So we went to Yakima yesterday and got a new car battery and air filter. The filter has been replaced before, but we still had the original battery from around 11 years ago, and they're only meant to last around 3 years or so, so I guess we've been lucky. However, it was giving us problems during the 2011 - 2012 winter with starting, and even gave us problems sometimes during non-winter weather and wouldn't start on the first or second key turn. Additionally, the battery once died from forgetting to turn the emergency flashers off, which shouldn't have happened, since they're emergency flashers. Had we not changed the battery, I'm pretty sure this upcoming winter would have done it in and really given us problems.
Seriously? Last winter sucked. There was no snow. In Alberta. The land of four foot drifts. No snow. None.