Window tinting, worth it?

[GrumpyOldGamer]

Me and my wife have a little girl due in three weeks and want sun shades for the rear of the car, I find the 'off the shelf' sun shades don't fit very well, the fitted sunshade blinds from ford are £180 but look awful so I've booked my car in to have all the rear windows tinted with 20% tint next Tuesday and have been quoted £120.

I'm worried that tints can sometimes make a nice car look chavvy or like a boy racer, it's hard to make it look classy, this has now started a modding bug, I've ordered and fitted tinted wind deflectors and also bought a private registration! (Before baby arrives and I'm skint forever!).

Opinions?

 

[sep8001]

Dont forget to tell your insurance about the tints.

I have light smoke and look okay and keeps the sun out. I also had the team heko deflectors which are now broken.

 

[un1eash]

As long as they look factory they look good, cheap limo tints or mirrored tints are a no.

 

[FZR400RRSP]

I like tints on the rear of a car, and is also practical for kids.
I got them done on wife's IX35.

 

[GrumpyOldGamer]

Dont forget to tell your insurance about the tints.

I have light smoke and look okay and keeps the sun out. I also had the team heko deflectors which are now broken.

Mine are team Heko aswell, what broke?

I told the guy tinting my car I wanted a factory look, the ford focus with the appearance pack came with rear tints and that's the look I want.

 

[mr:w]

Was in the same position with the arrival of our little one. Decided against tints in the end because they're useless if you open the windows, and you're more than likely going to want to open the windows when it's sunny.

Went with sunshades, OEM for side windows and a custom one for the rear windscreen from UVCarShades and KiddiShades Brands

Fit perfectly (and take seconds to fit / remove), we can have the windows open with the shades in place, and no need to contact insurers etc.

Edit - same as this pic

 

[FZR400RRSP]

Since having aircon/climate in cars, the only times our windows ever get opened is to collect a carpark ticket.
We always switch off the ability for the kids to open the back windows.

 

[mr:w]

Got aircon but also have sunroof, prefer to use that when needed as prolonged stints of aircon does my throat in. Will most likely switch off rear window controls when little one is old enough to start fiddling, at 3 weeks old it's not really a worry

 

[sep8001]

Looks good, the driver side one just snapped off after about 8 months.

 

[FZR400RRSP]

I remember accidentally winding a window down with a 'sucker' sunblind on it, the bottom sucker going right down into the door and staying there.
What a palavour to get the sucker out of there!

 

[a l e x]

Love the tints on mine. If done properly it looks great.

 

[gibbsy]

I've got factory fitted 'tinted' glass on my present Scirocco. Brochure said that it is heat insulating and reduces the light coming through by 65%. It certainly does make a difference on a hot sunny day. Looks good as well. Ordered the tinted glass on my Audi Q3 which is due very soon but as is the norm with Audi you pay for it as an extra. Tints that are done to existing cars can look really good if they are done to a high standard.

 

[Hooblue]

One of the wife's first stipulations when we got our new car was that it had to have the privacy glass on the rear windows. Lucky they were factory fit on the CRV. Must admit I wouldn't buy a car without them if you have little'uns. The old Civic didn't have them and it was a royal PATA trying to find decent stick on ones that filled the whole window at a decent price.

 

[IanW1977]

Our last 3 cars we had them done. Not bothered with our current cars for that 1 week of summer. Anyway air conditioning works fine in this country.

 

[Hooblue]

The main reason we wanted them wasn't because of the heat factor, we have air conditioning for that. It was to stop the sun from getting in the babies eyes while they are in their car seats in the back.

 

[jenam93]

We bought Window Sox for this purpose, £33 delivered.

Generally put them on and off as needed rather than leaving them on all the time, after all it's not like we see that much sun!!

Still allow you to open the windows in the back if needed, or by accident FZR .

As we don't leave them on they have lasted years whereas some folk leave them all year round and they look in a bad state after 1 year.

 

[Hooblue]

We were going to buy Window Sox for our old Civic as that didn't have tints on the rear windows. It was hard finding a decent set of blinds that fitted correctly whereas the Window Sox were made to the exact model of the car.

However the new car has factory tints so lucky we didn't get them in the end.

 

[GrumpyOldGamer]

Well I've just dropped it off to be done, hope I did the right thing!

 

[GrumpyOldGamer]

All done, I like it.

 

[IronGiant]

So, if you get these tints: is opening the rear windows completely forbidden?

 

[GrumpyOldGamer]

Only for the first week, after that it's fine

 

[IronGiant]

OK, thanks