I hear it’s been a bit, umm, cozy in some parts of the country. We finally had our first 80 degree day on Friday. And the nights are in the mid-fifties, Meaning, no need for air conditioning in our houses. But our (modern) cars all have them, although I hardly ever turn it on in my white Xb with its very vertical windows, except for a longer freeway trip on a really warm day.
But I remember well how miserable it was riding in Iowa in a certain hot black car with plastic seat covers. And it was even muggier in Baltimore, in our non-a/c ’65 Coronet wagon.
But the question is (obviously not geared to the youngest readers) when did you first ride in an air conditioned car? Me? A 1961 Fleetwood Sixty Special that my father’s cousin came in to visit us in Iowa City (in 1963, I believe). He had just bought it used, and as a traveling salesman (the big trunk stuffed full of high-quality German cameras and opticals), he loved it indeed. And he took us out for a treat at the Purple Cow Drive-In. And it was profoundly memorable indeed. What a revelation; one that my parents would not indulge in until 1973.
I cannot remember riding in an A/C car until I bought my 76 Dodge Royal Monaco new. (a $ 400 (?) option) I can remember it freezing me out very early in its life, and I seemed to always get a headache when driving with the A/C. The Dodge was only warranted for a year, and the A/C didn’t last much longer. I recall getting it repaired once, but it didn’t last very long. At some point, I tried to repair it myself, with unsuccessful results.
Still have the Dodge with broken A/C. I didn’t have working air until buying a 93 Cadillac Deville in 1995.
I drove two different air conditioned 77 Chryslers with that Mopar/Airtemp V-twin compressor. Both of them had a rhythmic shudder at idle, the only cars I ever experienced that did that. Did your Monaco do that too?
Yes.
A 76 Royal Monaco? Have you seen our CC on that car? https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1976-dodge-royal-monaco-gone-and-forgotten/
Yes, mine is the same model, with back windows that roll down. A true 2 dr hardtop. Drive out price, no trade $ 5,600. Astral blue metallic, blue vinyl top, and blue Princeton cloth seats.
Still looks decent with 62K on the clock. The Dodge was a real prima donna until about 20 years ago. Hardly ever used til then. Allways had other cars to drive. The paint is thin and faded, rust is at a minimum, seats have a couple of rips, but all in all, the car is quite decent. A staller since new, needs to be warmed up before driven. My other cars have taken over garage and storage rights since about 1997.
I still get compliments on the car, even in its run down state. I wish I had garaged it all this time, for it would still look like new. The car certainly isn’t worth any type of restoration, but for now, it sits under a car cover, driven to golf or store one a week or so. The last time I got gas, a older guy wanted to buy it, and proceeded to tell in detail what he would do to it if his. Always enjoy chatting with guys like that. Many thousands would be needed to do all he suggested.
1983 rover 3500 Vanden plas .A/C was an option and only Jags And RR had them as standard in the day.. System ment 2 less dash vents than the non A/C model?. Got cold air for about a week before leaks . The cruise control lasted about the same time too.An american item!. How did you folks get on with the 3500 in the USA?.
Badly. There are about 3 of them left here.
The first air-conditioned car i ever rode in happened to be the first air conditioned car my father bought new in 1979, i was in sixth grade then and though i probably rode in an air conditioned car before then i dont remember it, i chalk it up to being to young and most in my family either owned pickups, Fords only thank you, or just liked the windows down, my mother did not get her drivers permit until i started college so dad had a string of un-airconditioned vehicles. Hisfirst new one being a 1965 Ford Mustang GT, 225hp 4bbl, and 4 speed from factory that he still owns and the others being ford trucks, 4 wheel drive all, no air, but all had opt. sliding rear window. I attribute this to his being a telephone man and avid hunter which meant to him you had to be able to handle the elements, leave the air conditioned cars to my older uncles and grandfathers. Anyway the first was a 1979 ford Fairmont Country Squire wagon right off the show room floor, it was optioned totallly out, meaning a car that started off around 4000 dollars ended up costing him around 8000, so those of you familiar with ford option lists at the time know this was a Fairmont with all the toys, which made it nice, even my younger yuppy uncle at the time bought a new volvo which was twice the price even liked it. and my father never bought another unairconditioned car since. I even inherited it when he bought my mom her first new car, An 89 Mustang, and all his trucks after that were the same. Even my beater 96 ford f150xl, bright red , inline awesome fuel injected 6, and 4 speed manual with overdrive and 4 wheel drive even has air. I guess that fancy fairmont in 1979 spoiled us all.
The ’64 Impala I grew up with had factory air, but it stopped working sometime in the mid-70s. Whatever part that had failed — I think it was suction throttling valve — was unavailable at the time, so when my Dad finally had the system fixed in 1981, it used parts from a ’65 Chevrolet.
Growing up, my parents treated air conditioning as a special occasion. Don’t ask me why we had to broil on clear plastic seat covers and vinyl seats in the middle of a West Texas summer. My Mom might turn on the A/C coming back from the grocery store so the ice cream wouldn’t melt, but I guess melting children was another matter. When we drove our ’70 Chevy Townsman wagon from Texas to New Hampshire in the summer of 1977, I’d bet my parents turned on the air maybe half the time. Maybe.
I drove the Impala after I got my driver’s license in the summer of 1982, and my Dad bitched at me for running the A/C virtually all the time. It wasn’t like he was paying for the gas, so I don’t know what his problem was. I told him. “You spent a lot of money to get it working again, it works great, I’m going to be comfortable.” I also put a towel over those damn clear plastic seat covers.
Growing up, all we had in the house was a swamp cooler with one vent in the hallway that was supposed to cool the whole house (it didn’t). The best you could hope for was ~80º on a typical summer day in West Texas. My parents finally installed central air after I moved away for college. I was back for a visit around Memorial Day after it had been installed. It was close to 100º, but my Dad wouldn’t turn it on. Finally, I went to the thermostat and turned it on. “I don’t want to use it until June 1!” my Dad protested. “It’s 100º outside. Who cares about the friggin’ calendar!” As cool air started coming out the vents, he didn’t get up to turn it off.
My parent’s 1964 Plymouth Valiant had factory A/C and they bought it new. After that we always had one family car with air conditioning, although second car didn’t get A/C until 1987 and the house made do with an attic fan until 1984. I don’t remember the A/C in the Valiant, but it was sold when I was 4. My first two cars didn’t have A/C either, 78 and 81 Sciroccos, but the 84 Jetta did have something resembling air conditioning.
Living in Western Oregon I made do without central air conditioning at home for years but lately the summers have been getting hotter so I’m happy to have central air at home and in my car.
When I moved to Oregon 9 years ago, central air was on my must-have list. Some locals said “you don’t need air conditioning in Oregon.” “The hell I don’t,” I replied. It’s been quite pleasant in my house the past couple of weeks.
So it’s pleasant with or without the a/c? Central Oregon varies, depending on the altitude. Bend stays pretty comfy in the summer, since it’s 4000 feet high. But go to Christmas Valley or such, and it’s mighty toasty there.
With the A/C. Even though nights cool off nicely, it’s hard to get the heat out of the house.
The trick is to run box fans in the windows all night and get the house real cool, then close up in the morning. I have about half a dozen on hand for the occasional heat wave. But if your house is poorly insulated, that doesn’t work so well. Folks keep their windows open and run fans all day, just sucking in the hot air. Oh well…
ok guys, i love this site, it is the main one i visit daily, but this is about car air conditioning isnt it.? I mean thats what i wrote about and thats what i wanta read about. thanks guys for an awesome site. Please dont attack me for complaining its been a long child and work filled no good day so im sorry if this is whiny. yall have a good one, i see a lot of cool classics in WV. if i get the time i should send a few pics in, u see people driving cars here that i bet few even remember.
I remember my parents talking about their first trip in an air conditioned car, a ’53 Cadillac Coupe de Ville which was owned by another couple they hung around with. During the summer of ’53, they all took a trip to Myrtle Beach, SC and mother says she recalls the relaxed comfort they drove in that hot July day. This was a new experience for them and one that led to my father eventually purchasing his first air conditioned car a few years later, but more on that in a moment
Mom recalls how they would pull up at a stoplight and notice other motorist looking at the Cadillac simply because it was a Cadillac and then noticing the air conditioner intake scoops on the rear quarter panels and the closed windows. People would point and you could make out them saying “that car is air-conditioned”.
Dad’s first a/c car was a ’55 Studebaker President Ulttra Vista sedan purchased from the Charlotte, NC Studebaker dealer, Nance Motors. It was the personal car for Mrs. Nance and used as a demonstrator as well since it was fully loaded. Dad got it for a good deal when the dealer replaced it with a fully loaded with a/c ’56 President Classic in black and white with wire wheels.
However, my first ride in an air conditioned car was a ’61 Ford Fairlane 500 that belonged to my Godmother. This was the car I was brought home from the hospital in and it had just been purchased a few weeks before. It was the Selectaire system that mounted under the dash.
I remember the ’55 Studebaker with the trunk mounted air conditioner and standing up in the back seat with my face in the discharge tube enjoying the cold air. It was a pleasure to travel in South Georgia during the hot summer months. And, like someone else posted, since we had a/c in our car before we had it in our house, many miles were put on the car riding around many hot nights to escape the heat in the house.
7-16-12
Dateline: Houston, Texas in the 1950s
Growing up in Houston in the ’50s brings back school memories. When you were writing at your desk, the sweat on your arm would cause the paper to stick. The wet armprint curled the paper. Then we got into the bus which had all the windows closed due to potential sudden rainstorms. A bus sitting in the 90+ sunshine created 120+ heat inside. Then the windows went down and the 90+ wind blasted us in the face on the way home. At home we only had an attic fan to suck in the hot humid air. It was awful. By 1955 a few friends had purchased one or two window units. Suddenly those houses became more popular to us.
As a fifth grader, I always read the Popular Science magazines dad subscribed to. The summer of 1955 I read an old 1953 copy we had which described Cadillac’s, Buick’s, Oldsmobiles and Chryslers were producing air conditioner units to cool the cars. Wow!
I wondered what it would feel like to drive around in cool air. Soon enough a friend’s mom bought a new 1955 Oldsmobile 98 green-white sedan WITH FACTORY AIR. She took us that summer to see Oklahoma. We drove to town finally…cool as a cucumber. She also had the latest auto fashion, clear plastic seat covers. As we sat down wearing shorts the plastic was nice and cool on our legs.
However, on the way home, she had parked the car with the windows up, per Houston custom. As we sat down on the clear plastic seat covers, we hit the roof! We thought that we had blistered our legs. Quickly, the trusty Olds AC cooled us off. To me driving home that day was heaven.
A few years later, out first AC car was a beautiful, black, 1961 Chrysler Newport. It sported the last tailfins that Chrysler produced and also provided a space-ship styled dash with the TorqueFlite transmission push buttons on the left of the steering wheel and the AC pushbuttons symmetrically placed on the right of the steering wheel. On top of the dash four periscope shaped AC vents would pull forward and rotate. Airtemp AC produced ice cold air.
It has been in our barn at the ranch since 1974.
Auto AC has fascinated me since the 1950’s; consequently, I am currently writing a book about the subject.
7-16-12
Our black 1961 Chrysler Newport sported not only the last Chrysler tailfins, but also a space-ship themed dash with symmetrical transmission and AC push buttons and distinctive periscope style rotating AC vents placed on top of the dash.
It sounds like it will be a fascinating book for people like us here at CC. Those of you who grew up way down south before a/c was common have, I’m sure, more of an appreciation for its benefits than do us northerners.
When I was a kid, my parents had a ’77 Plymouth Volare and a ’77 Buick Skylark–neither one had AC. we live in Florida btw. wasn’t until my mom replaced the Plymouth with a new ’89 Nissan Sentra 2 door that we finally knew what AC felt like. Of course my brother and I weren’t much better off having to cram into that tiny backseat, AC or not.
Growing up in Europe in the late ’80s, the first car my parents bought that had a/c was an ’87 Citroën BX Break that my parents bought lightly used when it was a year old (like the one in the picture, but light blue). In those days, having a car with a/c in Europe wasn’t very common, much less a European car with a/c (and an automatic transmission, power windows, etc., for that matter). It would take around half a decade for those things to become slightly more common, with the Japanese brands leading the charge. The German automakers took their sweet time making these creature comforts standard features. However, after having had that one Citroën, we would never have a car without a/c again–making the search for a good used car that much harder.
I’ve always thought my family was much more at home in the US when it came to cars and driving. My dad never liked rowing his own gears or driving fast; my mom did like these things, but couldn’t because of a chronic knee injury, and thus required cars with automatic transmissions. The a/c, power windows, power steering and amazing comfort (thanks to its hydropneumatic suspension!) of that Citroën definitely spoiled them, and that car’s features would become the standard they’d compare all their future cars to, and thus they always ended up driving well-quipped cars with large-for-their-size engines. They traveled around a lot, and didn’t stay in the US for very long, but I did–and I haven’t left yet. My taste in cars has been influenced by my parents: I tend to prefer old man’s cars or sleepers for their comfort and features. No- I don’t have a Panther (yet; I’ve been eyeing them from a distance), but I think my current Volvo qualifies nonetheless, and so did all the old Saabs, the harvest gold Ford Taurus (*bows head in shame*), and perhaps even the Citroën 2CV I have stashed away in storage right now.
My Father was a big convertible man (1960 Ford Sunliner, 1965 Plymouth Sport Fury) but was very frugal. He figured if you could put the top down, you didn’t need air-conditioning.
We had a friend who drove a 1964-65 Buick Electra 225 convertible, white with red interior. His car had AC and we used to ride around with him on hot Baltimore summer nights with the top down and the AC on. Super luxurious.
Oddly enough, he traded it on a VW Karman Ghia coupe. Later he had a mid-70’s Buick LeSabre with special pinstriping that included his initials.
Riding “shotgun” in a ’53 Mercury Custom coupe with a Frigiking, ca. 1956… Air-conditioning a flathead must have required an 10-row radiator….
The first car I rode in with a/c was my mom’s 1969 Olds Delta 88 4 door hardtop, base model car with vinyl top, am radio, and a/c…which my dad rarely turned on unless they were dressed up to go to a dinner party or something..he wouldn’t use it on long trips because it allegedly gave him a headache. We would travel from Cincinnati to Sanibel Island with the windows down, sticking to hot green vinyl seats…and on the way home, add some sand to the mix, so not only did your skin stick, but the sand irritated it too. The first car I owned with working a/c was a 1985 Ford Escort Pony with dealer installed air that had one setting…blowing right in your face, which dried out my contact lenses and made the whole thing a pain in the butt. I still prefer manual a/c controls to the “climate control” where you set a temp and the system does the thinking for you.