It’s amazing how far cars have come for comfort. Thirty years ago, a base model economy car had a heater, a rear defroster, and that’s about it. Now though, even a base-model Ford Maverick has automatic climate control, power windows, power locks, the works. Speaking of comfort, in the Northern hemisphere, it’s officially air-con season, and a heatwave blanketing the Great Lakes has given me cause for really appreciating this miracle of engineering. Today on Autopian Asks, I want to know when you think air conditioning is necessary and when you think it’s not.
Earlier today, I needed to pick up a press car, and yep, a line leak has rendered the air-con in my 335i lukewarm until next week, when I have time to get it fixed. This wouldn’t be the end of the world with normal weather, but pulling out of my neighborhood, the reading from the ambient air temperature sensor climbed to 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 Fahrenheit.
Almost immediately after, my iPhone went into heat protection mode, meaning no more Waze. Shortly after that, my Hawaiian shirt started to get a bit damp from sweating out my daily water intake, eventually turning the Dakota leather into something resembling a slip and slide. The Humidex was high, and that 40-minute drive in traffic felt like 40 minutes, you know? I can’t wait to get that air-con line replaced, and that got me thinking about attitudes toward air conditioning.
If a car is dirt-cheap and only used in winter, I reckon non-functioning air conditioning or the lack of a system altogether is no big deal. Sure, it’s not good for keeping the air inside the car dry to mitigate condensation, but when Jack Frost is nipping at your nose, a heater matters more than anything else. Likewise, dedicated race cars don’t normally have any sort of climate control beyond some fresh air guides and maybe a coolsuit, so they get a pass.
Otherwise, I want air-con in everything, especially if it’s driven in the summer. I reckon it’s always worth the cost of keeping it going, but I also know not everyone shares this mentality. Some people don’t like the dryness of air conditioning, some people have the roof down anyway, some people are into stuff like classic British roadsters and although air-con would be neat, the extra weight and drag isn’t really worth it.
So, when is it okay for a car not to have air conditioning, and when does it become a necessity? It’s a different answer for everyone, and we want to hear your answer in the comments below.
Top graphic image: Thomas Hundal
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Where you live makes a huge difference.
Where I am, the weather averages are pretty mild.
I mean, this is for the month of August (Which is the hottest month here):
High Temp: 69 °F
Low Temp: 54 °F
Mean Temp: 61 °F
I guess it depends on where you live.
I live in a reasonably rural part of Scotland. It barely gets above low-20s Celsius even in the height of summer.
I’m very rarely stationary in traffic either. I haven’t owned a car with functional air conditioning in a long time. I just open a window if I’m too warm.
Bonus points for getting something with cloth seats instead of clammy leather.
Here in rural Ireland, so the climate is practically identical, so the air con doesn’t get much of a run. However, at the moment I’m driving my dad’s car, and I discovered the hard way the air con wasn’t working while driving on a motorway on the rare occasion it does get into the mid-20s. Motorway driving, for me, doesn’t lend itself to open windows. So I was miserable. Took a different route home which didn’t need the use of a motorway and it was much better. Otherwise, I’m lucky to be able to live without A/C
My current car (’15 Soul) is the only one that’s had AC that actually worked, (Though it’s a mistake while taking an uphill circular ramp from a city street to a 6-lane highway in ECO mode before warmed up, I thought the engine had quit then.)
It was never necessary before (I’ve always lived in the US north). You just opened the windows. Which I prefer, because you can hear things better then. But times change. It’s nice now when it’s hot. My neighbor (a gardener) told me that we’ve gotten 1.5 zones warmer in the last 30 or so years.
I lived in Seattle for six years in the ’90s and can count on one hand the times I felt I needed air conditioning, either in my car or in my house.
Thanks to being closer to the North Pole than the equator, plus enjoying cool ocean air that passes over the Olympic Mountains before descending into Puget Sound, Seattle generally has mild summers.
It was not uncommon back then to see new cars sold sans A/C. I owned four cars and rented three homes over those years and none had A/C.
Most of my vehicles were air-cooled VWs, so no A/C was default for a lot of my fleet. Oddly enough, my ’64 F100 coach-built crewcab had great working A/C for decades. I finally removed the belt to it some years ago. I don’t do long enough drives to warrant fixing it.
Try wearing a full corporate suit, in Phoenix, in the summer, in a black Nissan Pulsar with no A/C and a sunroof, on a 10 mile commute that takes 45 minutes. You’ll really appreciate A/C after that. We spent a day going from dealer to dealer in 106 degree F heat shopping for a new car. Each stop at a dealer involved a 20 minute rest in the A/C with water. Ended up with a 300ZX though!
Ok, no. But when in need don’t complain the one does not have transportation if a car doesn’t have it.
Too bad the triangle vent windows have all gone extinct, but those were really effective in scooping wind into the car interior. My first two cars were a ’70 VW bus and ’63 VW Bug (this was during the late 80’s). Neither had AC, and both were manageable because of the vent wings.
Another thing that helps, is a sunroof. You can open the sunroof an inch, and lower the windows slightly, and the car will trap a lot less heat when it’s parked under the hot sun.
I have been told I’m insane, because I never use air conditioning. Yesterday it was a hundred and three degrees outside because of a heatwave. I drove with the windows down despite owning a car with air conditioning. It wasn’t that bad, despite being exhausted from the heat for like two hours afterwards.
Just run the AC occasionally, to splash fluid around and keep the seals from drying out.
The fact that you were “exhausted from the heat” is an attestation that it was, in fact, “that bad.”
It’s fine to have a little heatstroke every once in a while. As a treat.
No, but triple digit temperatures with near hundred percent humidity will drain you no matter how fine you feel in the moment. I was fine sitting in it, but it still takes a toll.
Never
If the vehicle doesn’t have doors or doors that stay open most of the time then I suppose it’s ok or in a market that doesn’t get too hot like Alaska or Northern Canada.
In my view, it’s fine for a car not to have A/C if it’s an old classic car/weekend car… particularly one that doesn’t have much power such as an old VW Type 1 Beetle.
A/C becomes a necessity when it’s a hybrid or BEV that relies on the A/C functionality to help keep the battery pack in an optimal temperature range.
It also becomes a necessity if you drive in a place where it can get dangerously hot… as in over 100F.
My 77 911s is black.. with a black interior… and the AC was 60lbs or so, and didn’t work well even when new, so I gutted it.
The key is wearing a thin, wicking workout shirt, and bringing an insulated water bottle with ice in it.
It’s honestly fine*, even in 100 deg days.
I just spent 4 figures fixing the A/C on my Miata that is driven with the top down anytime it isn’t raining (compressor died and took friends with it) so imho A/C is mandatory. Admittedly Houston so it’s hot like 8 months out of the year and the other 4 still have quite a bit of “warm”. If I ever manage to move out of this oven I might reconsider it.
Only 25% of the Tom Metcalf fleet has A/C. The CJ5 and MGB are obviously cars that don’t have A/C. The 2004 Jeep TJ could have had it but the previous owner was cheap. Kind of funny how I avoid my 3 ‘summer’ cars on the most summery days.
It’s kind of amazing that as late as the Jeep YJ generation, the AC was still a dealer add-on item.
I believe the JK could be had without AC but you had to request the delete.
If it is less than 65 degrees F outside, non-functional AC is ok. Warmer plus sunny day the car becomes an oven. Do windows and moving cool it down a bit? Yes, but not fast enough.
i didn’t have ac for a decade during my shitbox phase – dodge intrepid, pre-crashed na miata then a ford exploder. intrepid and exploder sucked without ac. miata was no problem unless it was raining.
ac…that shit is dope!
A/C is also useful for defogging your windows when it’s hot humid and raining….sorely missed on my old cars.
I regularly drive the family’s 1968 Cougar. No A/C, but they were built with vents to let the outside air flow through, so not too bad in the summer, unless you get stuck sitting in traffic. Then, you hope it doesnt vapor lock.
Miata is always the answer.
Unless you’re my wife. When she drives the NA, she runs the A/C even with the top down. She did the same with her BMW 323 conv.
I had a Mustang convertible that the A/C seals went out in. I never bothered to fix it until needed to drive it on a trip to southern Florida with my wife.
When I met my wife, she had 89 Suzuki Sidekick, no A/C (dealer only option). She quit driving it regularly when she got pregnant for some reason.
Not having A/C in my classic Mini means I don’t drive it when it’s over 90* out, it’s just not fun anymore. I think every car should have a well integrated climate control system – doesn’t have to be fully automatic, tho I am spoiled by it in my Audi.
Meanwhile our rental in the Philippines didn’t have heat into the cabin. Only AC
Only on a dedicated track/race car, and only if it goes to and from the track on a trailer.
I once was helping a friend move in the late 90’s, and his girlfriend had a Geo Metro. She went with him in the moving truck, two friends drove his car and I and a buddy drove her car. They told us that the AC didn’t work, which… sucked. It was just after the spring semester ended, so early June in suburban Philly. It was low 90’s at the time and sunny as all get out.
We start driving and my buddy’s like ‘… they said the AC doesn’t work, but can’t hurt to try it, right?’ Push the button and … ice cold AC. We were so confused. I mean, it had about 800lbs of stuff we were moving in it, and being a Geo Metro, it was gutless without AC and sucked even more to drive with it but we made it. They didn’t believe us when we said the AC worked fine. The guy she bought it from said it didn’t work and they just… never bothered to test it. So she drove that car for 2+ years without AC when it very much had AC. Poor girl.
You knew it was coming.
You spell GO Geo.
Out west where we don’t have to deal with humidity, no A/C in the summer is more bearable than in other parts of the country. While I can’t imagine you could survive without A/C down in Arizona, in a place like Colorado it’s doable. I drove a Ranger without A/C for almost 10 years, and aside from a handful of days each summer it wasn’t that bad. And that was down on the Front Range; if I was in the high country I wouldn’t have missed A/C at all.
I’ll second this, as long as we’re not driving to the desert, we could pretty well avoid using A/C living at altitude. It’s not uncommon in July to be using the heated seats and steering wheel if it’s 45F and raining.
Nice. Being acclimated to your climate really does help! And indoor spaces without A/C but a good cross-breeze solves a lot, too.
Yeah. Dry heat makes it more bearable. I had a base model ’90 Ranger with no AC (and no carpet, no headliner, with bench seat and roll-up windows) until a few years ago. And while it was not a daily driver, It was at least fine as an occasional truck.
Mine also came standard with no carpet, no power steering, no radio, no power windows, no power locks, and a vinyl bench. That vinyl was probably the worst “feature” on hot days.
AC is not required if the car is from the 60’s or earlier, or if the car resides in Alaska