car window tinting

we got some money for being evacuated in the floods, while I have put it all straight into our savings, DH suggested that I get my car windows tinted. Now this is something I see as a luxury, something rich people have, that I never in 1million years thought I would ever get done. but he poses a good arguement...
See my car is 21 years old. While it does have aircon, its 21 year old aircon, so no climate control, no refridgeration, basically the air that gets blown around is cooled slightly and only has vents in the front, so doesn't really make the back at all, so DH said it would help cool the interior of the car down, and with a baby that is a big pro. I can put up with no aircon, yea its uncomfortable and I get hot but I can deal with it and put up with it and suck it up, a baby/child cant..
so does anyone have any experience with it at all? anyone done it? done it for that reason? did it work?
I guess our other option is to get better aircon in my car, but I'm not sure if that is actually an option or not...can you get aircon upgraded? and cost will obviously play a major role..

Thanks everyone!!!

Your air conditioner might just need gassing.

You won't regret having your car's windows tinted, it keeps heaps of heat out.

I've had tinting but it didn't make that much difference on hot days. If you have the option, get the air con fixed.

Out of my five cars over the years, I had the windows tinted on three of them (the others I just couldn't afford to do at the time).

It keeps so much heat out. The car still needs the aircon, but I don't need it flat out and it's so quick to cool. Plus the privacy of having them is sensational. I have darkest legal on my current car and when I get into cars without it, I just feel so exposed. It's great for DD, she never has the hot sun blazing on her face (although we have put those mesh ones over the window so she's still protected when the window is down).

There's another factor too - I knew a woman who's mother had numerous skin cancers on her arm as an old lady, only her left arm. Her doctor had said it was most likely from exposure through the car window as she was always the passenger and it wasn't on her right arm.

It's one of those things that I can't actually live without anymore and well worth the money.

I never really got the whole tinting to keep heat out but got it done in my car and I found it really helps. I find I don't use my air con as much and if I do it's lower setting than I used to. Just my experience and others may differ :)

We have the darkest legal tint as well - definitely worth it, especially with kids in the car. We still have mesh window screens to block late afternoon glare more than anything, but it does make a big difference compared to our second car which isn't tinted.

Plus it helps prevent nasty people with sticky fingers seeing nice stuff in the car unless they're really looking

We have tinted the windows on all our cars. I do the front windows darkest legal tint and then the back ones a bit darker again. I find it really helps with the heat, and the sun glare on the kids. We had our new car for about 4 months before we had the money to tint the windows and it felt horrible, I felt naked, and hated that everyone could see in.


I personally think its money well spent.

We have tinting on our subaru.

With the tinting on wagons, as long as you do darkest legal on the front drivers and passenger windows, the rest can be illegal tint. Ours is pitch black.

Hard to see into from the outside and I agree that it does help with the aircon not needing to be blasted in hot weather!

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thanks everyone. I have no problems with people seeing me, dont get that expossed naked feeling... but I guess I don't know any better =P

Sounds like it will be worth getting, my aircon never really reached the back anyway, and even getting it regassed I dont think it would either cause there are no vents in the back...
that skin cancer/UV light thing is interesting too, I read up a bit on it after you mentioned it PRMG.

Our car doesnt have vents in the back and it stays beautifully cool.

hmm suppose it wouldn't hurt to get that checked anyway too (the gassing)

coming into winter it wont be so bad, and her heater is amazing, too amazing you actually get to hot with it on =P but will deff need something done before summer comes again..

You can get the aircon regassed for relatively cheap if you shop around. Makes a huge difference once it's done.

Seems somewhat ironic that we're talking air con when it's bucketing down outside and I'm thinking of turning the heater on :lol:!!!!!

We are in qld. it helps a lot but the cars still hot