Advertorial : How to keep your parked car cool

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Much as we love that summer sun, it can make driving almost unbearable if it’s been beating down on your car for any length of time. As well as turning your car into an oven, it creates a real inconvenience having to wait for that interior temperature to drop to a comfortable level. The sun’s powerful rays can even damage your car’s interior, or any precious possessions you might have stored in there.

Get some relief from those soaring temperatures, and make your summer driving a more comfortable experience. Allianz Your Cover (www.yourcoverinsurance.co.uk) provides you with these quick and simple tips to keep your car cool during the hot months ahead.

Seek out some shade

When that sun comes out, everybody’s searching for a shaded spot! It might mean parking a little further away than you’d like to find a shaded area, but the extra bit of legwork will all feel worth it when you get back to a car that isn’t going to roast you alive. Remember that those sunrays don’t beat down in the same spot all day, so if you’re parking for an extended period, aim for somewhere that provides a larger area of shaded cover.

Get your car some sunglasses

Investing in a good sunshade or window visor is as close as you can get to giving your car a pair of shades. It’s a tried-and-true method of keeping your car cool, and it can make a huge difference to that interior temperature – especially if you’re planning on being away from your car for an extended period. If you’re serious about reducing that temperature then double up, with a visor in both the front and rear windows.

Don’t forget the steering wheel

It’s not just the general interior temperature of your car that heats up to boiling point in the summer sun. You can get a nasty surprise when you sit down and put your hands on the wheel, forgetting that it’s been soaking up the sun’s rays too. When you leave your car, it’s really simple to just throw a hand towel over that steering wheel, and it means you can set off in your car more quickly as you won’t have to wait for the wheel to cool first.

Blankets aren’t just for the beach

If your car’s interior features leather or vinyl seats, you don’t need me to tell you how scalding hot these can get when they’re exposed to sunbeams and high temperatures for any length of time. Avoid that nasty shock when you first sit down by throwing a blanket over your seats when you leave the car to keep them cool.

Harness that solar power

The sun’s rays may be causing your hot car problems, but they can also offer up a solution. Invest in a solar-powered fan and harness the power of the sun to help that air circulate better. By creating air circulation, they work to lower your car’s interior temperature, making your summer driving experience a lot more pleasant.

Keith Adams

10 Comments

  1. Interesting to read this given that British summers are somewhat cooler than here in Oz, but the recommended techniques are pretty similar to what are used here. Oh the memories of coming back to scaldingly hot vinyl seats in old Holdens!

  2. The leather seats on the Honda get ridiculously hot on the few days of summer that we have. Few minutes of blasting the AC usually work a treat cooling it down again.

    Top tip for AC-less cars, like the Getz, open windows in a diagonal fashion (eg. offside front, nearside rear) and this will get an airflow going through the car.

  3. When in Oz we had a black Mazda MX5 with an aluminium gear knob which did cause a burn once. We kept a small insulated beer bottle cover (stubby holder) in the car and slipped it on in hot weather. Made all the difference!

  4. While visiting my sister in Dubai in the late Eighties, I got into her Honda Accord after it had been sitting in temperatures of 30 degrees plus. The seat belt buckle touched my leg and for weeks I had the shape of that buckle just above my knee!

  5. I have fond memories of being driven across the Arizona desert in summer in the early 80s in a Japanese subcompact car. We had the choice of either driving at under 30mph so that the air con would work, or driving faster than this when it wouldn’t. Unfortunately, above a certain temperature opening the windows doesn’t cool the car down, it’s just like opening an oven door..

  6. I can remember getting my first car with aircon in 2005 and after driving to the dealers on a very hot and himid day in a non air con car and driving back in air conditioned comfort was a revelation. However, this has become less of an issue since 2007 as the summers haven’t been much cop and I do drive a basic Fiesta without it, but it would have been a blessing when the weather really warmed up last week.

  7. A solar powered fan won’t work. I had an Opitec kit when I was a kid and made one. It spun furiously but didn’t seem to do anything: frantic yet ineffectual.

  8. Considering we have had not had any real summer weather in the UK since 2006, this is hardly an issue here. I had top put the heater on today. If manufacturers are looking to decontent UK bound cars and make them more market specific they could start with ditching air-con and the windsreenwiper switch. Just default wipers to go to full speed as soon as the ignition is switched on.

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