mmarshall

Probably goes without saying, but, whenever possible, park indoors or in a covered garage. Parking under trees can sometimes help, but, depending on what time of year it is, can mean a lot of stuff dropping on the car....and hazardous during storms.

Torii

get a white car, much cooler than all other colors imo.

Lil4X

Very true. A light-colored car with the lightest possible interior will help beat the heat. I once had a white car painted dark green and on the way home from the paint shop nearly had a heatstroke in slow-moving traffic. The next week I installed an aftermarket AC. Talk about an expensive paint job . . .

In my experience, leather is far less likely to scorch your backside than any of the plastic products used as seat covers. Leather attains equilibrium with your body temperature fairly quickly, and if it's ventilated, so much the better. Window tints help a lot too, provided you stick with ones that will block the heat and UV rays. Even 35% transmission tints, legal in almost all states can dramatically relieve the heat load on your car's interior.

When my AC went out two summers ago in the beatervan, my wife discovered that a frozen gelpack from the drugstore (the big ones about the size of a hand towel) when put in the freezer for a couple of days, then wrapped in a bath towel and slid between you and the seatback almost obviate the need for AC at all. Well, for a couple of hours, anyway. For short trips, it's surprising how comfortable it can be. You can actually delay repairs for a week or two until your mechanic's got the parts and the time to overhaul your HVAC system . . . no need to take the car out of service, you can still use it as the family grocery-getter while you wait.

Finally, the "360 air conditioning" - three open windows and sixty miles per hour - works up to a point. On warm days you can juggle with the window openings fore and aft to achieve the airflow you want. On cooler mornings when I was driving Suburbans and other SUV's I learned to open the front windows all the way then crack the tailgate window about 1-1/2 inches to achieve almost zero air blast from those side windows at highway speeds, and still keep the interior at a reasonable temperature. By making fine adjustments on that tailgate window (or even a tilted sunroof) you can get a good air exchange at almost any speed without having your hair (or what remains of it) deliver you a serious beatdown. Of course, at ambient temperatures in excess of 95°, NOTHING helps. It's just too HOT for a blast of air from that furnace outside to be expected to cool you down at any speed.

arentz07

I think the article needs to clarify that rather than putting your legs out the window, you should put a towel, etc. over the seats.

TBH, all you need is a good sun shade. Just got one a month ago, and it's made a noticeable difference.

JDR76

Move to Seattle, where we're having a rather cool and rainy "June-uary" day... My leather is nice and cool!

Lil4X

I had the worst possible color combination for cooling on my new ('67) Mustang - Dark (Bullit) Green with a black vinyl interior. Driving from San Diego through the oven that is Arizona in late summer on I-8/10, I very nearly roasted - and I did separate the tread on all four GY tires around Gila Bend. OK, not a color issue, but it introduced me to what REALLY HOT temperatures can do to your car (and driver).

mmarshall

Interesting that you mentioned that....that was one of the problems with the Firestone Wilderness tires on that problem with their failures and the Ford Explorer/Mercury Mountainer rollovers. Ford insisted on dropping the recommended PSIs because of customer-complaints of a stiff ride (Firestone objected, saying it was too low for that tire)...and, of course, most of the failures and rollovers happened under hot desert conditions, with heavily-loaded vehicles and higher speeds (and possibly neglected PSIs), where heat is most likely to take a tire fail.

Ford and Firestone, BTW, after many decades of being buisness-partners (Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone personally signed the first contract), parted ways after that incident.

Kira X

iTrader: (24)

I always put high quality dark tint on my windows and front windshield. It helps a lot but having all black cars with leather seats it still gets rough.

However my Saturn was white with a cloth interior and 5% ceramic window tint. I remember when I first got it tinted on a 100 degree day and the interior was still very cool. At most it would get a bit warm but that's it. Light colors are the way to go.

bagwell

+1, had a black car ONCE, looks nice but never again - paint is a maintenance nightmare and hot as hell in the summer!

Coleroad

+ another 1 on black. Black car is hot and a full time maintenance job to keep nice looking as stated above. I enjoy taking care of my cars, but black is taking it to a new level. I've been there and done that.

Kira X

iTrader: (24)

Black is a rough color to own. My cars are crazy hot during the summer. The paint can be a nightmare like you said. I need another white car for a daily driver.

I used to wash my black SC300 three to four times a week just to keep it looking good every day of the week. It was certainly overkill but I always had the cleanest car everywhere I went.

My white Saturn sat outside for years in the rain, snow, ice, and hail storms but it never really looked dirty. It didn't shine as much as my black SC but it only had to be washed every once in a while.

Lighter colors are they way to go for your every day cars.

ericwudi08

how hot can leather really get in a car interior? In the time you start the engine and fiddle with your phone a bit, your leather seating will have not felt so burning so whats the point in having your feet pointlessly sticking out the window (if you're not the driver)?

Kira X

iTrader: (24)

I've seen quite a few people sticking their feet out of the window of cars and never knew why they did it.

​​​​​​​Passengers do some weird stuff sometimes but then again, I've never tried this myself.

Aron9000

This is something funny, but I swear the padded vinyl top on my old 1991 Cadillac Brougham D'Elgance insulated the interior from the sun's heat. Car was "Black Sapphire Metallic", which really meant VERY DARK navy blue metallic, dark blue vinyl roof, dark navy blue button tufted leather seats, this car looked black in dimmed light, at sunset, in the parking lot at night, but when the sun hit it, it was a beautiful shade of navy blue, the metallic just sparkled in the sunlight. The color combo is still my favorite of any car I've ever owned, that dark navy blue metallic had a certain flop to black that just made it drop dead gorgeous. All the chrome trim on that car really popped with the dark color as well.

Anyways, you'd think this car would be hot as hell in the summer, but with tinted windows, the dark color was a non-factor. I don't know if it was the tint job, the fact that the windows were all straight and upright, the padded vinyl roof with foam insulation as part of the padding, the door seals, the superior sound deadining in that Cadillac, but man it remained cool in the summer time in that car.

Yet if you forgot to close the sun-shade on the sunroof in that car, you'd boil if you parked it in the sun. Of course the sunroof was huge, reached back past the driver's headrest.

ragingf80

I'm pretty much done with leather if I can help it. That's right. After 4 leather interiors in my past 5 cars, I'm back to high quality cloth with leather trim. This isn't my car, but has the same seats:



The cloth is ALWAYS cooler than my leather interiors. It grips you better so you don't slide around on high speed turns, it's easier to maintain, cheaper to repair and to me can look as nice so long as you stay away from the cheap mouse fur on so many economy cars. I also like the Golf R interiors:


an acquired taste.