for me, the winter brings months worth of charge temps hovering around the freezing mark. If I ever decide to upgrade the intercooler, I plan to remove it in the winter and return the car to a tune designed for a stock intercooler. Winter destroyed the intercooler on my ST and our Escape. I spent hours this spring fixing all of the fins that were smashed from rock salt, ice, road debris. This was with the trim installed on the bumper to reduce the openness of the intercooler inlet in the bumper. The tubes are also very dented, which can't be fixed. If you live in an area that uses salt, I would not subject your new intercooler to the abuse.