Summer brings many good things: vacations, trips, time with friends and family… But it has a small drawback: it is usually very hot, and this little problem gets even worse when we have parked the car on the street and in the sun, which means that it can reach a temperature of 45ºC inside the vehicle. Not to mention how hot the seats and the steering wheel itself become, which can even cause burns to passengers.
The good news is that there are some tricks to cool it down a little before getting into it and not be boiling hot while driving.
The best option is to try to park in the shade, but sometimes it is very difficult to do so since there are too many cars on the street whose drivers have had the same idea as us. If you have no choice but to park in the sun, a sunshade placed on the inside of the windshield (although the effect will be improved if it is placed on all the rear windows) will insulate the vehicle from the heat. By using it, the temperature inside the car can be lowered by 11º, which really helps.
If you are going to buy a car, avoid dark colors. The RACC warns that black bodywork, for example, can increase the temperature of the car by up to 20º, compared to a white car.
Placing light-colored fabric covers on the seats and steering wheel also helps prevent burns from them when we get into the car. When we arrive at our destination, we will just have to remove them and that’s it.
Tinting the windows is also a good trick so that the sun does not hit the interior so hard. And if you have a hose on hand, washing the car with cold water will help cool it down faster.
Another good way to cool the car is to use the air conditioning properly. The advice is to turn it on with the windows down to generate an air flow that lowers the temperature inside the vehicle more quickly. After approximately two minutes, and as the temperature drops, it is advisable to set the air conditioning between 22 and 24º. And if you want to acclimatize better to the heat outside when you are going to get out of the car at the end of the trip, the ideal is to raise the aircon by about 2º to help you get used to it.
But the most viral trick to refresh the interior of the car is what is known as the Japanese trick. It consists of lowering the passenger window, and opening and closing the driver’s door, as if we were fanning it, about 5 or 8 times. This can lower the temperature of the cabin by up to 10º, as it allows hot air to be removed from the car in five minutes.
There is another version of this Japanese trick, which another Japanese influencer shares online.
Here, once the car has been fanned, the influencer advises turning the air conditioning on to its maximum setting, activating the external air circulation and lowering all the windows so that the hot air escapes outside more quickly. After one minute, raise the windows again, adjust the air conditioning to medium and activate the internal air recirculation.
