Car Dealers – You’ll Need Air Con!
If you go down to your local car dealers today and look at any of the cars in the showroom, you’ll probably find that most, if not all of them have air conditioning. Even just a few years ago this would not have been the case. Air conditioning being automatically available in most new vehicles is a relatively new addition to car accessories, particularly in the UK where the weather doesn’t always warrant it. Because of this, many motorists are unaware of how to look after their air conditioning system properly and few actually understand how it works.
The first thing that many drivers do not realise about air conditioning is that it can affect fuel consumption. At low speeds it can really affect how much fuel your vehicle is burning. Opening the windows can also affect fuel consumption due to increased drag, but at low speeds it would be much more economical to drive with the windows open rather than with the air conditioning on. At high speeds however this switches around, which is good in a practical sense, as driving with the windows open at 60mph renders conversation impossible!
Something that many car dealers will not mention when selling a car that comes with air conditioning is that it does need to be maintained. Even if you find that the summer is not as balmy as you hoped, it is still advisable to run the air conditioning about once a week to keep it in the best condition. Unfortunately this also applies to the winter months, and although you may be thinking that there is no way you’re going to be making it colder in the car when it’s already -1
