The other day, I was recommended to a local window tinting company by my Lexus dealer and upon contacting them, I was told that I needed a special tint material (carbon free?) for this model due to the electronics in the car. What's that all about? As you can imagine, the cost was much higher than "standard" tint.
Can anybody enlighten me?
Thanks

 

They likely meant "metallic" free. Many tint companies use metals in their film to help reject heat. Works well. However, it may affect reception of radios, cell phones, radar detectors, etc.

It's pretty rare though. They seem to be more isolated incidents than anything else. I haven't noticed one particular brand of tint or one particular model of car having lots of problems. The Prius prolly comes closest to being the most susceptible to interference. Satellite radios seem the most easily affected for some reason. AM radio reception comes second.

 

I just had the non metallic due to sat and navi issues.

It 3M carbon fiber and costs around $200.00 in Miami

I usd to have the ceramic tint from Solar Guard but i found it to be a waste of money for $350.00.

 

I have Huper Optik ceramic in the back. It makes a huge diff over "regular" tint, but it costs an arm and a leg. But I'm pretty sensitive to heat so it's worth it for me.

 

When I had mine tinted, I was also told by the tint shop that my ES should use non-metallic tint. Apparently the metallic tint will interfere with the NAV signal.

 

I have Huper Optik ceramic and if you don't care about AM radio it is very good. It severely limited the AM reception but didn't affect the FM. I called the manufacturer and they told the installer how to fix the problem by removing a small amount of tint around the AM antenna. I have not had it done yet so I don’t know if it will help. If you look at the back glass you will see two antennas. One is for the AM and one is for the FM. The tint does not affect any other electronics; Lexus GPS, Garmin GPS, Cell phone Bluetooth. I got the Huper Optik ceramic because it had very good specs, and I thought that it did not have any metal in it. IT DOES.