What should I check before a long drive?

Start low and look along the glass at an angle rather than straight on. Chips and short cracks near the bottom edge of a windshield are easy to miss from the driver's seat and are exactly where a break is most likely to run once the defroster and the highway vibration get to work.

Check that every window goes all the way up and stays there, including the rear glass. A regulator that is starting to fail usually gives a warning — a slow window, a grind, a pane that drops an inch overnight — and it is far cheaper to deal with at home than two states away.

Look at the wiper blades for torn rubber and check that the washer reservoir is full, since road spray on a pitted windshield at dusk is worse than either problem alone. If you have a sunroof, open it and pour a little water into the front drains to confirm they still flow; a clogged drain shows up as a wet headliner after the first rain, not before.