J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

When looking at buying a car, most (apart from superminis and budget specials) seem to have Aircon these days, you can get an eight grand car with aircon when ten years ago it cost an extra 1200 quid, has it got cheaper and more efficient to make or isnt it as good ?

My old Audi 100 had it and I think it had the same system as a refrigerated van, it litterally got uncomfortable to have it onwheras I have been in a few Fords and Rovers with it and its hard to tell if its doing anything.

What cars have you been in with really good aircon ?

Remember discovering Aircon in the states in 1990 in a Honda Civic, got in wound the windows down and got told to wind then up again, ten minutes later I had discovered what Aircon does, shows how far cars have come really in a value for money kind of way and what a peasant they must of thought I was !

NACRO

VAG group cars with climatronic auto air con will pump out some seriously cold air in my experience.

The Fords I've had less so

and perplexingly some Vectra's I had had very cold air con- others blew out warm air whatever setting they were on and all were brand new- that's the joy of Vectra motoring.

My Subaru doesn't have it- much to my disgust now that there is red hot weather.

pslewis

It saps 20BHP - so pointless!!

Pete

NACRO

I could spare 20bhp as I think having aircon would allow me to drive the thing faster in hot weather-my hands are so sweaty I need to wear driving gloves and that would just be sad. Also leather seats and no air con is not a good mixture once you get over 25 degrees.

Huxley

No it dont Pete your only jelous as I have fitted to our car and you aint got it in the scoob


Huxley

PiNkEyE69

My Focus has it and over the past week or so it's been a godsend, especially after getting into the car that's been parked in the sun all day long
IMO it does chuck out some really cold air, cools the car down to confortable temp levels about 2 mins or so after switching it on after being in the sun all day.
And to think, The only reason I chose the Focus over a scoob I saw at the same price was the aircon (and lack of turbo on the scoob )

[Edited by PiNkEyE69 - 23/06/2003 09:42:12]

ChrisB

It could sap 100BHP but it makes no differnce when you're sat in yet another traffic jam on the Motorway. Aircon is the difference between keeping cool and chewing on the exhaust fumes from everone else around you...

beemerboy

chrisb, you took the words right of my keyboard....

BB

PSLewis, you wont need it, as i'm told old people always feel the cold.....

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

My Audi 100 had it and it only had 120 bhp (not as slow as I thought it would be but still not fast) when overtaking I used to knock the aircon off and revel in the extra acceleration, it was like having nitrous ! (not really but you get the idea)

Crush

I've gotta say, It's good to be cool, but there's the issue of weight & drain of power.

Which is why the Elise is probably my ideal car Although I was disgusted to see that the S3 has Air-Con Ok, so they saved weight on the wheels (20kg), but why not just consider that to be more weight saved, as opposed to a justification for fitting a radio, air-con & leccy windows?

Although the Peugeot WRC cars now have air conditioning

john_s

iTrader: (1)

I tend to have the aircon on most of the time in my car... great in summer, helps keep the windows clear in winter. Can always knock it off if you need all the bhp going to the wheels.

It's pretty smooth on the scoob, as it was on my astra. On my V6 mondeo however, there was a very noticeable loss of power when the compressor kicked in.

John

brickboy

In the Passat & A4, the climatronic only takes 8bhp, which isn't too bad. It can blow pretty cold too. Even so, I leave it switched off most of the time, unless I need it. Psychological, you see

My Volvo T4 had poor aircon -- it blew slightly cool, rather than cold.

what would scooby do

My SAAB 9-3 aircon is very cold, it turns your fingers blue

wideboyuk

My missus has it in her Freelander but it doesn't seem to do anything! Is that a Landrover 'feature' or is the system likely to be fcuked?