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Thread Number: 71293
/ Tag: Other Home Products or Autos
With all this talk about Summer Heat... |
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| Post# 943616 6/15/2017 at 15:26 (2,506 days old) by twintubdexter (Palm Springs) | ||
 Here is an article about the history of automobile air conditioning that I thought might be of interest to some members. I found it informative. What do you think?
PS...This was posted on the Facebook page of the car club I belong to so there's replies and other stuff there too.
You'd sure have to order the optional rear-view camera with this baby... CLICK HERE TO GO TO twintubdexter's LINK
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This post was last edited 06/15/2017 at 15:45 | ||
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| Post# 943619 , Reply# 1 6/15/2017 at 15:40 (2,506 days old) by Iheartmaytag (Wichita, Kansas) | ||
 My how we have progressed.
We never had A/C in the car until 1971. Air-Conditioning used to be a very expensive option. I didn't see in the article, but can only imagine these monstrosities of modern invention cost more than the car itself.
I remember my dad having one of those water cooler type things that hung on the window and the wind blew through as you drove. Wasn't very effective in city traffic.
I am so happy we have Freon in our lives.
Edited: I found it in the article $475, about $5,000 today.
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Post# 943629 , Reply# 2 6/15/2017 at 17:28 (2,506 days old) by kb0nes  (Burnsville, MN) |
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Great article Joe, thanks for sharing it!
The photo made me think of this gem right away though
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Post# 943637 , Reply# 4 6/15/2017 at 18:50 (2,506 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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My sister had a used'64 Olds 98 with Air. Our first was a '70 Country Squire land yaught. My first was an 81 Vette that I still have. Always had a/c since and would never think to even putting those contraptions on my vehicle, even though a/c MAY be needed a total of 3 months here. Thats desperation and I would rather bake until home. But I am not sweltering trying to sleep. My old Frigidare cools just fine.
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Post# 943638 , Reply# 5 6/15/2017 at 18:50 (2,506 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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My sister had a used'64 Olds 98 with Air. Our first was a '70 Country Squire land yaught. My first was an 81 Vette that I still have. Always had a/c since and would never think to even putting those contraptions on my vehicle, even though a/c MAY be needed a total of 3 months here. Thats desperation and I would rather bake until home. But I am not sweltering trying to sleep. My old Frigidare cools just fine.
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Post# 943686 , Reply# 6 6/16/2017 at 00:35 (2,506 days old) by Supersuds (Knoxville, Tenn.) |
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Thanks, Joe, this is the most comprehensive history of early AC I've ever seen. I knew both Packard and Cadillac offered systems prewar, but not that they were identical. I also didn't know that the same system was offered on Chryslers and DeSotos.
Part 2 of the series talks about the aftermarket units developed in the late Forties. Almost all of the car ACs I remember from when I was a kid were the kind that were added on under the dash. Maybe we didn't know the right kind of people. CLICK HERE TO GO TO Supersuds's LINK | ||
| Post# 943784 , Reply# 7 6/16/2017 at 13:04 (2,505 days old) by twintubdexter (Palm Springs) | ||
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Back as a kid at the big appliance store... The owner of the store, a friend of my dad's and a highly-respected member of the San Jose business community, was a car nut. He often went to dealerships on Stevens Creek Blvd. (his store was down the street) and checked out new models. His income allowed him to buy whatever he wanted like the 64' Chevelle SS convertible with every option including wire wheels. How I wanted that! Another car he purchased was a 63' Buick Riviera, the first one I ever saw. He snatched that one off the showroom floor too. Not an air conditioned car, he eventually sold it to my dad's secretary. I remember her being disappointed about the lack of air but said the only thing she and her husband could do was get a trunk-mounted unit that caused "stiff necks" from the cold air blowing on the backs of passenger's heads. I had no idea what she was talking about. | ||
| Post# 943805 , Reply# 8 6/16/2017 at 14:08 (2,505 days old) by firedome (Binghamton NY & Lake Champlain VT) | ||
Dad's first a/c car...
was a new company car, a '64 Ford Custom 500 sedan. As a salesman he was in the car a lot and always dressed in suit, hat and tie. In Baltimore you REALLY needed /ac, we basically had the same humid hot climate as DC. That year all full-sized Fords still had under-dash mounted A/C units from the factory, not until the re-designed '65s were the vents routed through the dashboard. When we drove every July from MD to our ancestral home in VT in our '63 Ford Country Sedan wagon with no a/c for the next 4 yrs, we sure wished we could take the company car instead! Not until he traded it for a '68 Squire did the family car have a/c, and I was away at college by then. We never had it at home either, just a lot of fans!
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Post# 943850 , Reply# 9 6/16/2017 at 16:17 (2,505 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.) |
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 Family has had air conditioning in all our cars since the 1970 Chevy Impala. I don't recall before that. Not in dad's pickup until some years later. I've never personally had one without it. My GM cars were a little weak on performance. Mazda and Infiniti were excellent, as is my Fusion Hybrid (although the auto temp control tends toward conservative compared to the Infiniti). Both of RJ's Jags have been comparatively weak IMO. Our 1973 Ford wagon wasn't good, maybe it lacked in capacity for the extra space.
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Post# 943943 , Reply# 11 6/17/2017 at 07:18 (2,504 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA) |
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Last cars I encountered with under-performing AC were the original Taurus/Sable in the late 80s...was renting them multiple times a week in the late 80s and they were never quite up to the job. It's pretty amazing that modern A/C perform as well as they do as long as they do. It's interesting--in the Far East taxis were built in the past with A/C but no heater (logical when it's >85 degrees all year).
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