de-icer on all the windows and mirrors and give it a few minutes to go to work. Heet Windshield De-Icer is a brand that claims to instantly melt ice on contact, but you will still have to scrape.
Spray your locks with lock de-icer so they can start thawing out while you work on the windows.
Forcefully chip at the center of the windshield with the corner of the scraper to gouge some bits of ice out. Work across the front and chip out a line of holes as big as you can. You want to weaken the ice to make it easier to scrape as it melts.
Work your way around the car, chipping a line across all the windows. If the ice isn't too thick, circle the car once. If it's really tough, circle the car two or three times, chipping out lines near the top and bottom of the windows.
Briskly scrape back and forth with the scraper at the holes on the windshield. By now the defroster will have started melting the ice. Keep scraping at any holes that are easily widening for you, and spray de-icer as needed on stubborn spots. All the windows must be cleaned enough so your vision isn't obstructed; don't stop scraping until only about 1/4 inch of ice remains around the frame of the windshield.
Work your way from window to window and both mirrors in the same manner, clearing all of them of ice by repeatedly chipping, scraping and applying de-icer.
Chip at the lock with the ice scraper and spray it as necessary until you can slide your key into the lock.
