[Gaur]

Recently owned and sold vehicles :

2013 Wagon-r 1.0 : average in hot sun, took some time to cool, other wise satisfactory, but i felt the a.c robs off power from the engine, was particularly noticeable in bumper to bumper traffic or while overtaking, had to rev more to get the desired pickup.

2010 Innova G : Good overall performance, no complaints whatso ever, fairly reliable as well.

Currently owned vehicl :

2023 Ignis : Much better compared to Wagon r, i absolutely harsh sun it takes some time but once cooled no issues, doesn't have rear vents and at times rear seat passengers have complained about less cooling which i feel is to do with poor front vent designs/location, it sprays a lot on cool air on the steering wheel which at times freezes my hands but its not directed well to the rear.

Test driven vehicle:

Scorpion N Petrol : found the A.C to be absolute chiller, best experience ever. vehicle was parked outside showroom in afternoon, absolutely no shade whatsoever.
A.C cooled up the entire cabin before i was able to adjust my seat and understand the controls of a new vehicle.

[IshWish]

Ignis 2020: Very weak AC. Doesn't work at all above 40 degrees. Takes a lot of time to chill in the cabin.

Figo Aspire 2018: Very Strong AC. Usually takes 5 minutes to chill the whole cabin.

[Totoro11]

Originally Posted by NagaBond

Hyundai i10 2010 - Pathetic. It was OK for first year or so. Then worsened and despite multiple complaints, tests, filter changes and refills it never recovered. In the last couple of years of usage, it hardly worked.

Completely agree with you on this as i too have personally experienced it

Originally Posted by ashivas89

Maruti Swift (1st gen facelift 1.2): Surprisingly good aircon, but pathetic cabin insulation means that it doesn't stay cool too long.
__________________________________________________ __

Marutis, Hondas and Toyotas have great aircon for the respective segments they operate in.
The Koreans are a hit or a miss.

Two close friends chose Swift while I chose i10 when buying our first cars. While we did not feel too much difference in the initial years, over time Maruti ACs stayed strong while Hyundai's performance degraded. I think experience of making cars for India does reflect in the ownership comfort (suspension, AC, cost of service, price of parts etc). Tata cars are also more suited to our hot environment, based on whatever cabs i have sat in - Indica, Indigo, Manza, Tigor, Tigor-EV

[superchamp]

Having owned and driven multiple cars over the years, have rated the AC's of cars in decreasing order

• Toyota Innova Crysta - Cools the entire interior in minutes. Very powerful AC's rapidly cools down the entire cabin
• Tata Hexa - Almost at par with the Crysta
• Toyota Innova (old)- Old car but still AC's serve the purpose. Absolutely comfortable and is a testament to the build quality
• Maruti Suzuki Ertiga - Not as powerful as the above cars but with multiple vents in the cabin, cools dwn the cabin pretty fast. Very noisy though
• Honda Jazz - Lack of rear AC limits the effect but is efficient though
• Maruti Suzuki WagonR
• Maruti Suzuki Swift
• Maruti Suzuki Alto
  

[TechnoBloop]

Surprised to see owners saying Vento's AC performs poorly. My Vento Highline 1.6MPI has a chiller of an AC despite being 8 years old, it just takes 2-3 minutes to cool the cabin when the car has been parked under the afternoon sun in Delhi/Noida (even in peak summers). The AC does it's job marvelously!

For the A6 too, the AC is excellent as expected. I never really have to fiddle with both the car's AC controls too much.

[DasAuto1985]

I have a VW Virtus 1.0L AT. I am being lenient here when i say the AC is bad. Had gone to Tirupati, Chennai and it definitely cannot cater to Indian summers, even after the "AC upgrade". I sat in my brother's new gen Creta and boy the AC felt amazing, especially after sitting in my VW

[abtyagi]

I have personally owned cars from only 2 manufacturers, so here are my observations

Hyundai:
Weak, really weak AC performance.
Creta 1st gen: Self
Creta 2nd gen: Owned by several friends. Observation is from prolonged travel in those cars.
Venue: self
All of them aren't satisfactory in terms of AC.
New Tuscon
The only exception I found is the new Tuscon. It's huge sunroof lets a lot of heat through, but otherwise fine.

Toyota
Etios
Really impressive AC performance, you never need to put it on max chill. Since it does not have a digital display for temp, I keep it in the middle, and it works brilliantly.
Fortuner
Again really impressive AC. I just set it at 25 degrees and find it optimal for me. The same effect is found at 19 degrees in Hyundai.

[Aditya9100]

Having driven a multitude of cars over the last 5 years has given me an idea that nothing beats Tata and Maruti for their superior AC performance in Odisha summer where temperatures in April-June months range over 40*c . About the cars that we have owned :-

2010 Maruti Swift Zxi 1.2K-series- Absolutely stunning AC unit which used to cool down the cabin even when set at 23 to a relatively cold cabin in 5-7 minutes of driving. When parked in sun i used to open the windows for the first 1-2 minutes and run the AC at full blast to let the hot air escape. Never had to set it below 22c.

2022 Skoda Kushaq 1.5 TSI MT- after the switch from swift and its powerful AC, it was a bit of a pain to get used to the Skoda ACC generally because i used to keep it at 23. But after a few hit and trials i have learned to keep it at 2-3 degrees lower than what i used to keep in swift and it does a great job of cooling the cabin. Infact i can say that the cold air blowing out of it is infact very good. Another thing i have seen is that the service guys keep it at LO and use manual fan settings to keep the AC perform well. So When in need i switch over to Manual mode and it cools down very fast.

List of cars i have driven over a considerable amount of time:-

2021 Tata Nexon 1.2P XZ- My cousin owns a Dark Edition Nexon and inspite of that, i can vouch that the AC of his car is much much better than some Cars i have been in. Infact i had to lower the Fan speed once at afternoon drive because my fingers were getting frozen. Kudos to Tata to give such amazing AC

2017 Maruti Scross 1.3- Been on a trip to Chilika during peak May summer, and it did a commendable job of keeping everyone cool during the whole drive. Not a single person complained of feeling even a bit of uncomfort. Inspite of not having rear AC blowers it did a fairly good job.

So overall i would Rate our Indian car Manufacturers the best in terms of providing excellent AC Performance. Although our Kushaq does cool down the temperature pretty good but setting it in Manual mode is not what we had paid for inspite of having an Automatic Climate control and fiddle with it once and now.

[Raghu M]

The XUV3OO's AC is good. I did not even try the AC below 21 degrees so far. Even in Hyd's summer, at 22 degrees, it cools the cabin pretty well. The absence of rear air con vents has never been felt.

[Vishwath P]

Have a 2017 Polo TDI and a 2022 Tata Safari in my family, both are chillers. We used to own a Skoda Rapid, the AC in it was very poor, the blower always had to be in full steam.

[Itachi_Uchiha]

Originally Posted by thesilentone

There seems to be no report of the Kia Seltos a/c in this thread. How is the ac in the Seltos, especially in the petrol options?

Here is the list of cars i have experienced:

Excellent: Kia seltos petrol(1.5), its a chiller. The passenger sitting at the middle seat of the back row always say its very cold (because of direct air flow from front and rear vents). Ac cools the cabin very quickly even if the car was parked in sun, that too without any sunfilms or uv cut glass (like in top models). Since no one has mentioned Kia Seltos petrol, i shall provide this experience for you.

Good: Maruti Suzuki Ritz diesel. Adequate cooling, cools the cabin in average time and isn't bad at all even in high temperature.

Average/Not good: Maruti Suzuki Dzire petrol (previous gen). Don't know why but the ac took too much time to cool the cabin (especially if the car was parked in sunlight). It was never adequate in our case and we felt the ac on our Ritz is much better.

[07CR]

I will categorize my and dad's cars and their AC performance-

Chevy Aveo UVA (2009-2013)- Great AC, a 8/10
Honda Amaze (2013-2020)- V good AC, a 7.5/10
Ford Ecosport S TDCI (2020-current) Absolutely fantastic AC (10/10)
Kia Sonet iMT HTX (2022-Current) Excellent AC (9.5/10)

Coming to Sonet, it's white colored, has factory fit rear sun blinds and a rear AC vent. It also gets useful remote starting option which I always use when it's parked under the sun. It gets about two minutes to cool the complete cabin, and then I step inside.

Now comes the Ecosport. It's an all black variant without rear AC vents or rear sunblinds. It doesn't get the remote starting option. However, just press the max AC button and it absolutely chills the cabin in under 1.5 mins. However, the ACC is little iffy, and doesn't work well where it reduces the blower speed and rear occupants start feeling warm. Therefore in summer afternoons with a full load of passengers I keep it in manual mode, and everyone remains bone chilled!

[where_to_next]

Well, I am based in Bangalore and own Tata Harrier. Except for summers, AC is not tested that much because of Bangalore weather. It is mostly working on one-point fan speed.

We recently did a trip to Kanyakumari & Rameswaram. This was when the AC was put to proper test and it worked like charm during our entire 4 day trip. I would definitely put it under "very good" category.

[carcrazykid]

1. 2015 Maruti WagonR K10B: Takes ages to cool in hot New Delhi summers. Because of the tall boy stance, it feels like you're in two temperature zones where the lower part of the torse is cool because that's where the air vents are directed at, and the head is hot because there's absolutely no cool air there.
Also, the design of the air vents are pathetic. The centre vents are only meant to freeze the left hand of the driver, and hardly any air goes towards the rear portion of the cabin.

2. 2019 Hyundai Verna 1.6 Petrol Sx (O): Great ac, cools down the car very quickly. I set the temperature at 24.5 degrees and just forget about it, whether it's summers or winters. The HVAC is fantastically engineered. Only issue is that on startup, the vents make a groaning noise as if being woken up from a slumber. The noise persists even after replacement of the mode actuator.

3. 2020 Tata Altroz 1.2 XZ: In a car that has almost no power, at least I can sit and chill the most effective AC of all the cars I've driven. Initially the fan seems loud, but the temperature of the cabin reduces really fast and then the blower settles down to a low level. I was expecting the AC to sap even more power from the engine, but thankfully it isn't noticeable


We also owned a 2008 Swift VXI G13B for almost 12 years. The ac never gave us complaints, was very effective and all it required was regular replacement of the cabin air filter. Sometimes it struggled to cool the rear because of lack of rear AC vents, but still did a great job overall 👍

[MC@1986]

What a perfect timing of this thread. Yesterday I sat in my cousin's 2021 VW Vento 1.0 TSI; I felt the AC performance is far better compared with my 2018 Ecosport TDCi.

My observation is that Vento has perfectly shaped AC Vents with good adjustment mechanism vs that of the Ecosport which is very difficult to get the sweet spot of the air flow.

We also use the 2010 Mahindra Bolero VLX Crde in the farm where is AC performance is really bad. Only we hear the Blower noise with out much cooling..