No aircon? Am I bovvered.

[Bren]

My xantia was my first car with aircon.

 

I realised how good it was on our trip to devon - we got to Avonmouth and I did'nt want to skull fuck somebody to death like in previous years.

[rovamota]

Air con is for use all year round and it's great in the winter for demisting steamed up windows rapidly and keeping them clear, so it's an excellent safety device also. But in the summer it allows motorway cruising in comfort so that you can hear the stereo comfortably or just enjoy the peace and quiet. Driving at speed with the wind buffeting around open windows is very wearing on a long journey.

 

Buyers regard air con in a car today is as compulsory as a sunroof was in the '80s.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

It took me 7.5 hours to drive from Milton Keynes- Gatwick- Silverstone and back home to MK today a round trip of only 230 miles. Without a/c set at 21degrees,whilst sitting in 37degree heat in ,at times 6 lanes of crawling traffic, I would have killed someone and definitely wouldn't be looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow. As it is ,sitting here in the garden in my boxers ,drinking Magners is the first time I've sweated today.

[pompei]

I got the Saab re-gassed yesterday  -  money well spent.

 

The dual carriageway A180 is made of ridged concrete and the noise is too great to have the windows down.  In stop start slow moving traffic, there is no ventilation.  Plus it's full of black leather.  Can't see why you wouldn't.

 

The Fuhrer's Lexus has perforated leather seats that will blow hot or cold air through them  -  that is the best thing about the car.  

[Pete-M]

The ka has aircon, but using it saps quite a few horses (theres not that many to start with)

 

A long long time ago one of the car hire firms I worked for had an accidental batch of Malta spec 1.0 Corsa. Totally poverty spec but with aircon. Switching it on made the nose dive like you'd stood on the brakes.

[Asimo]

Thankfully I don't suffer from hay fever but I am interested that having aircon in a car helps hay fever sufferers. Any idea why that should be so?

[Pete-M]

AC cars mean you can keep the windows shut and they more often than not have pollen filters.

[In The Pit]

I'd just like to briefly live in a walk in fridge. When I saw briefly I mean maybe a week or two. Cheers.

Not car related but when I read that it reminded me of the summer of 1995 (one of the UK's hottest ever summers) my friends Mum was a milkwoman and she had her own cooler (massive fridge to store the milk) at the house, as teenagers to get out of the sun we decided to go and sit in the cooler for a while, well after half hour or so we went back outside, it was hell like walking into a fire, i've never felt heat like it.

[LC Torana]

The summer before last, I had the vintage 1976 aircon in my P6B regassed and brought back to operable condition for the first time in a decade.  Absolute bliss.

 

Mind you, air conditioning has come on in leaps and bounds in the intervening 40 years.  Ye olde aircon is cold enough and works brilliantly, but is hugely power-sapping and when I turn it on you can probably hear it from over there.

[warren t claim]

Aircon is an absolute must for my work car. Not just to keep me cool on hot days but also in winter to cool down pizzas so I can wolf them down quicker.

[Taff]

obvs the F has a floppy top but no A/C (although it was an option on the F). My monthly fuel consumption is around 38mpg and I tend to drive as often as possible with the roof down (which isn't great for your mpg). If I left the roof up, apparently my mpg would increase.

 

How much mpg is your a/c robbing you of?

[burraston2006]

 

How much mpg is your a/c robbing you of?

In my merc it usually drops by 3 or 4 mpg, but as I drive it like I stole it it doesn't really bother me!!

[DSdriver]

My Citroen CX 2.4 Familiale had aircon that knocked the fuel consumption back by about 10mpg.

[Bren]

I remember that the air con on the xantia sapped so much power that turning it on was like applying the handbrake.

 

Turning it off gave a noticeable increase in performance. If such a thing is possible with an XUD citroen.

[Lacquer Peel]

The least powerful car I've owned with functioning A/C was a 64BHP diesel/veg Skoda. There was a dip in power but it still kept up with quick traffic.

[panhard65]

obvs the F has a floppy top but no A/C (although it was an option on the F). My monthly fuel consumption is around 38mpg and I tend to drive as often as possible with the roof down (which isn't great for your mpg). If I left the roof up, apparently my mpg would increase.

 

How much mpg is your a/c robbing you of?

I had a Maserati biturbo spyder some years ago that I took to Le Mans. Going down we had the hood down all the way but as it was a lot hotter when we came back I had the hood up and air con on. I can't remember the exact figures but it was at least 10mpg better with the hood up. My fuel consumption is always shit no matter what I drive and I have never noticed the air con making it worse. I would rather be comfortable and lose a couple of mpg than sweating my bits off stuck on the M25 saving a couple of quid

[purplebargeken]

Fuck MPG, just make me cold. I also suffer with hayfever. I love winter, sorry.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

My Jag is a good spec for  hot weather: it is a pale colour, has a light coloured interior, heat insulating glass (whatever that is) and really powerful air conditioning. I have it set at about twenty degrees but it can be set much colder - and has no difficulty maintaining a properly low interior temperature (too cold) in the hot weather we have had.

 

The A/C doesn't affect performance and is quiet, but it does knock a couple of mpg off the average. Jaguars of my car's age are designed to run the A/C all the time - not just in hot weather.

[Negative Creep]

I love it. Driving around d with windows open is all well and good, until you are stuck in traffic or come back after its been parked in the sun all day

[cort1977]

Living in the UK I would agree that you don't need air con, it can be very nice to have for two weeks a year, but it is a want not a need.  

 

When you live somewhere properly hot, and even more importantly somewhere humid, then it is not a want but a necessity as Phil A says above.

 

As an aside I never understand why some people have a problem with using AC and/or fans when it's hot.   Whenever our family come to visit they are forever closing vents in the back of the car or opening windows in the house when the AC is on and then complaining that it is hot.   Yet when you go their house in the winter it's about 25 degrees inside and they're wandering about in t shirts FFS.