If it’s somewhere you park every day, something else to remember is, if possible, the direction you park matters. At a lot of companies out here with uncovered parking, many people also park the front of their cars facing east so the afternoon sun won’t shine down on the front seats and steering wheels.
Out west, open space is relatively cheap, readily available, and not subject to many regulations while underground or multi-story construction are more expensive and subject to several regulations.
I worked at a company where we eventually got solar awnings in the parking lot only because (1) the panels significantly reduced electric bills (~60-70% on average) and (2) they worked out a deal with the landowners to pay for most of the permitting and construction.
We would have loved proper covered parking but even that extra bit of afternoon shade (if you were smart about where you parked) made a big difference.
I don’t know, maybe at first? But once the AC starts cooling the air down, it makes more sense to recirculate the cooler air than pulling in hotter outside air.
This works extremely well on a black leather motorcycle seat. When the bike sits outside at work all day the seat can get hot enough to be unpleasant to sit on, even with armored jeans. Using a sopping wet paper towel to wipe down the seat will cool it dramatically. It dries in seconds.
I bet the wet paper towel trick would work on a steering wheel or gear shift that is too hot to touch.
I’ve used that method, and it does work. She has a Tesla, though, and can just hit the “climate” button on her phone 5 minutes before getting in the car. That will also blast cold air right into the empty seats, which to me makes more difference than just exhausting that heated air.
This. It works well. Some people are surprised at how well it works. I would not say that it makes the interior of your car cool, but it definitely makes it cooler. Dear ol’ Dad was an engineer and understood a lot of things, but he explained using terms I could understand: “Think of it as the same as the effect caused by a velocity stack on a carburetor.”
Interesting. I was reluctant to suggest this because I wasn’t sure if it actually worked or if there was some kind of placebo effect going on. I don’t completely close the door. I just swing it close to being closed a few times before getting in.
The problem being that right now, I drive a POS Nissan Versa with manual windows and locks while only the drivers door unlocks from the outside, so it’s just too much work to open the window on the other side of the car.
Interestingly, getting into a hot car never bothered me nearly as much as getting into a cold car. I live in Phoenix, and I used to live in North Dakota, so I’ve been through both extremes.
Others have mentioned parking in the shade and/or getting a windshield screen. The type of car you drive matters, too. I used to drive a MINI Cooper that had an amazing A/C system. Driving a Honda, on the other hand, it’s better to not be in the car at all when you fist crank on the A/C.
I also find using an auto-start for a/c to be counterproductive because all of that hot air coming from underneath the car before getting in seems to make the experience ten times worse.
But one thing I would suggest that hasn’t been suggested before is to carry a towel, and put it on the seat before you get in. This took me some time living in Phoenix to understand. When I used to play a lot of golf, a towel made all the difference in the world. The hot stuff you sit on makes the heat a million times worse.
Yep. Down south we have a towel. If seats are vinyl or (god forbid) leather. It does help.
When I had kids in back seats we would roll the windows down, run the AC on max. And go. Sitting still ain’t gonna help.
The first one to complain about hair blowing told me it was cool enough. Up go the windows.
Yep, all southerners have a car towel or two. For various reasons.
The air inside a card that’s been parked in the sun for hours will be far hotter than the outside ambient air (easily 140F inside when the outdoor temperature is only 90F or 100F). Cooling outside air will be more effective than cooling the interior air, until the interior temp gets down to match the exterior temp.
I concur. I also lived in Vegas and now Phoenix having grown up in Chicago though. I’ve been experimenting all summer for quicker ways to cool down my car after it sits in the sun-soaked employee parking lot for almost ten hours. I even asked coworkers how they cool down their cars. I also found a neat function using my key fob to open all windows including the sun roof by holding down the unlock button. I do this as I’m walking towards my vehicle and then do something similar to your method (but I don’t stand outside and wait). I’ll drive for a bit with windows open and then close everything up. I’ll have to try the fluid dynamics door opening trick too.
A lot of modern cars have that feature. Or can activate it through one of the many settings menus on the car’s computer. But that’s only useful if teh car owner knows to go looking for it.
ya just never know, its tough on the road.