I could really feel the cabin to be hot since I have an open parking at office.
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Accessory Update – Sunfilms:
After some highway drives when I got the car, we noticed the cabin did get hot especially due to the direct sunlight from the front. Got Garware Silver 70 installed on all windows except the front. After installing this, the cabin felt relatively cooler. But the mid-day drives were hot thanks to the lack of film on the front windshield. After adding the magnetic shades, it felt better but the idea of adding film on the windshield was still undecided.
Fast forward to August 2023 – I could really feel the cabin to be hot since I have an open parking at office. It tends to get so hot that the phone holder gets dislodged due to the heat. That’s when I decided to get films for the windshield. The obvious choice was 3M but have heard some issues with Fastag not being detected and to be frank, I didn’t research on it a lot. Couple of my friends got Saint Gobain SolarGard installed and they were happy with it. I saw the cars and it was almost transparent.
I had two options:
- 70% visibility, 85% IR heat rejection, TSER – 40%
- 70% visibility, 92% IR heat rejection, TSER – 45%
Decided to go with the second option which was the “Ultra Performance Plus 80”. Confirmed with the shop owner and decided to remove my old films, get the new films installed on all windows (Side, rear and front).
Initial impressions:
- A lot lighter than Garware
- I had parked the car outside over the weekend right after installation and found the cabin was a lot cooler than before. I have now removed the magnetic shades.
- After driving against direct sunlight, felt it to be tolerable.
- On multiple occasions, I had to park in direct sunlight for few hours and never felt the need to adjust the temperature to its lowest setting.
Here are some pictures of the sunfilm:
The old Garware films:
The new films:
Drive – Pondicherry:
The real test came few weeks later in the form of a drive to Pondicherry (More on the sun film later on). We decided to leave on Sunday to beat the weekend rush in Pondicherry and it was a good decision. Started at 4.30am from Cochin, took the usual route and reached Pondicherry at around 12.30pm. Traffic in Kerala was heavy for a 4.30am start. Cochin to Salem was an easy drive but found Salem to Pondicherry a bit tiring. Although the road conditions were good, found it to be bumpy and those single lane roads were a pain with those plastic barricade sort of thing preventing you from overtaking. Also the last stretch to Pondicherry (around 10-15kms) was super crowded and the roads were not that great. Traffic inside Pondicherry was really bad with two wheelers coming from all directions. The cops were least bothered as well. We stayed near Heritage Town as our main agenda was to explore the eateries in and around White Town.
Here are some of the restaurants that we tried:
- Mel Whisks
- Promenade
- Coromandel Cafe
- Villa Shanti
- Le Dupleix
- La Villa
- Tanto
- Bay of Buddha at the Promenade
- GMT Ice cream
- Baker street
- French Bakery at Auroville
We started back on a weekday at 9.30am and reached Cochin at night after numerous breaks. Coming back to the sun films – It was a great addition. Normally we could feel the heat when we go to Bangalore and always had the ACC set at 22 degrees min. This time, it was 24 degrees throughout the journey and few times, my wife asked me to switch it off as well during our drive back to Cochin. Completed the trip with half tank to spare.
A parting picture:
Odo stands at around 883XX kms.
Keyword: Installed Saint Gobain SolarGard sunfilm on my Creta: First impressions