Team-BHP - Does your car keep you cool with the current heat wave in India?

Yes, this summer I have traveled in three cars: a Nissan Magnite, an S-Presso, and a Polo. In each car, I traveled a 1000 km round trip on the highway, and the air conditioning in all of them was absolutely spot on. No problems.

Yes, totally happy with my Polo GT TSi (2020) Automatic Climate Control AC unit.
I drive 100% AC on throughout the year and never roll down the windows. I personally keep it fixed at 25 degrees unless someone is with me and they need lower temperatures. Going by Pune's excellent weather hardly ever I need to pull it down to 24 and in summers at 22 for initial first 10-15 minutes only.

Honda Amaze 2019: I keep window shades. A/c is a chiller. Keeping up easily in almost 50°c Delhi record heat.

Celerio 2017: Okayish. If car is stationary, C/c effectiveness is gone. If it's in motion it seems to be working. Maybe the car's getting old or maybe I live in Delhi or maybe it's both :)

Voted yes for my Ford Freestyle T+, but I guess the following caveats would apply;
Always parked in basement
Mostly driven alone to office and back
Temperature set at 23
I have detachable window shades

Dunno how it will perform if either condition is altered.
It's really hot out in NCR.

I have an Ignis which is generally parked outside. AC does not cool at all. Takes more than 20-25 minutes to cool the cabin.
Even if its parked in the shade, once you venture outside in the afternoon, the AC is just okay and you need to keep the blower speed at max to ensure that rear passengers are just okay and not sweating.
So when I have to take my car specially in afternoon, I open all the doors (including boot), switch the blower on with ouitside air flow for 5 minutes and then drive it. Helps in bringing the cabin temparature down by 5-7 degrees.

Mine is Creta and it has a very powerful AC. The cabin cools down within 5 mins due to the rear AC vents and usually during peak summers the cabin stays cool as well, I keep the temperature at 23 degrees and that is sufficient and on some rear occasions I change it to 22 but not for a very long time.

My Polo GT TSI has a lovely aircon. I think more than the aircon, it is the climate control. I set it to 24deg and over the last 11 years (a decade with the GT TSI, yes! :Cheering:) I've hardly touched it. Just press 'Auto' and it is just brilliant. Cools off in no time and the dehumidifier (very much required in ohh-very-humid Calcutta) is very effective too.

The Karoq has a dual zone aircon but the 'Auto' mode is very conservative. It doesn't like to work overtime. Does not like to keep adjusting itself as the temp outside rises and waits for too long before making corrections. So, many a times, I need to adjust the blower and that usually takes care of the situation. I hardly ever fiddle with the temperature settings.

Compared to all the cars what we own, we feel that Japanese/Korean cars AC cooling is excellent and fast when compared to German cars.

Ioniq 5 and Innova Crysta cooling much better when compared to BMW X1 and E220d.

Good thread

All my 5 cars, i.e., Innova, Seltos, Verna, Micra, and Santro have good a/c. Although age is finally showing its effect on Santro and Innova.
Pro tip: Get the air conditioner serviced once a year to maintain it in top form.

One thing I wanted to ask is why my specs get foggy whenever I get out of my friend's Skoda Rapid. I don't know the reason.

You guys should consider getting sun film installed if there aren't any problems with cops in your city - I used to get burnt up under the March sun in Chennai unless I had the AC at 18 degrees C (one step above LO, which has the compressor always running) with the blower manually set to 5/6 out of 7 - and even then, it wasn't cold, just cool!

So much so that I got my Vento's AC checked for gas leaks, but it turned out to be fine.

Good sun films make a night and day difference - I no longer go lower than Auto at 21 degrees C!

(I still miss my Elantra's AC, which was so cold it would freeze your fingers even at 23c without any sun film or sun shades installed)

What most people don’t realise is, even if the aircon in car is working perfectly, the glass area of the car affects the cooling by a huge huge margin. The bigger glass area makes the car feel airy but cooks the car in intense summer too. Windscreen lamination with good heat rejection is a must for Indian summer. If possible, applying same on all other glasses help too.

Alright here’s mine-

1. Baleno delta 2020
70% heat rejection in windshield and 50% visible tints in windows

9/10

2. Indigo CR4 2012
No mods. Cooling not effective because of huge glass area. But increases on using sun shades.

6/10.

3. Indigo Tdi 2009
No mods. Same as indigo cr4 but +0.5 pts because it gets auxiliary fan at the front to assist AC which isn’t available in CR4

6.5/10

4. Maruti 800 1995 (fitted AC in 2022)
Windscreen lamination 50% heat rejection.
Ineffective cooling in summer. Manageable when max temp goes upto 36deg C. Good when used anytime other than peak afternoons.

And then engine overheats when AC used in peak afternoon

4/10

5. Maruti omni 2004

No aircon

0/10.

Mostly yes;

Honda BRV - Excellent chilling/ cooling in all 3 rows! Rating: 10/10

Kia Seltos - Perfect! Rating: 10/10

Jeep Meridian - Great at the front and in the back most seats (with the roof top vent) - just about ok for the centre row - wish it had side vents for the centre row! Rating: 8/10