Keep your car cool in summer

Posted 10 January, 2024 Andrew Clark, RAA Car Advice Manager

When the weather heats up, your vehicle’s interior can become dangerously hot.

Modern cars have large windscreens and windows, allowing plenty of sunlight to stream in and turn the cabin into an oven.

In the video below, we look at some steps to help keep your ride cool over summer.

Steps in detail

1. If you can’t find a shady parking spot, spread a blanket or towel over the outside of the windscreen, securing it with the doors and wipers. Fitting a reflective sunshade to the inside of the windscreen also works, but keep in mind that sunlight can still enter the car through the exposed glass.
2. When you get in a hot car, set the air-con to fresh-air mode. This allows air to flow in from outside when you start moving. Although it may be hot air, it will be cooler than the super-heated air in the cabin. Winding down a couple of windows also helps ventilate the car’s interior.
3. Once the cabin reaches a comfortable temperature, wind up the windows and set the air-con to recirculation mode. This prevents hot air from being drawn in from outside, and allows the air-conditioner to cool the air inside the car. Modern vehicles have good flow-through ventilation, but occasionally switching the air-con to fresh-air mode will allow a complete refresh of the cabin air.
4. If your car’s equipped with climate control, don’t overwork the air-con by setting the temperature too low. If your air-con unit has a temperature display, setting it somewhere in the 20s should do the trick.

Safety first: Never leave pets or kids in a car. Even on a mild day, it doesn’t take long for the cabin temperature to reach dangerous levels.