The ’62 Skylark I spied in Maine is interesting for a variety of reasons, its generous specification being among of the more notable of these. A compact car with power windows and air conditioning wasn’t common in 1962, and we go out of our way to point out similar compacts and ponycars so-equipped through the early ’80s. As JP Cavanaugh noted in the comments this morning, it wasn’t until 1972 that he saw an A/C unit outside of a high-end sedan, and it’s only over the past ten years that virtually every car features it as standard (though there are still a handful of holdouts). I remember plenty of strippers through my youth which left drivers steamy behind the wheel, but I suspect this will be a much more interesting question for our more seasoned readers: what’s the first “modest” car you remember seeing with air conditioning?
As many recall, it wasn’t until 1968 when AMC offered standard air conditioning on the Ambassador, at a time Cadillac charged extra for the feature. While Japanese carmakers made a name for themselves by offering a lot of value for the money, it’d be a while until their HVAC systems matched those from American manufacturers, and mainstream European carmakers often lagged even further behind.
Some air conditioners even remained separate from the rest of the ventilation system through the ’70s, sometimes requiring expensive dealer installation. In such a context, we must consider the add-on unit found in today’s 52-year-old Buick to be very thoughtfully designed and even decorative.
Compare that to this unit found on a ’69 Volvo 1800S. It’s easy to overlook what a large device air conditioning actually is if one didn’t live through the era.
Fast forward five to ten years, and powerful, fully integrated units began (finally) flowing out of European manufacturers. The degree to which some manufacturers used to highlight these systems is a bit strange outside a historical context. After all, we’ve been living with systems like these for about thirty years, and these days, any physical link to heat blending and air distribution has been tossed aside.
This lowly Fiesta is a good representation of what HVAC controls look like in 2014, banished beneath infotainment, with everything operated electrically. Many of us forget just how much we take this most fundamental provision for our comfort (and even safety) for granted, let alone all the engineering involved in making it both effective and unobtrusive. Along with steering and braking assists, it’s possibly the convenience closest to being considered a necessity, even though so many of us went without not long ago (I’d even rank power steering below A/C). For those who can remember such times, when did you finally come to expect air conditioning readily available in your ride?
Not factory, but my Dad installed an aftermarket Frigiking unit in our ’69 F-100. Our ’68 Country Squire LTD wagon had air, but nothing earlier than that comes to mind of the cars I remember from my youth.
Every new car I’ve purchased over the years had a/c, save one: the 1990 Honda Civic 3-door Hatch, which was a base model that I requested without *any* options. No a/c, no radio, no pin stripes, no dealer prep (I had to scrub the cosmolene off the wheels myself). Bought an aftermarket radio right after purchase, and had the dealer put in a/c after a couple years when we could afford it (was cheaper than if we had bought it installed new).
Mom and dad’s first car with A/C was their 65 Comet. It was a dealer option and hung under the dash.
Their first car with integrated A/C was the 69 Chevelle, and I remember those eyeball vents, after that A/C was in every car they bought.
My friend who lived up the street from us had a father who was a retired colonel and worked at the nearby army depot, so he was a double-dipper. My friend’s mother was the head librarian at the local university. With that level of income, they bought new cars regularly, and when they did, they were always heavily optioned.
Their 1971 Chrysler Newport sedan and 1972 Ford Pinto Runabout are the first “regular” cars I can recall that had factory air.
My first brand-new car was a 1988 Honda Civic DX sedan. I definitely wanted air conditioning, but in those days it was a dealer installed option on Hondas. I bought the car in the fall of 1987, soon after that model debuted, so I had to take it back to the dealer about two weeks later to get the air conditioning installed!
My father traveled in his work, often racking up 35,000 miles a year in the Virginia heat and humidity. That’s why he had aftermarket air fitted to his 1956 Ford Country Squire. As for my own cars, I did without until I had A/C added to my ’75 VW Dasher. Boy, was that an unfortunate combination, a 1471cc engine lugging around an A/C compressor. Passing slow traffic on an old three lane highway would give you religion, that’s for sure.
Well, considering I’m in my early-20s, most cars I remember from my childhood had air conditioning. Although my home’s central air is a luxury turned necessity I’ll never again be able to live without, I honestly don’t use the A/C in my car that much. It sucks gas way to fast, and quite frankly I prefer open air cruising with the windows down and moonroof open, even at high speeds. I only turn the A/C on when its unbearably hot or on a long highway trip. My threshold is about 85 degrees, then I’d flip it on. Considering this rather comfortable summer, I probably used it less than 10 times.
I grew up the tropical north of Australia, and we never had A/C in the car. (Neither did we have it in the house nor at school, only ceiling fans).
In the 70s A/C was something you only saw on big luxury cars, even in that torrid climate.
Reminds me of living in Charters Towers in the ’70’s … no air at all, fans at school. You would think nothing of driving 2000 miles with the car windows open for air. Took days for the ringing in your ears to stop. First car I remember with air was a Falcon taxi on the Gold Coast in 1970. Now you won’t have anything, house or car, without air.
KJ
Mt Isa boy here, no A/c in cars for us until the second half of the ’80s. The ringing in the ears is very familiar…
Other than a couple window units pressed into service on the worst days of late August, our 96 year-old farm house has no central air – only ceiling fans and lots of windows… we manage to manage. (c:
Yeah the house I lived in up until 3 years ago was a late-nineteenth century Victorian with no air conditioning of any form. The wiring (which hadn’t been upgraded since my grandparent purchased it in 1958) was so old that it couldn’t safely support a window unit. I spent many days and nights downstairs in the family room, the one room with a ceiling fan. Central air was a welcomed plus to the new construction we moved into.
Mrs. JPC would leave me if I moved us into a house without a/c. 🙂
Everywhere I lived from birth (1980) through 2012 had central air with one semi-exception–a 500 square foot apartment that had a hotel-style wall unit in the living room. Given the compact floor plan and lack of hallway, it worked well enough to behave like central air.
In 2012 when we moved to Richmond, we leased an apartment in a 90 year old building. Window units in the living room and bedroom, so they stay cool, but neither one does a good job of circulating air down the nearly 30 foot long hallway (all the rooms are in a row with a side hall) and all the windows, save two transoms, are painted shut. The poor ceiling fans can’t keep up in the non A/C rooms. I miss the central systems!
Same with cars – the question loses its relevance for those of us below a certain age and living in certain climates. In the south/mid-Atlantic USA, the summers are hot and humid enough to make it an expectation. The only car my family owned in our lifetime that didn’t have factory air was the strippo ’83 Escort my Dad drove in the late 80’s. (He always said it had 255 air conditioning–2 windows down at 55 MPH.) I’ve owned 2 cars where the A/C no longer worked, but the system was there from the factory.
Does using the A/C really use more gas? I’ve read studies that show the added drag of having the windows open offsets any savings of not having the A/C compressor run.
A/C reduces mileage a little more than open windows, even at highway speeds.
Growing up, our 72 Impala wagon and it’s vega replacement didn’t have it. Dad’s 74 Electra 225 did as did mom’s 77 Caprice – on both it crapped out after a couple or three years and were never fixed as the folks hardly used it anyway. This isn’t a dig at GM, I’d say their short life was simply lack of use and needing the freon topped up. Everything after that has had it.
My dad’s 1975 F250 Ranger supercab was the first one I can remember. It was an XLT model with spiffy brocade seats, a/c, AM/FM/8-Track and cruise. No power windows though.
Heilige Scheiße, that’s the same thing I was about to say! A ’75 F-250 Ranger XLT SuperCab, in Midnight Blue Metallic. It had jump seats in the back, which was about the awesomest thing for a 5-year-old, to sit sideways. We had Indian blanket seat covers on the front, though, so I never got to see the brocade seats. Back seats were vinyl, of course.
Growing up in northern Indiana in the 60s, I straddled from the era where it was very rare to where it was nearly universal, probably 1966-76. But it was always in big expensive cars, or at least flagship models like the 66 Electra of some friends or the 69 LTD of my Dad’s. Granddad’s 62 Cadillac, as well.
I do not remember a single mid size or compact with it before the 70s. The neighbor lady next door had a 68 GTO that might have had it, but I am not really sure, despite several rides in it. In my world, smaller cars tended to be “second cars” that were not as nicely equipped as the family’s “good car”.
Mom’s 72 Cutlass Supreme and a neighbor’s 72 AMX were the first smaller cars I actually remember with air.
Your memory meshes well with mine. My first car with factory A/C was the 72 Ford Maverick LDO bought new in Fort Wayne. Around that time factory A/C began to be far more prevalent in mid- and lower-range cars. I recall that many of the new Mavericks and Mustangs on the lot at Jerry Watson Ford in Fort Wayne were equipped with A/C. My best friend in Fort Wayne had a new 69 GTO with factory A/C.
Texas, Florida, and California led the way with both add-on and factory A/C in all kinds of cars in the 50’s. We vacationed a lot in Florida in the 50s and as a kid I remember being fascinated by seeing so many cars with add-on units, and then there were the many Lincolns and Cadillacs with the plastic tubing running through the rear package shelves.
Funny you mention Jerry Watson Ford. That was where Dad bought the 66 Country Squire that we saw yesterday.
My Dad bought our 65 Thunderbird at Jerry Watson Ford.
I guess I grew up lucky, as every car I remember my parents owning except one had a/c. When I was born they had a ’67 LTD coupe, bought new. That was traded off when I was 3 years old for a ’72 LTD.
In late 1973 my Dad was transferred from St. Louis to Houston, and he needed a second vehicle. That ended up being a ’74 Ford Courier. No a/c. IN HOUSTON. He suffered through eight summers in that thing (the white vinyl seats and huge air ducts under the dash did help) before buying an early model ’83 Ford Ranger, (they came out in the spring of ’82) with a/c of course! The LTD was traded off in ’78 for a Malibu Classic coupe that would eventually become my first car.
The earliest car I know of in my family with a/c was a ’62 Olds 88 that my paternal grandparents had. I have no recollection of it as they traded it for a ’69 Delta 88 (also with a/c) the year I was born. At age eight I was present at the dealer when they traded it for a ’77 LeSabre. Later that year my maternal grandparents bought their first vehicle with air, a 460-powered loaded to the gills F-250 XLT. After a few months of 8 mpg commutes, Grandpa traded the F-250 for what would be their last car, a ’78 Thunderbird.
This talk of early factory air brings to mind a humorous memory.
In all the years my father ran the car dealership, the customers he dreaded the most were school teachers. It probably had a lot to do with how underpaid they were in the pre-union days, but teachers would fight tooth and nail for every nickle on a car deal. The salesman at the dealership probably spent twice the amount of time closing a deal with a schoolteacher, and made less profit than the average customer. Dad never really stereotyped customers much, but he always believed that “schoolteachers are cheap bastards.”
This was a story that always stuck with me, if only because it was kinda out of character for dad. Fast forward three years after dad’s left the business (1968) and I’m doing summer classes at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown campus. One of the professors there has just bought a brand new AMC Ambassador. I’m curious, I’ve read the ads (they were making a REAL big deal of standard air conditioning at the time), I take a look into the car.
To see a large, clunky, aftermarket air condition slung under the dashboard. Now, at this point in time, aftermarket air conditioners weren’t rare anymore, but what about the AMC ads? Fortunately for me, the window sticker for the car was still laying in the back seat. And there it stuck out: “Air conditioner delete, $250.00 credit.” Yes, you could get an Ambassador without air conditioning, but you had to order it special.
OK, that’s half the story. I noted the air conditioner brand, a did a little research locally to see what an installed unit cost.
$245.00. He gave up the nicely integrated unit to save $5.00.
OK dad, point made. Schoolteachers are cheap bastards.
Good one.
Nowdays, replace schoolteacher with Indian … (not native American)
Um, really?
“… the customers he dreaded the most were school teachers. It probably had a lot to do with how underpaid they were…”
That, and they deal with someone trying to pull a fast one on them Every. Single. Day. Salesmen aren’t as sophisticated as you think, the average kid trying to get away with having blown off their homework uses the same techniques.
It’s possible the car the dealer had in stock had no AC (maybe someone screwed up when ordering or a deal fell through) but the teacher wanted it, so to get rid of it the salesman told him, no problem, we will install air and the price will be about the same as one we would have to order. But I like your thinking better, after all today that’s more like around 30 bucks.
I believe our first factory air was in mom’s 1963 Impala(? – or whatever the name was for the trim level that year) station wagon. Mom’s car was used for the annual July vacation, and dad was sick and tired of putting up with mom and her two sisters constantly fighting over whether the windows would be up or down.
My first car with air way my ’79 Monza, my third modern car.
The first car I drove that had a/c was a Ford Maverick.
The one pictured here.
My dad’s 69 Dodge Monaco Brougham was the first car in our family with a/c, but after that he never had a car without. My only a/c-less car was the 66 Chevy Impala convertible I bought from my sister as my first car.
Not exactly a direct answer, but in 1967, our French teacher at Loyola showed up with an air-conditioned 1965 VW bus! It sat on the roof in the very back, inside a housing that was clearly built to integrate with the bus’ roof, not some back-yard hack job. And there were ducts on the inside ceiling to distribute the air. It was almost exactly like the city buses that used to have a big hump on their tail ends.
Given that this 1500cc bus had like 45 net hp, turning it on was very noticeable. Undoubtedly someone was building these units for VW buses.
Wow, turning on the compressor at speed must’ve had the same effect as yanking on the parking brake!
I had air conditioning installed in my 69 VW Beetle at College Mall Volkswagen in Bloominginon, IN @ 70-71. It was a unit made by Heatransfer in San Antonio, Texas. From the patent information, this is basically how it worked:
“In accordance with the present invention, a reversible evaporator-condenser unit, including necessary coils, valving, and blowers, is mounted compactly in a casing which fits in and rests on the slightly modified flooring in the compartment provided in the Volkswagen body just behind the rear seat. The control console is mounted on the flooring tunnel in convenient position for access by the driver and is connected to the evaporator-condenser motors and the source of electrical energy by means of suitable cabling which runs along the central tunnel in the flooring. The compressor is conveniently mounted on the rear engine, and a hose cluster connects the same to the evaporator-condenser unit. The hoses are provided with quick connect fittings of the type provided with check valves so that the evaporator-condenser unit can be safely precharged in the factory or at any time prior to installation.”
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3595029.html
It worked well and kept the car icy cold; however, the power loss was significant.
Heattransfer was later involved in an interesting anti-monopoly lawsuit against VW that you can read about here:
http://openjurist.org/553/f2d/964
Funny story about College Mall Volkswagen in Bloomington. The first gas shortage in 73′ my parents went to look at a new Beetle. My 12 year old self was so in hopes they would get the Beetle but Mom would not give up her Olds.
When I got my first job at a VW dealer in 1974 we had parts catalogs for AC going back to 1962 for all models. The brands were VPC (Volkswagen Products Corporation), and DPD ( don’t know what the letters stood for, but was manufactured in Texas). Parts for both could be ordered through regular VW ordering process, and kits could be ordered for dealer installation. We did install a few on new cars. We also had a Behr Air catalog, a few had these installed aftermarket. We had to get parts for these from a Behr Air AC shop, we would give them the part number. In Southern California there were quite a few cars equipped, it was rare for them not to just be removed as the cars got older, but some people did keep them functional.
The DPD mystery has been solved, thanks to Caguys link to the Delanair VW lawsuit. Stands for the company’s founder, Don P. Dixon of Texas. Thanks!
Working on the line back in 72-73, some of the senior guys had an ” A/C job”. Only about 30 percent of the cars had the C60 or C61 option.
Back then I figured that had to be the ultimate job to have.
My neighbor’s 1962 Rambler Classic Cross Country (wagon) had factory air conditioning. The center vents actually came out the top of the dashboard and had flaps over them that directed airflow rearward or could be closed completely. You’ll see them in the picture (not of the actual car, which was gray and had the pushbutton “Flash-O-Matic” transmission).
He later gave the car to my older brother who drove it through his first couple of years in college.
He also had a 1968 Dodge Monaco with Airtemp air conditioning. Our first family car with air was our 1970 Buick Estate Wagon, though my dad had a 1969 Ford Country Squire company car with it as well.
My parent’s 1964 Plymouth Valiant had factory AC, which was their first car with AC and I was told it was unusual on such a humble ride. Subsequently at least one fo the family cars had air, except for a brief period in 1974 when when we were between “first” cars and making do with the BMW 2000
Growing up in the Deep South, just about every car I knew had A/C, even from my earliest memories of cars from the late 60s/early 70s. I know anecdotally that the first car my parents had with A/C was a 1962 Mercury Comet. At the same time they also had a hand-me-down 1958 Buick from my grandmother that did not have A/C, and so they really gushed about the Comet with its cool air in humid New Orleans. In the early 60s they also got wall units in the house, so A/C was clearly becoming much more prevalent everywhere. They never got another car after that without it, and likewise all the houses I knew had some form of air as well. I was so used to all cars having A/C as a Southern kid that I actually thought it was really weird not to have it. My Great Aunt in Massachusetts had a series of Plymouths in the ’70s without air (Satellite, Volare), and I couldn’t get over it.
All mine have had factory air. 1968 Sport Satellite being the first. Bought used in 1973. The first in the family was a 1973 Impala bought new. Dad had aftermarket installed on the car he used a week or 2 later. A 1965 Valiant. Seems like most folks in GA, TN and AL where I grew up were getting AC in cars they bought in 1965 and later, except Dad. He bought a new Fury II with out AC in 1967. The first normal car I remember with it was my best friends Dad in 1960 having a 1960 Chevy Wagon with Factory Air. The surprising thing is I think it was the Bel Air trim package and not the Impala.
My first was a 1968 Plymouth Valiant Signet. It was the Chrysler factory unit, with a slim vent housing integrated below the instrument panel, but it had the cycling-compressor temperature control typical of aftermarket units. On Darts and Valiants, at least, the reheat system, where warm air got mixed with cold to adjust temperature, was yet in the future.
The 1968 Signet version even had a color-keyed pad around the bottom of the air conditioning vent, matching the dashboard pad! That got dropped later.
Our FAMILY’s first was a 1963 Cadillac 62 4-window hardtop. But that was a “high-end sedan; the Valiant wasn’t.
First memories include a neighbor’s 1960’s Electra, other neighbor’s ’57 Caddy, and grandfather’s heavily optioned late 60’s Chevy sedan (Caprice?)
My immediate family’s first foray into A/C was when my Dad stepped up and (gasp!) checked the box when ordering our ’72 K5 Blazer. As I recall it cooled as though it was for the volume of a pickup cab, not the volume and extra passengers on the Blazer.
Probably one of the family’s 1980s Saab 900s or Aunt’s 1980s Mazda MX-6. One of those Saab’s was a stripper model.
Course almost every vehicle in my family with AC had it fail in 10 years or less and usually we did not fix it.
First in our family was a 67 Pontiac Catalina wagon optioned with air (not under the dash), electric windows, electric seat adjustment, FM radio and tinted window (subtle, but effective), all factory with the biggest engine available.
Dad was a school teacher.
The first car I drove that had A/C was a 1986 Toyota MR2. The air conditioning didn’t work, it was there.
The first I remember was one year in the mid ’60s on summer vacation going somewhere with a friend in his family’s 1964 Pontiac Safari(?), which had A/C. What a relief! I think this wagon was similar in trim level to a Bonneville.
First ordinary car I had with AC was a 71 Toyota Corona 1600 Manual it a dealer fitted under dash affair with a piston compressor, turn it on full blast at 60mph you were instantly cooled and doing 50mph, the car did 41mpg imp with the AC off barely 30 with it on.
The first cars I remember seeing with factory integrate AC was the HQ Holdens identified easily by 3 vents in the dash pad regular cars had two a very rare option that made the L/H bank sparkplugs near impossible to acces on the V8s thanks to the enormous compressor.
That Fiesta must be the 3 cyl turbo “hfe”. Check out the photo of the Saab. The 9 o’clock position on the vent direction control is a setting for cool air to blow out the dash vents and warm air through the floor vents. Very refreshing on a long winter drive.
We had several used 70s cars (71 Satellite, 72 Montego, 74 Volvo wagon) that were equipped with air conditioning that had quit working and never got fixed due to the expense, and we lived in the south so it was pretty brutal. Me and my brothers fought to ride in my aunt’s new 78 Volare with ice cold air. Finally, my Mom got a good job and got a new 1982 Delta 88 with gloriously cold air conditioning.
Maybe its because its the era I grew up in but I like the slide controls of 70s/80s-era American cars and I hate dual zone AC on modern vehicles, it never seems to work right.
A couple of years ago I took my kids on a 6 hour road trip in the middle of summer with 90+ degree days in my 1969 Charger with black vinyl interior to show them what it was like when I was a kid. They wont be doing it again and neither will I.
I wish I had dual-zone AC on any of my cars. My wife and I have an unspoken battle on road trips were we each try to adjust the temperature knob up or down while the other isn’t paying attention, as she likes it considerably warmer than I do. Even if it didn’t work perfectly, it would be better for spousal harmony. 🙂
The first car I actually remember riding in that had A/C was a friends Dads 68 Chevelle.
He was an over the road salesman and received a new company car every two years.
Getting a ride home in this haze green Chevelle I still remember how COLD the interior was on a hot humid July night in 1968.
All of my immediate family’s cars were non-AC until my mom bought her ’95 Neon (against my college-kid recommendation). Her friend Pat had had A/C for as long as I can remember, she having bought high off the General’s hog – Buick/Olds B wagons and later Cadillacs. Friends’ parents had everything from a decade-old and miraculously unrusty Hornet Sportabout to a K-car LeBaron, none of which I can remember the A/Cness of.
Looking for costs, I found this 1958 ad. How does the (“as low as”) $369 compare with typical factory-A/C back then?
In 1965 a full size Chrysler convertible was about $5000 and A/C was a $500 option.
I saw lots of factory air on 1960s cars when I was growing up, but those weren’t the cars we owned. Tucson (and any desert city!) were hotbeds of A/C back before it became common everywhere. Cadillacs, Oldsmobiles, and Buicks all gave themselves away through the 1956 model year; if they had factory A/C, there were the telltale scoops on the rear fenders–same thing with Chrysler products. Everything changed when the apparatus could all be up front.
In the 60s I saw lots of Chevys and Pontiacs with factory air; it was harder to identify Fords through the early 60s because Ford’s A/C units looked like aftermarket units hung under the dash.
My brother, though, bought a 1965 Corvair Corsa, yellow exterior and black vinyl interior, without A/C. It was absolutely horrible in August! On the other hand, he was being transferred to North Dakota.
I had a 1962 Plymouth Valiant that had Chrysler aftermarket A/C when I bought the car in 1971. It wasn’t very good, though, and the car was prone to overheating.
My first car with factory air was my 1970 Torino Brougham that I bought in 1978. That was my introduction to A/C that actually worked well and didn’t make the car overheat. However, the piston compressor rumbled annoyingly. In 1982 I bought a 1977 Honda Accord that had factory air; it wasn’t quite as good as the Ford A/C, but at least it was A/C. Everything we’ve had since has had A/C. The climate control in our Camry Hybrid is as good as anything I’ve ever seen, and because it’s electric, it keeps cooling even when the engine is stopped. Nice.
I don’t know why I left Arizona out of my comment above. My cousins in Arizona had a new 57 Oldsmobile with factory A/C when they visited us in IN at the time. They were the first in the family to buy an A/C equipped car and never bought one without it after the Olds. In high school one of my friends moved to Phoenix in 67. She had an aftermarket A/C unit installed in her 66 LeMans before the move. When I visited her in 72 on my way to move to CA, I recall the metallic blue paint bleached out from the sun, the seats and dash cracked, and blinds installed on the windows. Arizona sun is brutal!
I grew up in L.A. (Lower Arkansas) where summers are long and HOT. So, A/C was quite common early. Our first car with it was a 64 Galaxie, with the unit hung under the dash. I think Ford put A/C in dash in 65, at least in the LTD. One of our friends who traveled in sales had a 60-62 Falcon with it. No idea if factory or aftermarket.
Wow, we didn’t get A/C in a family car until my father was literally forced to take it in a company car in 1975. That year he got a Malibu Classic, instead of a full size, because by that time Ingersol-Rand was finally leasing cars instead of the former practise of outright purchase. I guess the car was worth more with the A/C, than a full size without. I recall him being very angry that he had to accept a car with A/C, power windows, power locks and a whole host of other options that he thought would fail before he was done with the car.
We begged him to get A/C with his cars after that, but nope, the next two were full size strippers again, though, a Bel-Air sedan followed by a Bel-Air wagon, with no options, just like he liked them. The wagon even was a radio delete, and he installed a Muntz 8-track for his long highway drives.
As an aside, he was so cheap when ordering his company vehicle, that in 1972 he ordered his full size Biscayne with the 6 cylinder because it was better on gas, or so he thought. Yup, there we were, surrounded by neighbours with Parisiennes, 98’s, New Yorkers, Marquis’, and we’ve got an orange on white vinyl Biscayne with a 6. I still shudder at the thought of that car, towing our tent trailer and all the luggage required for 4 people struggling for about 60 seconds or more to get to 60 mph.
Finally, after he and my mother moved to Calgary, she made a stink about no A/C, and his Fairmont wagon had it, and every car since. They always used the company car to do long distance trips, as her cars, at the time a Fiat Spider, followed by a Mazda GLC were sporty and weren’t suited for A/C or her style of hooning. He finally discovered A/C was better for highway driving.
My parents purchased a 1973 Torino when I was less than a year old. It had factory air. The 1970 F100 they had did not have air. Every car they have purchased since has had air.
The Galaxie does not have air, however, opening the vent windows only along with the air vents provides a very nice amount of cool air, even on 90+ Fahrenheit days. Thankfully it is a lighter color; it would likely be a different conclusion if the car were a dark color.
Growing up in the Northwest in the 50s and 60s air was pretty much unheard of. Even the luxury car buyers didn’t bother adding the option then. Working in a gas station in the mid sixties I serviced a late 50s car with air (definitely from out of state). Raising the hood it was like a giant foam tumor had invaded the passenger side of the engine compartment. First a/c in a car of my own was in a 79 Volare wagon. Regardless of the reputation of those cars the air still blew ice cold when I sold it 8 yrs later.
First car with A/C was a 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser wagon. I was 7 years old and my parents had just traded their 1974 VW Thing. So not only the did the Oldsmobile have AC, it had glass windows and no drain plugs in the floor, hahahhah!
Since ’76, everything I’ve been in has had AC and I would have it NO other way, whether I am in my native Florida or any other locale.
BB
First AC car is the first car I remember, my grandfather’s 1956 Buick. I was around 5 or 6 years old at the time, 1960. One thing I remember is he had a small piece of aluminum made that would cover the far left vent so the cold air would not hit his left knee. Next he bought a new 1961 Buick Wagon with AC and did not have a vent problem. My first new car was a 1971 Plymouth Cricket, I had to buy an aftermarket Mark 4 unit and special order a mount and drive kit for compressor. It took a weekend but I installed it myself with friends help. Had it charged at an Amoco service station, I did not yet drill holes in the transmission hump for condensate, ran the drain hoses into a gallon jug on the passengerfloor. Was amazed at how fast it filled. I should mention that I live and grew up in Miami.
I grew up in swamp cooler land so they were all over the place in the 50s and 60s. No compressor. No ducts. If the RH is low they cooled good. Hardly see them today. I think Paul did an article on one not long ago. They were what the vw van above really needed. Too much humidity and it made it worse. A real sweat bath.
First refrigerated air conditioner for me was a 68 Nova. I had it put in by JC Penney Auto Center in Dodge City of all places. The 69 C10 was the next. Still have the underdash evap and motor from the 79 Datsun that lost a compressor. Curiosity and doubt I’ll ever use it. Just about everything since has had AC. On my work vehicles it normally was broken. On mama’s wheels it worked.
I had a 1963 Plymouth, purchased in spring of 1969, that had an after market, “knee freezer” A/C. The car had allegedly been owned by some retired couple and may well have been; it looked like no one had ridden in the back seat. The A/C worked well except for one detail. The Plymouth had the 361 CID V8 and the cooling system was sort of marginal under the best of conditions. Installing the air conditioner didn’t do it any favors; in town you could literally watch the temp gauge climb into the hot zone. Worked pretty well on the highway though.
First car I can remember with factory A/C was a 1964 Bonneville convertible belonging to my aunt in Texas. When I wondered why one would need both A/C and the convertible she was kind enough to not laugh, at least not too much. Now I would not consider purchasing any car, at least a car that was going to be a daily driver without air conditioning. Having the ability to keep the windows closed at highway speeds is a major plus in my mind.
My uncle bought a used 1963 wagon, he was showing it off, opened the hood, and said “look at it” I was about 13 I think and didn’t know what he was talking about “there, know what that is?” “air conditioning pump” He was so proud of it.
My parents bought a used 63 Olds wagon with A/C (factory) and a used 63 Impala with factory A/C.
First car in our family with it was in 1973, in my grandparents’ ’73 Volvo 164E. I was born in ’73, so I didn’t appreciate it until a few years later, when aircon was still uncommon in NZ.
Growing up, none of my parents’ cars had aircon – the first they bought with it was a ’90 Ford Telstar (aka Mazda 626) bought in 1994 after I’d left home.
First car I had with aircon was a 1986 Honda Accord I bought in 2000. All my cars since then have had it.
First workaday car I remember with it was also the most unlikely: my younger sister’s first car in 1998ish, a 1979 MkII Ford Escort 1100cc base-model sedan! The aircon had been fitted when the car was almost new by the first owner, an air hostess, who’d gone to town on it and had also fitted an aftermarket alarm (the old sort you turned on with a key), kill switches, a fuel cutoff switch in the front grille (in case of head-on impacts?), and had swapped out the feeble 1100 engine for a 1600 with big carb and exhaust headers – I hope the 1600 went in before the aircon! We still have no idea why someone would do all that to the absolute base model Escort…
The aircon was an aftermarket sort, the type which is usually slung under the centre of the dashboard. Anyone who’s been in a MkII Esky will know that they are very narrow cars; hence in my sister’s the aircon unit occupied the entire left side of the dashboard where the glovebox would normally be. The compressor was an enormous old thing hanging off the left side (facing the the rear) of the engine; it was about half as long as the engine block. The system didn’t really work, so Dad removed it and put a factory glovebox back in, thus providing storage space, freeing up knee room and improving fuel economy no end!
I grew up in North Arkansas, where it’s hot and humid as hell, much of the summer. In the early ’60’s, most of the air-conditioned cars I remember were Caddies and Buicks or similar. By the mid-60’s, many, if not most, Impalas, Bel-Aires, and Galaxie 500s had air, usually factory. . And, what a relief it was! I don’t remember factory air in compacts being as common till a little later. Most of my high school buddies in the mid-70’s had first gen Mustangs, which you could pick up for $600 – $800. I don’t remember any with the under dash air. Pickups seemed more likely to be air-conditioned in the 1970’s, particularly after the ’72-’73 redesigns came out. First vehicle we had with air was a ’66 Comet 202, 2 door, bought in ’68, 200 c.i., three on the tree, with add-on Park-O-Mat air hung under the dash. After that, every car had a/c (not always functional), with the exception of a couple air-cooled VW’s I started out with and a new ’74 Gremlin my sister and new husband bought. It eventually got air added. Interestingly, our house wasn’t air conditioned till four years after the Comet.
Also a northern IN boy, so A/C was not common when I was a kid. Our neighbors had it on their ’65 Imperial (the green hornet).
The first car in our family was my grandfather’s ’67 Catalina, and my parents ’68 Bonneville. Our ’70 Cheyenne C/20 did not, but we often wished it did.
I was fascinated with A/C. Acme Air (in Goshen) sold ‘OEM’ installs for lots of models, and the under dash units for many others. In 1969, I bought a set of JC Whitney gauges, vacuum pump and leak detector. My brother and I added A/C to dang near everything with wheels.
Combines, grain trucks, pay loaders, we did all of our stuff and most of the neighbors stuff. We used parts from the salvage yard, made brackets for the Tecumseh (Ford style) compressors and the really good GM A-6 axials for stuff that needed more cooling (like a forage harvester). They had gobs of capacity, like 2-3 tons on R-12.
Our NAPA shop could make any kind of hose, and they stocked TXV’s receiver dryers, accumulators and cycling clutch thermostats. Other farmers would come and just be amazed when we would cut wheat or silage in the hottest days of late summer and fall in air conditioned comfort.
When Deere came out with ‘factory air’ on the 4X30 series tractors, what we had done years before had less shock and awe value.
The first car I bought with A/C was a used ’78 Datsun 280Z. The cars before that were an ’80 Ford Fiesta and ’78 Scirocco, both without A/C. I didn’t miss it one bit during my casual and carefree student years. It wasn’t until my first full time job, which required a coat and tie (remember those days?), that A/C became a top priority on the next purchase.
The Z had a very powerful factory unit. No lugging of the engine and the ice cold air coming into such a small cabin made it feel almost decadent. Too bad the rest of the car was a total disappointment.
Bummer about the rest of the 280Z. I bought a 280C 430 Cedric for $500 and everything working incl. aircon. Same impression about the effect on the engine. Apart from that, I grew up in cars without aircon and prefer open windows. My W116 has it, but I haven’t switched it on in the two plus years I’ve owned it, which has probably ruined it.
First car in my family that had a/c was a1975 Torino 4-dr that my Dad bought in spring of ’79. It was a crappy brown colour with a dark brown vinyl roof and a nylon type of fabric on the seats that was a bit picky to the touch. What a POS! Our big family trip that summer was a nightmare when the a/c failed halfway thru the trip during a heat wave. I was a 15-yr old who ended up squeezed in the middle of the back seat with two grumpy, complaining grandparents. And that seat was so soft and unsupportive that I could feel the floorpan hump for the differential every time we hit a major bump. Nasty!
No more cars with a/c in my family until the ’90s, and most of those were so old the air didn’t work. First car with working air I owned was a ’96 Escort wagon.
The old man’s ’69 Caprice was the first AC for us. I think it was about 1980 that AC got really popular in cars. ’81 Toyota SR5 pickup was the first AC for me. We were just outside Detroit and it wasn’t like down south, hate humidity.
The first car I remember my parents having was a 65′ Ford LTD it had factory A/C. Then they switched to Oldsmobile in 67′ and they all had factory A/C. The first P/U I remember having A/C was a 72′ Ford Explorer my dad bought new.
No AC in my New England family until my father’s Cressida, a 1983 I think. My brother was married on a hot, humid day; my father was outside with the car running about 3 minutes after the ceremony ended.
Went to a car show last weekend and saw a 59 Impala with a factory unit. It was a small box under the dash, about the size of a tissue dispenser with vents. It’s hard to imagine how little air it must have put out. We’ve come a LONG way!
Growing up in sweltering south Texas, that would have to be the ’66 Mustang my parents bought used in 1970, with the factory “under-dash” hanger unit. That was the very first car with AC I ever rode in…I was eleven at the time.
Soon after, my brother bought a “fancy” ’71 Torino (had that trim package that included that very odd vinyl roof that didn’t come all the way to the actual edge of the roof) that had an “integrated” factory AC that was in-dash.