With Spring and Summer coming earlier than usual, we better get used to really hot temperatures! With temperatures ranging from 80-100°F in the heat of summer, you should expect your car to feel like an oven. If you’re not a dough, then that is not a nice place to be in. Here’s how to keep your car cool in the summer.

As you park and before leaving your car…

Park in a garage or under the shade.

If you have a garage, by all means, park there. It will protect your car from the elements, and you avoid entering a furnace on a hot summer day. If your office provides covered parking, go there and park.

If you live in an apartment complex or you don’t have a garage, you don’t really have a choice but to park outside and leave your car exposed to the elements.

But you can be smart about it. Choose a shaded area, whether behind a building or under the shade. You should also be mindful of where the East and the West are–because if you park in a shaded area in the morning, your car might be exposed to the sun in the afternoon. It’s better to have your car exposed to the sun in the morning, and shaded in the afternoon, which will help cool the car before you go home.

Be careful where you park, though. If you park under a tree, and the branches are flimsy and weak, it might fall on your car, and you will have more troubles worse than a hot car.

Image: davidd

Cover your car with a sunshade or a window visor.

A sunshade could help deflect sunlight and heat from your car. It cannot keep away all the heat, but it can help keep your car cooler. You should also consider putting a sunshade in the rear window, too.

Get the Shade-It Windshield sunshade. With a rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars based on over 2,000 reviews on Amazon, it is a reliable sunshade that can fit in your car door’s small compartment area when folded.

You can also get the Enovoe sunshade for the passenger windows, which are specially useful if you have kids or passengers in the car.

Cover your dashboard.

You can go to Amazon and order a dashboard cover. When you buy, make sure to check if it fits your car year and model. This dashboard cover will help you avoid touching vinyl surfaces, which can become really hot if left under the heat of the sun. The dash cover will also protect your dashboard from fading and cracking because of the heat during the summer, or cold during the winter.

Use a hand towel to cover your steering wheel.

One of the things you probably hate as much as I do is to touch a really hot steering wheel. And even if you blast the A/C in full, it takes some time before the steering wheel cools down. If you cover it with a hand towel, the towel will get really hot, but your hands won’t burn.

Leave a small opening in your windows.

Do not roll the windows all the way down. That would be a big invitation for thieves to come and get all your valuables. Leaving a small opening in your windows will provide ventilation, which will keep air flowing through your car. This way, it won’t trap the heat, and your car will be cooler.

Make sure, however, that the small opening in your window is really small–and will not provide space for even a thin arm.

Use a solar-powered car vent.

If you live in a place with really high temperatures, having a solar-powered car vent will prevent heat from building up inside your car. You can use this car vent as with a small opening in the windows. This kind of product usually costs only about $20. Totally worth the investment!

The Audew Solar Power Car Vent can work well if your car is under direct sunlight. If you park in the shade, this device might not work very well.

Throw blankets over your seats.

Keeping a blanket in your car is a must during the winter. But it could also be a good idea to keep one during the summer, especially for cars with leather or vinyl seats. To keep these kinds of car seats cool, cover them with blankets. Yes, the blanket will be hot, but the seats will not be as hot.

As you enter your car, before you leave…

Let out some of the heat before you enter the car.

Image: Brett Levin

Unless your car is a getaway car and you’re being chased by the bad guys, it wouldn’t hurt to wait for a few minutes before entering your car. Just leave the door open before entering.

If you left a small opening in your windows, or if you use a solar-powered car vent, allowing some of the heat to leave your car shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes. You might even avoid sweating a lot before starting the car engine.

Tweak the settings of your AC and vent.

Don’t set your AC on recirculation. Instead, allow fresh air to come in when you enter the car. The former will just make the hot air inside move around your car. Wait for about 5-10 minutes before turning it to recirculation.

Remember that cold air drops and hot air rises. It’s so tempting to direct the cool air of your AC towards you, but directing the AC or fresh air through the bottom vents will help push away the hot air through your windows or sunroof. Leave some of your windows or sunroof open so the hot air can escape.

Put ice packs near your blowing dash vents.

If you want to save time cooling your car, put some ice packs in front of your blowing dash vents. It will even increase the speed of driving away all the hot air trapped inside your car.

More Tips to Keep Car Cool During the Summer

Invest on window tint.

Reducing the amount of sunlight that enter your car will help keep it cool. But before you do this, research the laws of your state and community. You wouldn’t want to get window tinting that will lead to a ticket from an officer.

Consider buying a cooling car seat.

It’s a pain to sit on a really hot car seat! Sometimes, it feels like your butt is being roasted!

Newer car models feature seats that can be warmed during the winter. If you have an older car or if this is not an option with your car, look for your options. A search on Amazon will lead you to look at the following popular, reasonably priced cooling car seats:

• Viotek Cooled Seat Cushion (Price: Over $100 Average Rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars based on 78 reviews)
• Zone Tech Cooling Car Seat Cushion (Price: Under $50 Average Rating: 3.9 out of 5 stars based on 25 reviews)

Summers just seem to keep getting hotter. Thanks to available gadgets and technologies, we have tools available for us to keep our cars cool in the summer.

Always remember to stay hydrated and safe during the dry and hot summer months!