[thesilentone]

With summer starting to make us sweat, it would be wonderful if the segment wise best airconditioning is updated with all the current models to help prospective buyers. To consumers in hot locations, this should be among the top parameters while choosing a car.

[anshuman1117]

Originally Posted by thesilentone

With summer starting to make us sweat, it would be wonderful if the segment wise best airconditioning is updated with all the current models to help prospective buyers. To consumers in hot locations, this should be among the top parameters while choosing a car.

I can contribute to this by reviewing the AC of the cars that my family owns.

1. Tata Tiago XZ+ Petrol 2020 - Chiller of an AC! Even in Delhi's 45 degree C heat, cools the cabin instantly. It is my daily drive and I have no films or heat shields installed on windows. Still the AC is a chiller

2. Skoda Superb L&K 2020 - Father's car. Mediocre AC. Sunroof film and shade are also thin so they let in heat and sunlight. Takes time to cool and has to be kept at 20C or below always.

[zadoom]

Originally Posted by anshuman1117

I can contribute to this by reviewing the AC of the cars that my family owns.

1. Tata Tiago XZ+ Petrol 2020 -

I have owned 2 TATA cars till now and additionally going by the reviews here itself, I guess TATA cars in general have their Air-conditioning sorted out for Indian weather. In my 9 year old Storme after the initial 5 - 10 mins that it takes to cool after being parked in the open I eventually settle down on the Econ AC and lowest cooling setting. This is when Mumbai temperatures are hovering at 40 - 41 degrees these days.

Of the other cars, Alto 800 (2004), Tiago (1st Gen) both had good AC's for their cabins. If I had to compare Alto maybe would take a bit more time than Tiago to cool down the cabin.

Ford Ikon Flair had the worst AC amongst these cars that I owned. Apart from the AC performance, the reliability (lack of it) of the AC unit was the other issue.

Owned a Citroen C4 Grand Picasso, and it's AC was good for the European summers but I suspect it would fall short of the requirements of the Indian summers.

Cheers,

[fhdowntheline]

As mentioned earlier, the Tiago has to be one of the best if not the best in its category. My Creta, while quite nice in isolation , is simply no match for my Tiagos airconditioning. Hands down the most powerful system that I have experienced in my long list of cars owned thus far.

[GTO]

Thanks for sharing, thesilentone! The existing thread is 15 years old and we surely need an updated list. Moving your post out to a new thread.

@ BHPians, if you should spot any good post in an existing thread that deserves its own new thread, please report the post and we'll move it out for greater visibility.

Thank you!

Throwing in my 2 paise:

1. 530d: Very powerful air-con. Working like a charm at the 10-year mark. AC compressor changed once in this decade. The "Max AC" button which runs the air-con at full clip is very useful when you get to a car parked under the hot sun. It cools the cabin very quickly.

2. Thar Convertible: Very powerful air-con. That being said, right now in the hottest summer Mumbai has ever seen, the AC manages to keep you comfortable. Cool, not bone-chilling. That's still saying a lot for a soft-top car in this insane heat. No complaints. In the other 10 months of the year, you will never go above blower level 1.

3. Superb AC is good, but what makes it better are the ventilated seats.

4. Nissan: Good AC, but a seriously weak point of the car reliability-wise. In 11 years of ownership, the AC has conked off 6 times.

From the new cars I have driven, all have been generally good. Sole exception = the VW Taigun. Surprisingly weak AC for a current model car where a strong AC is taken for granted. Also, the previous-gen E-Class had a weak AC, especially at the rear.

Despite being cheap products, Maruti's cars offer satisfactory air-cons.

[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.

[udzgodfather]

Originally Posted by KPR

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

Poor AC performance in my Vento, despite running on Max Fan and lowest temp, I find it very hard for it to cool the entire cabin.

Xuv's AC is amazing, it cools the boiling temp to chilling ones in a minute or two.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Between my cars, I’ve got 3 chillers and one with average cooling.

Honda Jazz Very good cooling up front. The strong blower absolutely freezes the person sitting in the middle at the back seat. But that is needed to keep the others cool, since there are no rear vents and the circulation at the back is not the great.

Honda City Builds on the strengths of Jazz with additional AC vents at the back. No complaints whatsoever.

Tata Hexa Absolute chiller of an AC with strong blowers, vents in the B and C pillars and dedicated evaporator coil and blower controls for the rear AC. Zero complaints with cooling but it can never quite fully shut out bad odours from outside.

Jeep Compass It gets the job done, but just about barely. A lot of air gets blocked by the steering wheel. I end up focusing one of the center vents towards me to stay cool, which means both my hands absolutely freeze. Cooling at the back is barely adequate. There are rear vents, but they are not far enough from your feet and the cold air does not reach chest high. The blower is strong at higher speeds, but gets very noisy. Temperature needs to be kept at 20 degrees to get the kind of cooling the Hondas and Tata give at 25 degrees. Note that mine is the pre facelift car and the views are specific to it. The current model gets a different dashboard design with redesigned steering and vents.

[Turbohead]

I can expect the Vento/Rapid/Virtus/Taigun/Kushaq to dominate this thread. Guess VW and AC don't go together at all.

The AC in the Vento is nothing to write home about. You need take it to Low, switch to external air circulation and roll down the windows to cool the cabin after parking in the hot sun. Still takes about 5-10 minutes. Honestly, it's much better than the 1st gen i20 - it couldn't keep the cabin cool without sunfilms - it was unbearable post the sunfilm ban.

On the other hand, the previous gen Grand i10 is a chiller. Absolutely amazing AC and it can cool the cabin quite quickly. Always reminds me of the orginal Santro with it's amazing AC!

[ghodlur]

In the cars I have owned till date the Santro and the 800 were the only exception of weak AC, rest all the cars have super chilled cooling mechanism.

Other than that I have the found the AC of Innova Crysta to be really good and the Honda cars to be average.

[rahulcmoulee]

Of the cars we have owned so far:

Excellent AC: WagonR (F10D), Alto K10 (1st gen)
Very Good: Ecosport, Harrier, City
Poor: Chevrolet Aveo

[rx100]

We had this exact discussion yesterday when we took our i10 for a city drive after a long time with family. After bought the Alcazar last year, we used to take that for family drives and i10 were sparingly used by me only.

In scorching heat in Kochi, i10 was able to cool the cabin very quickly and my kids were complaining to reduce the blower speed. Remember there is no second row vent for i10. We felt the ac is much better in i10 than that of Alcazar with second and third row vents and ACC.

May be it’s due to the small space within i10 compared to spacious Alcazar.

[revvharder]

WagonR 1.0 CNG K10, has the weakest AC in the segment and the wafer thin glasses don't help it either. In Delhi NCR summers it barely manages to cool the cabin.

[ashivas89]

Out of the cars owned in the family:

Hyundai Santro (1st gen and Xing): Decent A/C got the job done, but not as good as the equivalent maruti

i20 (1st Gen 1.2 kappa): Terrible aircon. Acceleration v/s Cooling, choose 1

i20 Active 1.4 CRDi: Decent A/C got the job done, better than the Verna in fact (no sunroof + white car probably helped)

Verna 1.6 CRDi: Barely got the job done (it was a black car)

Skoda Fabia 1.2 TDI: Surprisingly good aircon for a European car almost as good as the OG Ford Figo.

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

Honda city i-Vtec 5th gen: Best Aircon among all the cars we have had. Incredibly effective.

Skoda Slavia 1.5 DSG: A/C alone gets the job done in BLR. It is even more effective with seat ventilation. However, I can imagine how this adequate performance in BLR might translate to poor performance in the hotter parts of the country.
__________________________________________________ __

In general, out of all the cars experienced:

Marutis, Hondas and Toyotas have great aircon for the respective segments they operate in.
The Germans have adequate cooling.
The Koreans are a hit or a miss.
BMWs have the best aircon in the luxury segment.
Have not spent too much time driving Indian and Italian cars to comment about their aircon.
All that being said, Ford is hands down the king of cooling.

[ashwinikalantri]

The Tata Nano has a surprisingly great air-con. It seems like Tata in general have figured out air conditioners for Indian weather.

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Honda Jazz Very good cooling up front.

I was on a road trip last summer with my Jazz. I was travelling from Chandigarh to Bhopal, and Delhi was touching 50 degrees. The cooling from the AC was sub-par. I thought the Indian heat had got better of the Jazz’s AC. Sulking, sweating and swearing at the situation, I completed the trip.

A week later while researching the issue, I was suggesting to look at the air filter. Lo and behold! It was clogged with dirt, leaves and grime. Just dusting it off made a night and day change.