It seems as though most of the UK cars dont have air con which i was looking for so i am thinking maybe to buy the car and have air con put into it.

Can you please tell me if this is a option that is avalible and at what cost.

Thanks
G Walker

need this bigtime...

£900 or thereabouts from dealer...

theres loads on autotrader with air con. especially on the my99,00 plates.

get it, its great:)

but uses petrol up and takes about 20 brake from the engine when on:eek::eek:

gav..

Air con will take no more than 2-3bhp. 20 BHP !!! that's half the power of a fiesta/nova !!!

Ian

MY00 - can't notice any differnce with A/C on of off - except its cold and the fuel economy is a bit down. Not like one of these little cars where you need to turn it off to overtake!

You must be able too, one scooby mechanic at SGT slough told me that on UK cars, central locking, CAT1 alarm and Air Con was fitted by a third party company under contract.

[Edited by PPPscooby - 9/21/2003 5:50:51 PM]

it does take about 20bhp or near that

20 B.H.P. my arse! takes about 2% or in real money, 2-3 B.H.P
dave

the air con on a subaru impreza switches off when you use full throttle, so you have no performance loss if you nail it to overtake. It's fully automatic, as soon as you come off full throttle it switches back on.

Yes you can fit it to a MY00 :)

I am doing this early in the new year

UK classic cars with aircon had them fitted after manufacture by dealers or by a third party.in the UK. The price was £1500 up to around 1999 when they dropped it to £1000 so I think you would be looking around that price.

Forget the 20bhp scare stories. The aircon compressor uses 2 or 3bhp (It doesn't run all the time) and when the electric fan runs it will put a little extra drag on the engine through the alternator. Even the mega-systems in something like an S Class Merc only uses around 8 bhp. On Fiesta, Corsa's and Micra's you would have to set tickover at 3000rpm to run a 20bhp aircon.

A 100amp alternator on full load will drag nearly as much as aircon but you wouldn't run in Winter without lights, heater, wipers, heated mirrors, heated rear window etc.

I couldn't run a car without aircon myself, bad Hay Fever in the summer. :D

Lee

I have it on my 98MY UK Turbo - I've tried switching it off and it makes no noticable difference to power or fuel really.

I've heard people say it take 10% off power, but if its on a 1.1 saxo, 10%=6bhp - why would it take 14 more to cool an impreza !

I've had aircon on the last 5 cars I've owned - it REALLY makes little difference to the driving, but makes one hell of a difference to my comfort !

DEFO worth it :D

Mark

When I bought my MY00 Turbo 2 years ago, the car already had aircon fitted which I thought would be a bonus, but not essential. However, during this year's record-breaking summer, what a boon! I didn't look forward to the end of a journey, knowing that I'd have to sweat my nuts off when I got out! Like the other fellas said, no noticeable difference having the system on - if anything, the negative effect of the outside air being warmer during this summer made more difference than having the system on!

you could of course drive an Import STi, that has full Climate Control rather than basic air con.

OK, i'll get my coat. ;):D

Cost a gnat's fart under a grand.
Takes a day to fit by 'Coolair' who have to come to whatever dealership you choose.
Is covered under the car's warranty.
Only fitted one of the two cooling fans to mine due to lack of parts and took 6 months to get the second one in!
Doesn't drain that much power/increase fuel consumption but is noticeable, but you don't have it on all the time anyway so who cares?
It's not as effective as some a/c systems I've tried in other cars (mate's Jeep Cherokee will freeze your ass to the seat) but it's still a worthwhile investment.

Hope this helps
Dave

It's a pice of pish to fit as for taking a day to do it that’s why they can charge so much[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] we fitted ours in just about a couple of hours all we had to wait for was getting it gassed because it's hard work getting a type of gas that is out of date;)R12 on the older cars! if you know what I mean:D as for the newer cars it's just as easy as for the new gas in the newer units it can be charged up with R134a at any air con service place or the likes.

Most of ours was second hand from Town end garage but we had a new Scrubber dryer unit"the can on the side of the engine bay"
The whole lot cost about £400.


Huxley

Quenby's in baldock can fit air con themselves so no waiitng around for CoolAir to turn up and book in. they get the parts and will fit it themselves