AirCon- do we really need it?

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PS, though having said that, nowadays I use our very good public transport a lot more than I use my car. Dh is the eco-baddie who’ll take my car to drive barely 7 minutes into town to get his hummus 🤬 (only M&S hummus will do.).

Maybe it’s going to depend to some extent where you live, but we’re in outer SW London and I certainly wouldn’t be without the car AC in summer! We often get very hot spells here.
I wouldn’t consider a car that didn’t have it.

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Air con isn't just great in hot weather, it's also invaluable in de-misting the windows.

In wet weather (either warm or cool) if I get into the car with a damp coat on, the windows mist up very quickly, but the air con is a god send in clearing them almost instantly.

We had a day out at a NT property in Sussex yesterday, and the car was baking hot when we got back in to come home, so yes the air con was put on pretty smartish!

It went wrong in our previous car and I couldn't wait to get it fixed.

We have had 2CVs and Diannes in the family since 1950. In UK I had 3, a red one, a blue one and a green one. The last one I had to push down our long drive, pick my time to push it across the main road and jump in, so it would start down the hill. Roof rolled up and grill at the front opened

We have climate control and use it all the time. I understood open windows used more fuel. Today, before we went out, DH opened windows to ‘let the heat out’ but once we were driving we had the climate control on because my DH is suffering from hay fever and we have fields of flowering rape all around us at the moment.

Kitty just read your post! My first one was blue and my second one was white!

Yes, yes and double yes. I really can't tolerate the heat and spend July & August indoors with my fan. I couldn't travel far without air con.
Like Suedonim I find the pressure on my ears painful when the car window is open.

Sue in winter it was sheepskin coat, in summer the roof was rolled back! It was fun.

I live in Scotland where the requirement for cooling isn't as pressing as further south but I wouldn't consider buying a car without AC now. Our cars both have auto climate control so they just keep the temperature at whatever level it's been set at.

I find opening windows makes it very noisy and the pressure on my ears is quite painful. I have the opposite of fond memories from my childhood of being cooped up in boiling hot cars, the smell of hot leather and petrol and my mother's perfume all combining to cause me to lose my breakfast or lunch at the side of the road!

J52 friends of ours had one of those Citroens. They travelled all over the UK and Europe. Their solution to the heating issue was for the passenger to sit in a sleeping bag. When the driver could no longer feel his/her feet, they would stop and swap drivers! grin

Mine is on permanently - if I turn it off the windows steam up in the winter. I don't go out often but mostly when I do I have my cat in her carrier on the passenger seat (with the seatbelt on ) with a journey of 75 miles so worry about her overheating. Yesterday the sun was on that side and I had the temperature down as low as I could stand it to keep her comfortable. In my husband's car I usually turn my side off as it's too cold! The roof comes off my car but I can't see for the sun and it's too hot anyway so rarely use that facility

j52, not just birthdays! I had a Citroen Dyane and the roof was open when it was hot and shut when it was cold. It wouldn't start in first gear either which was a bit panicky sweat making.

Sigh!

Ooh heck Maw!

Your daughter is not wrong Gonegirl

www.airconco.com/news/does-in-car-air-conditioning-consume-fuel-if-so-how-much/

Useful advice

If you have hay fever it's a blessed relief.
My best purchase of 2018 by miles was a portable air con unit for my stifling attic bedroom.

I too was against air con in cars feeling that it was being a bit precious. My goodness, surely we Brits can cope with a bit of heat without resorting to something a decadent as air con.
I bought a new car which came with air con as standard. I decided I probably wouldn't use it, it being such a decadent concept
Then the menopause hit me. So, very very quickly, I had that dammed air con on EVERY journey. Does that make me a bad person.

It surely must depend to some extent on where you live. Here in SW London I certainly wouldn't be without it in summer, especially when stuck in traffic jams on the M25 (a journey I make often to a dd and Gdcs.)

Not to mention summer traffic jams on the A303 near Stonehenge - another regular journey until very recently.

I dare say that if I lived a lot further north, I wouldn't be too bothered about it, unless I was e.g. driving through France in summer.

Mine has broken down 3 years ago- had it refilled and it was 'lost' within weeks and expensive to find and repair leak. So no, I don't have one and love the windows opened, lol. In the other car we use for long journeys, we have one, and I am glad of it, for sure.

As a native French speaker - love the title though. And the answer is 'NON' for sure ahaha

I have been known to have the aircon on, and the window open.

My DH thinks you can save fuel by not having it on. Grrr! Will not give in. Saving must be negligible.

Anyway, we have lived most of our lives without any of the minor luxuries available today. Let the young 'uns go without air con.

Would hate to be without aircon in the car.

Yes, we had a car in which we rarely used the air con and it eventually seized up and wouldn't work. The garage told us this can happen if you don't use it regularly. Then we discovered how efficient it was at de-misting and keeping the windscreen clear in cold, damp weather , so now I use it often, throughout the year, although only for as long as needed. I doubt whether the difference in fuel consumption is significant - my car is already low on emissions and petrol use. As someone said earlier, opening the windows probably affects fuel consumption as much, by making the car less aerodynamic.

It's easy to get hung up on small things like this. Cutting out a few car journeys and taking the bus would do more to save the planet than driving around in a car that's hot and stuffy, or damp and misty, in the hope of saving fuel.

I have just had the exact same advice from a friend of my son NanTheWiser who said I have possibly caused the problem myself by not using it often enough and therefore letting the pressure drop (or words to that effect) he also mentioned the moulds and bacteria being allowed to form by not using it . He echoed your words about using it in the winter too. Grrrrrrr

How was I to know?