Want a small car with air conditioning

casey jones

Hi, I'm looking for a small car 1 - 1.2 litre, petrol, with air conditioning, which I regard as an essential feature, circa 2003/4. The Yaris only has air conditioning in the 1.3 and I gather this is harder to sell on than the 1 litre. I see some Opel Corsas with air con but I hear mixed reports regarding reliability. I'm amazed it's not a standard feature on most small cars.

JoeA3

Try the Ford Fiesta Steel. These came with aircon (and sunroof!), at least up to the facelift last year - I think they dropped the aircon from then, though it may have been re-introduced since. Very nice, well equipped little car. Its "powered" by a 1.25 75bhp zetec engine.

Henry Ford III

Fiesta 1.25 16v. Many have a /c. Recent Zetec & Ghia models have it as standard.

bazz26

Something like a Peugeot 206 or Renault Clio might be your best bet. It is usually either a expensive optional extra or only available on top of the range models on small cars.

You could also try a Ford Fiesta Ghia or Jap import Toyota Vitz (Yaris) or Nissan March (Micra).

C_Breeze

Most Jap imports would have AC standard. Even older modles.

My GF Nissan March (micra) is 95 and standard with A/C and many other features.

Probably look at the toyota vitz (jap import yaris) or something along those lines. EDIT : bazz beat me to it


...And can I ask ... why do u regard A/C as such an essential feature??

We hardly get blistering heat here (nothing an open window wouldnt sort) ...and on a 1.0 car , im sure it would drain the already non existent power.

casey jones

When temperatures are 20C plus and you have a small child in the back of a car for more than 20 minutes I believe air conditioning is far more useful than most of the other extras you care to name.

I've located a Puegeot 206 with air con 1.1 LX. Does anyone have any views as to how good or bad these are ?

Henry Ford III

Awful. The break down for fun. They fair very poorly in any reliabilty surveys.

gobby

I'm pretty sure there is a Colt with A/C available...

DublinDilbert

I'd go for the 1.3 Yaris.... You will always be able to sell on a Toyota...

The 1.3 engine is nice for the size of the body, will pull it along nicely... Also there is little or no insurance difference between a 1.1 and a 1.3 now... a few years ago there might of been a big difference, but now it seems to be much of a much...

zilog_jones

C_Breeze wrote:

...And can I ask ... why do u regard A/C as such an essential feature??

We hardly get blistering heat here...

The temperatures we get on the weather forecast are measured in the shade. Park a car in direct sunlight and it'll easily be about 45-50 degrees inside it after 20 minutes or so. It gets so hot in my car after work that I actually burn my hand off the gearstick knob! :eek: Driving over 50km/h with the windows open gets too noisy IMO, and AFAIK at about that speed the fuel wasted from the drag added from open windows becomes greater than the extra fuel used by an A/C.

With normal fan systems in cars the air still has to pass through the heater matrix (a valve linked to your temperature control that controls the coolant going into the matrix), and in mine it takes ages for the air to actually become cold because of this (I guess the valve opens when the engine's not running, so it gets hot when parked).

E92

C_Breeze wrote:

...And can I ask ... why do u regard A/C as such an essential feature??

We hardly get blistering heat here (nothing an open window wouldnt sort) ...and on a 1.0 car , im sure it would drain the already non existent power.

Well for a start in Winter when everyone else is waiting for 10 mins in the morning for their car's windscreen to get rid of condensation, or alternatively wipeing their windscreen and leaving lovely pawmarks resulting in a very dirty windscreen on a sunny day, with air conditioning it will be gone away very quickly, and no need to be wiping the windscreen. unlike in a car without aircon where as soon as you turn off the fan or turn it down and the car fogs up again, if you turn down the fan in a car with aircon on the car wont fog up again usually. It will also defog the side windows front and back. So its a useful safety bonus in the winter and much more convienent too. In hot weather or even warm weather, the benefits of airconditioning are well known, it will cool the car down much faster than opening the windows ever will.

E92

casey jones wrote:

Hi, I'm looking for a small car 1 - 1.2 litre, petrol, with air conditioning, which I regard as an essential feature, circa 2003/4. The Yaris only has air conditioning in the 1.3 and I gather this is harder to sell on than the 1 litre. I see some Opel Corsas with air con but I hear mixed reports regarding reliability. I'm amazed it's not a standard feature on most small cars.

Theres a very simple reason why not. Money. Money. Money. VRT pushes up the price of cars, and at this end of the market people are not prepared to splash out on it. I too think its a necessary feature, especially at winter oddly enough. I'd prefer to have air con instead of electric windows for instance...in fact with air con electric windows are made almost redundant. Remember Ford have fitted aircon as standard in the Mondeo since 1997 on all Mondeos bar the Aspen model in the UK, we had to wait until 2000, similarly with the Focus, aircon has been standard on the Focus LX over there since 2000(definately since 2002), its still not standard here. Eventually it will be, but we usually have to wait about 3-5 years after it becomes normal to have it as standard across the pond before we will get it in most models.

There are still plentty of cars in the category above the one you describe which still dont have air con as standard (Focus, Auris, Corolla, Astra), so until that changes, air conditioed superminis will still be something of a rarity.

No Yaris has air conditioning as standard, in fact Toyota here are one of the meanest when it comes to air conditioning, still not fitting it to the Auris or Corolla(its been standard across the pond since 2004), the Avensis didnt gain it as standard on any version until 2000, (all versions had it across the pond at this stage, even the Carina, the Avensis's predecessor had it as standard in the UK(obviously they didnt bother here) on some versions, and the Carina was gone be the end of 97).

There are plenty of Corsa's with aircon as standard around, the 1.2 has had it since 2001, and the Fiesta Ghia has had it since 1999. Or the Mazda 2 1.4, which also boasts aircon, and by God does it need it, at the first sign of a drop of rain, the windscreen will fog up in it.

louie

Look for a Jap import car, they kind of have this A/C as standard

pow wow

casey jones wrote:

When temperatures are 20C plus and you have a small child in the back of a car for more than 20 minutes I believe air conditioning is far more useful than most of the other extras you care to name.

I've located a Puegeot 206 with air con 1.1 LX. Does anyone have any views as to how good or bad these are ?

206s are 'notorious' for the engine cutting out (it usually restarts, but going at speed it can be a problem). I had my heart set on one until I read about this fault. It is pretty common.

Tipsy Mac

1 litre T3 Yaris from UK has it as standard, fairly handy to import from this crowd...

http://www.cargiant.co.uk/cars/detail.asp?Id=331439