In the cold and rain, a vehicle appears (3)
I believe the answer is:
'vehicle appears' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'in the cold and rain a' is the wordplay.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the cold' becomes 'c' (abbreviation, eg on taps).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'rain' becomes 'r' (this might be a standard abbreviation which I don't know about).
'c'+'r'='cr'
'cr' going around 'a' is 'CAR'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for car that I've seen before include "estate, perhaps" , "Motor vehicle" , "Means of transport" , "Four-wheeled vehicle" , "Road vehicle; rail coach" .)