Ways to make your car’s cabin less of a sauna.When the weather turns from pleasantly sunny to intensely hot, our car’s cabin can feel like a sauna. This especially so when there are no sheltered car parks nearby and all the shady outdoor lots are occupied, and you have no choice but to park in direct sunlight. In such cases, it can take at least five to 10 minutes for the air-conditioning to cool the car down to a comfortable temperature.

Here are some ways you can keep your car cool and save yourself from getting hot under the collar.

Reflect the sunlight away
Keep the sun out by using a sunshade and window visor every time you leave the car for more than a few minutes. Don’t forget to block out the rear windscreen, too. According to experiments done at the Florida Solar Energy Center, sunshades and window visors can cool the dashboard and steering wheel by 4.5 to 10^oC. That helps keep you from feeling overwhelmed when everything in the car is hot to the touch.

Quick covers
If you don’t like wrangling with sun shades, you can simply cover the dashboard, steering wheel and seats with towels to shield them from the sun. The most important thing to keep covered are your seats and steering wheel as you have to physically make contact with these. Using a cloth cover for your seats can protect your legs from sizzling-hot leather or vinyl seats. You can also consider investing in a heat-resistant silicone wheel cover.Park in the shade
Wherever possible, park in a sheltered car park or a shaded spot, especially if you are going to step away for an extended period of time. It is worth the trouble, even if you have to walk a bit further just to park in a shaded area. Your air-conditioning unit will thank you as it will not have to work as hard to cool the car when you return.

Use your doors
We often roll down the windows or keep the doors open for a while to let the hot air out before setting off. You can also try this hack of rolling down the windows and doing a ‘fanning’ action by opening and closing the door. This method forces out the hot air trapped inside the car, allowing cooler air to enter.

Tinted windows
You can also consider using window tints to lower the temperature in your car’s cabin. Together with the car’s air-conditioning system, tints work rather effectively to bring down the heat. However, there are laws regulating how dark these tints can be, so take note to avoid the ones that violate these regulations.