I live in an apartment in Tennessee. We do not get huge amounts of snow but do have ice. What can I do to prevent coming out in the morning to a vehicle encased in ice?
You can cover it with a thin sheet of plastic dropcloth.
Move to a house or find sheltered parking.
You might lessen your burden by covering the windshield with some kind of cardboard held down by the windshield wipers or installing a block heater if you have a place to plug it in. However, you will still need to clear the rest of the car of snow and ice before you drive.
Here’s another option:
@lparks…good suggestions from @252525 and @Whitey. You’re lucky if you don’t have to go out every two days to move your vehicles for the snow plows. When I lived in Maine we had to go out at 3AM every 2 days to change the sides of the street we parked on in base housing. Count yourself lucky if you don’t have to do this all winter. If you did not move your vehicle…it would be buried under several feet of snow by the gigantic snow plows.
The locks and windows are your biggest concerns. When at work with ice storms forecast, I placed card board over the windshield and held them in place with the wiper blades. Make sure your locks are well lubed with graphite. The worse case senereo is, you may have to heat the key up…not a big deal. Make sure you have plenty of washer fluid and a backup jump battery if you’re is suspect. That’s about it.
Letting your car warm the inside will make ice removal much easier. Just give your self time and start earlier. But Tennessee ? I doubt that it’s a frequent enough problem to require anymore then this.
@dagosa There are custom ice screens you can put over your windshield which are held in place by the front doors. You open one door, insert the sheet, close it and stretch the sheet over your windshield and the open the other front door and secure it. I used on for years when I had to park outside at work.
If lock and door weatherstrip ice is a regular issue in addition to the windshield and back glass…
a whole car cover is in order …
They even make some that lock in place to avoid theft of the cover.
@Docnick
You are right. I had one years ago that worked just that way. It worked well…but when it finally tore (I got lazy), I went back to cardboard. " Why pay for something that works well when you can get something that doesn’t for free ? " The Maine redneck creed .
For lock and weather seal ice, I recommend silicone lubricant. Wipe the neoprene seals down with it to prevent icing. It repels the water. And spray it directly into the lock keyholes.
@same. That’s great advice for conditioning the seals and making them easier to separate after an ice storm. Silicone will help to open a balky lock…a few times. I am still reluctant to use or recommend anything but graphite in traditional locks. If there is a choice between wd40 and silicone, silicone wins hands down. I know there are a plethora of opinions on this. So I’ll just say this. If all I had was one type of lubricant for every material, I would choose silicone. I just think that locks deserve graphite.
Graphite works great, but it may be the messiest substance known to man.
I concede ! But if dad walks in with a little graphite under his nails, mom will be more impressed that he actually did something. A whiff of silicone drives the cat out the door.
You mean all I need is a little silicone to drive the cat out of the house! Outstanding!!! 
Yeah you can cover it with about anything such as canvas. When my wife through our lined drapes out, I grabbed them out of the garbage and use them for drop cloths. It would work fine for covering a car.