I have an old pre-facelift Seat Arosa (same thing as VW Lupo) and I don’t know if the thing it has is called an AC or not, because I don’t think it has any AC gas filling or whatever that’s called and I don’t think it uses diesel for power, but just pure electricity.
It has three switches, one for heat (just a blue to red scale), one for strength from 0 to 4 and one for direction of air (lower, upper part, windshield and something else), it takes several minutes to heat up when the car is really cold and it takes a lot of time to blow cold air when the car is out on the hot sun.
In essence, I think it just a fan that runs on electricity, so how is that called, a manual AC or is it not even an AC, but something else?
And how does it compare to AC’s on for example BMW 3 and 5 series like E46 and E39, which have both “manual AC” and “automatic AC”, how do they work differently?
only way to tell would be to see an underhood photo, that way we could look for the compressor and associated plumbing. oftentimes- at least in north america- there will be a “snowflake” symbol on the controls if it has air conditioning.
there are a few components here- you’re talking about the blower fan, which provides airflow through the ventilation system. that is electric, and pretty much every car and truck in existence has one. inside the ductwork is a heater core, which is a small “radiator” that engine coolant runs through to provide heat to the interior. If you have air conditioning, there will be an engine driven compressor which uses refrigerant to chill an evaporator coil inside the ventilation ductwork to provide cold air. if you don’t have air conditioning, all the “cold” setting will do on the knob is bring in outside air.
manual air conditioning means the temperature of the air coming out of the vents is controlled strictly by the position of the temperature knob. if you want it colder or warmer, you turn the knob. Automatic AC means you set it to a specific temperature you want (e.g. 22°C) and the climate control module will manage the system to maintain that temperature.
The mentioning of the AC controls in the manual is no indication that your car actually has AC installed. The manual usually also describes optional car features.
For the Seat Arosa I would say that it is very uncommon for that car to have AC. I did a short search on a German used car portal. Out of the 567 Arosas only 112 come with AC.
It’s a manual for the post facelift version, which has a entirely different interior, I don’t have the AC button and the air recirculation button, just the 3 knobs I mentioned, blue to red for temperature, 0 to 4 for strength of blowing and the direction, up, down, windshield.
During summer if I set it to cold, it does feel like it is blowing colder air, it’s not just warm wind blowing in, but I guess it’s not as cold as it would be if there was a regular AC then.
Unless it’s ungodly hot and/or humid out, moving air will feel cooler than still air, to a human. But if it’s just a fan, it won’t actually be cooler, not even by a little bit.
Usually there’s a button or switch of some sort to specifically turn on the A/C. There are plenty of times you may want the vent on, and no hot air coming in, but not want the actual air conditioner running.
In my truck, it’s labeled with a snowflake and lights up to show when it’s on. Some just say “A/C”.
You’d really notice the difference, especially in the summer, between air conditioning and air simply being blown in your face. Even in cars over a decade old, the chill is noticeable.