[Neversaygbye]

Both our Tata cars (Indica V2 and Vista) had/have excellent ACs. I have hardly ever used the Vista's AC in full blower mode, even in the peak Calcutta summer (42 degrees+). Also, unlike the V2, where there was a significant power drop on switching on the AC, the Vista's AC does not result in a perceptible drop in power. The only crib is the lack of rear vents, which usually means that the people upfront freeze during summers, so that those in the back seat can remain comfortable. Also, ventilated seats would have been a boon, but I guess they were not part of the product offering for this segment back in 2013.

My first car the Matiz also had a good AC although I needed to switch it off while overtaking or climbing inclines.

My current beater the Beat has a so-so AC. It just about gets the job done but takes its own sweet time to do it. The AC is also the least reliable thing in the car - it conks off without fail at least once a year.

[asmr]

Originally Posted by KPR

Alto: Excellent.
Punto: Very good. I would call it smooth and pleasant as compared to at the face Alto.

P.S: I would love to see posts from VW/Skoda 1.0 manual and AT owners here.

Since you asked specifically

Here (Volkswagen Taigun Review) is a post I made on the Taigun review thread.

Today, I took my Taigun 1.0 AT Topline (has no sunflims, only the stock magnetic nets for the rear windows) for a quick trip of 90mins, which involved 20mins of parking in the open.

TL;DR version - AC performance is ok and much better than what it was before the latest update.

The details for those who like a longer read.

The cabin was hot when we started back. 4 people in the car and in the 10 secs it took us to start the AC, we were beginning to sweat. However, with ventilated seats, blower set to Level 5, temperature at 23deg, the cabin did cool down faster compared to the previous similar experience (my Vellore trip in 2022 to get yummy mangoes in the peak of summer). So I guess they fixed something to be improved in the last software update.

About 5mins later, the cabin was comfortable, the places where the air draft hit directly were getting really chilled and 15mins later, I could reduce the fan to level 3 for the rest of my journey. However, I didn't test the Auto mode since my gut feel was that it would make everyone irritable.

[GeeTee TSI]

For all the good feedback about Maruti AC performance, wonder how the Ola/Uber Dzires have such pathetic cooling

I feel in some cars auto mode (at a set temperature) works better than in others. In case auto AC is ineffective especially on air throw, it pays to set a higher blower speed.

Cars like the Crysta, Ertiga and the like ought to have the best AC performance (I would reckon) as experienced by passengers, given the vent positions (roof) and independent blower control. Personally, I have experienced the Baleno's AC in conjunction with its UV cut glass to be the most effective in the back seat

[np23]

Previous generation Civic, Accord, first gen City 1.5, first gen swift and the W212 LCI (have never set it below 22, that’s what the manual also says surprisingly)

G30 is above average but nothing to write home, F10 was slightly better I feel

The Cruze was poor though and had a knack of leaking glass every winter/summer break

[akhil_007]

Question for folks owning Fluidic Verna.

My 9 year old car's AC was cooling intermittently since last year. I used to recharge the gas every 6 months and move on. In march, gas leaked a week after recharge. I got it diagnosed at a nearby FNG. Leakage in cooling coil. Got it replaced. The cooling is amazing now.

FNG guys told me to always keep Temp at 'LO' and vary the fan speed. On our recent trip to Hyderabad, we followed this and were very satisfied with AC cooling. What bothers me now is, shouldn't the car cool adequately at 24-21 range also? This is based on reading posts on this thread. I tried keeping it on 21-24 range to test. While there was enough cooling, it wasn't bone chilling either.

Have I become immune to these temp's ? To unlearn and relearn, how exactly do I use the AC?

[mkumar79]

Ford Ecosport 1.5L P dragon AT: Cools really well, the Max AC button is awesome to have.

XUV5OO W8 diesel: Recurring AC reliability issues.

Too frequent gas leaks, M&M ASCs only did routine filter and fuse replacements. I do not think they actually ever bothered to investigate the leak. Then I did a complete overhaul at trusted FNG AC specialist (new compressor, cooling coil and piping after 7 years of Delhi-NCR). Spent the two summers of high Covid with good AC and sold the car off after moving to Pune.

Minor irritant: Never got the rear zone blower's ROI because of its fuse conking off within a few weeks everytime.

Totally got the chills when my bro-in-law booked the 7OO AXL Petrol AT, but luckily his AC is doing good so far in Bengaluru.

[JojyKerala]

I have excellent air-conditioning in my Skoda Rapid 1.6 TDI 2013 for the front and rear passengers. My Wagon R CNG 2014 had decent air conditioning that impacted acceleration. The worst air conditioning was in my TATA Indica Xeta 2006. I spent a lot of money to get the AC right for my Xeta and finally had to give up.

[007]

Indica V2 (when New) - Ok
Indica V2 (5 Year Old) - Horrible , car will loose acceleration if you switch on A/C and stop finally.

118 NE - Was it there ? Almost like Majnubhai's painting

Skoda Octavia Rider Mk1 2005 - Ok but not great

Brezza ZDI+ - It's Awesome, very strong even after 5 years.

[theabstractmind]

From my experience

Excellent:

1. Tata Nano - purely size to efficiency ratio.
2. Ford Figo 1st Gen
3. Toyota Yaris - even with Bangalore seeing upwards of 35 degrees and MID showing 37 or 38, I don't need to ever go below 23.5 on the climate control.

Good:
1. Kwid 1.0
2. Tata Bolt
3. Tata Indica, any Tata for that matter
4. Generally any Maruti or Hyundai

Average:
1. Punto 1.3
2. Palio 1.2

Pathetic:
1. Ameo

[MotoBlip]

Here's my experience (of the cars we have owned in the family post 2010) -

Tata Nano - Absolute chiller. Had condenser gas leak issues, but once that was fixed, worked flawlessly.

Chevy Cruze - Brilliant AC, 40C outside was no trouble for this car. The Air Quality System(AQS) wasn't just a gimmick, and automatically switched to re-circulation if it detected outside air was bad and vice-versa.

Hyundai i20 - Average AC, takes a lot of time to cool the cabin. One of the rare cars that let's you go below 16C, but alas of no use. Currently contemplating changing the compressor with that of a Tata make.

Maruti Baleno - Good AC, quickly cools up the front, but the rear takes some time. The UV cut glasses help but the absence of a rear blower really makes a dent at overall effectiveness, more of a 7.5/10.

[Small Bot]

Originally Posted by GeeTee TSI

For all the good feedback about Maruti AC performance, wonder how the Ola/Uber Dzires have such pathetic cooling...

This is off-topic, but I think the main reason is that there are several cab drivers who do not own the cars and therefore do not want to get the actual owners to spend maintenance money on some 'non-essential' repairs like AC. In fact, that might hold true even if they do own those cars. Let alone a functioning AC, half the cars used by these aggregators don't have central locking, accessible seatbelts, usable boot space (even if the car is non-CNG), etc etc. After all the neglect, it's frankly a miracle that their ACs even work, irrespective of the make of the car.

But this rant is for another thread, so I'll stop here.

[akg7091]

Civic Hybrid - crap AC. Barely works during peak Delhi summers
Civic MT ( 2007 ) - average AC. Definitely better than the hybrid ( not sure if the compressor size is bigger than the Hybrid but it cools faster )
Alto - CHILLER. Cools down the cabin in ~5 mins
Redigo - super awesome AC
Magnite - above average but not as good as the Alto. Much better than the civic
Fluidic verna - above average. Slightly less powerful than the magnite
XUV700 - Better than the civic but not even close to the Alto.

The benchmark in my case for air conditioning remains my 2006 alto which I had to sell off at just 30k run due to the 15 yr rule in Delhi

[swunkjyn]

Alto K10 - 1st Gen
Alto 800 - 2nd Gen
Alto K10 - (2023 make)

These three have good AC with 3 people or 4 people onboard. Fan speed may have to be amped up.
My in-laws have 1st Gen Duster (85PS) and my friend has Turbo Petrol Duster, AC in both of them is not up-to the mark.

Thar Petrol Manual that I have (Hard top), has an amazing AC, I would say bone chilling. Have tested it with 5 people on board and never had to amp up the fan speed from 2.

[sidoxic]

Beautiful thread. Honestly it is amongst my top criteria before shortlisting a car. I take my car's AC very seriously.

Ford Figo 1.5D (2016) - super chiller. Dark interiors + Maharashtra summers combo is no match to the chiller unit. A minute in "max ac" mode will tackle whatever the outside temperature is.

Tata Nexon EV Max - disappointing AC on launch day test drive meant cutting short the test drive to save our time and move on. I hope production models didn't suffer.

XUV700 - pretty effective even though it's a massive cabin. 3rd row blowers have a seperate button in the dash, which can be used to cool the entire cabin evenly, even with passengers only in the 1st and 2nd row. No complaints so far in 30k KMs.

XUV400 EV - even though a good perfomer, misses out on 2nd row vents. This causes uneven cooling.
Also, it's a manual one shockingly, but i don't miss an automatic climate control unit.
Luckily no drop in AC performance in Eco ('fun') mode, nor when SOC <10%. I believe Tata EVs & maybe ZS EV suffer from this. This is important in real life, because it increases the usable range of the battery pack + it can permanently stay in Eco mode.

Nissan Sunny - horrible. Gave us downtime of weeks when there was no Nissan service centre in Mumbai. A make shift solution lasted us a while, but gave way on a family summer road trip in coastal Maharashtra. That was the final nail in the coffin. Even when it worked, was just ok. Rev too much and the cooling would cut off. The 2nd row vent was all bark not bite. It actually has an intake vent near the handbrake and the rear unit is just a noisy fan. The AC is the only complaint in an otherwise amazing car.

[Silver Knight]

Generally new gen Marutis has good AC power. Hyundai's are mediocre.

I have a 21 Wagon R and 2017 Elantra,