I know we’re in the height of the summer season, but for those of you fortunate enough to drive when the ambient air temp is in the low 70's or lower, can you get that relatively “cool” outside air from the vents without running the A/C?

I go back to the pre-A/C days and like to run the compressor as little as possible (yeah, I know....call me cheap.) Many cars will bring in outside air and let it flow thru the cabin without adding any heat.

Not so with my ‘04 Maxima and it DRIVES ME NUTS not to mention the waste of energy. Even if the outside temp is in the 60's and you set the HVAC to the lowest setting - 60 degrees - it ends up being heated enough that you have to run the compressor. In order to avoid that, the outside temps have to pretty much be below 50. Nissan screwed up big time running the ducts for that system.

Anybody have experience with this one way or the other in the ‘07 ES?

 

i thought if you just turn on fan (not auto), youll get natural are without AC. Make sure AC light is off.

 

We have the NAV so this might be different without it.

Turn AC button off
Turn recirculate button off
at this point your only taking in outside air
Manually set your fan switch so you can feel the outside air flow

 

I ASSUME that you CAN set the HVAC so it will bring in "unconditioned" outside air (of course, you should never ASSume anything).

My question is, has anybody noticed whether that outside air is heated even if you set the temperature low. In the 6th generation Maxima, that outside air is heated significantly, and, IMO, a major design flaw.

 

I don't think it's heated by the compressor running. It's just outside air and well, whatever it happens to past through that's a heat source, will warm the air before reaching the cabin.