Driving a Jazz during a South African summer

[chrisc]

We are bang in the middle of a hot summer here and I'd like to convey a few gripes about driving about.

There is a huge black dash and an enormous windscreen.  With the sun coming in, there is a heat wave emanating from this dash surface.  Even if the temperature only registers 21 deg, it tends to get hotter and hotter as you drive around.  When it shows over 30 deg, then you must open both windows when you start off since the AC cannot cope.  There is of course some UV filtering built into the glass but my wife's BMW also has a (not quite as) large windscreen and the usual black dash and this does not seem to get so hot.   Friend has a Civic R and his windscreen has noticeably darker tinting and does not get so hot.

Shady parking places are hard to find and the sun is nearly directly overhead at noon

In winter on the other hand, the vent is directed to the screen and sometimes the fan is on.  Then the windscreen gets dirty on the inside quite quickly.

[guest1844]

I think the a/c is sized for economy. Back in the old days a/c was basically a monster fridge, where you had to add a bit heat to balance it up. This hit the fuel economy. Now they're smaller but if you don't have heat reflective glass, it's frankly pointless. You'll have I guess 3 or 4kW of solar heat coming in down there at moment, on top of the ambient. My GD's a/c was barely good enough in the UK, just from solar gain. It's now bust and I haven't bothered to fix it.

[madasafish]

I drove in SA for 2 years in a Mercedes E  class with light leather seats. The aircon could not cope if parked in the sun.. and wearing shorts the deal was to slide into car, keep bum off seat, switch on and start engine, open windows (electric), air con at full blast. Exit car and leave 5 minutes.

Otherwise driving meant burned legs. from hot leather.

I always used  reflective sunscreens in the front and rear windows when parked outside to keep the sun off the interior and this made a difference. A vast difference to the seat and interior temperatures. I am surprised it is not more common now as it used to be very common when I was there (over a decade ago).

In hot climates, park in shade or shade the interior is the simple rule which works.

[chrisc]

When I had a car with black leather seats, I used to lay a towel on the seat before sliding in to avoid blisters.  Black seats in summer is the most daft thing I can think of

[guest5010]

I think the a/c is sized for economy. Back in the old days a/c was basically a monster fridge, where you had to add a bit heat to balance it up. This hit the fuel economy. Now they're smaller but if you don't have heat reflective glass, it's frankly pointless. You'll have I guess 3 or 4kW of solar heat coming in down there at moment, on top of the ambient. My GD's a/c was barely good enough in the UK, just from solar gain. It's now bust and I haven't bothered to fix it.