OT -- Small Cars Are Dangerous Cars - Fuel economy zealots can kill you

I certainly cannot afford a new vehicle but any replacement I buy must have airconditioning - there is nothing worse than a stinking hot car on a 40+C/103+F day. Currently a 93 Patrol.

May Dad tried to find a new car without air conditioning in the early 90's. No such animal... he ended up getting one with air, power steering and brakes which he didn't want either.

I doubt if this has changed much, but I really have no use for air conditioning. It would only be nice for maybe 5 days a year (or less) that I would be driving it. Hard to justify the extra cost for so little benefit.

On Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:09:25 -0400, the infamous Leon Fisk scrawled the following:

Methinks he was foolish. YMMV

My '91 F-150 came without air and it was/will be the last vehicle without air conditioning I ever purchase. Summer's hot enough _working_ for a living, but driving around in the heat sucks too, too much.

You must live in a very northerly, mild climate. I'm at Longitude 43N and it still gets up to 41C/105F here a few days. Other weeks, it stays in the mid 90s. That's too hot for comfort.

doesn't it rain in Grand Rapids?

modern cars use the AC to dehumidify the air when you run the defroster - it really makes a huge difference.

I've been averaging around 2000 miles per year lately. My

1982 truck (that I bought new) only has ~132000 miles on it. Do you really think that air conditioning would be a worthwhile investment for me? ;-)

I walk around ~5000 miles per year, It would make more sense to put my money into shoes.

no need to fix that which isn't broke - my post was in response to your statement about not wanting AC because it was not useful - my point was that even if you didn't want it for cooling, it had another use on modern cars.

I can appreciate that Bill, I grok the point you make and it does get humid here.

My experiences with air conditioning has always been on the failing end. It seems to work pretty well for ~5 years or so. Then the repairs start or you do without, some of which can be pretty darn expensive. Around here there are only a few days per year when it would be nice to have, easy enough for me to work around those days and not go anywhere ;-)

We don't have air conditioning in the house either, just some decent fans.