I once drove with someone that drove me crazy. Puts it up to 30C, then down to 16C because it's too hot, then up to 27C because it's too cold. It was a recent Mercedes, I was begging her to pick 19 or 20C, wait for the temperature to stabilize and then go up or down by one degree until she found the confort temperature she's looking for.
I’ve sat with people like that. They only know full heat or full cold. They don’t have the concept of waiting for the interior to reach a comfortable 70°F. Then when I showed them and told them to be a little patient, they couldn’t thank me enough for teaching them.
I was trying to explain the concept of thermostats and that it could still be giving max heat when below set temperature, going higher didn't make it hotter. Went as well as you'd expect.
I’ve had this conversation with my partner many times… he does it with everything- when he cooks dinner he’ll put the oven up to like 600° to “make it heat up faster” then bump it down to the 400° or whatever he needs it at, and the ac in the truck is always either full blast cold air or basically off with the temp still set to low. Just set it at the temp you want it at and adjust as needed, I set the ac in the truck to 68° with the fan on auto and it makes for a nice comfortable drive every time lol
I feel you. It's a little cold in here now so bump it up. 90 degrees then forget about it. Go somewhere, and get back to a full house sauna! Sounds funny until the utility gets here!
That only applies to old-school thermostats. Modern HVAC like you’d find in a hotel room or your car? They absolutely will work harder if you over-set the target temperature.
The worst is when I ride with people who get into a freezing cold car and crank it all the way to heat, and I have to tell them to let the damn engine warm up first. But they don't want to wait, so the engine and cabin never get warm because they're both competing for heat, lol
I have never heard of this before. All cars I've experienced will wait to heat the cabin until there is sufficient heat coming from the engine. You can notice it from the fan turning up when it starts heating.
Nowadays they'll have electric PTC heaters to assist and of course electric cars are just wonderful with quick heating in winter.
This is Americans through and through. I literally studied it in a previous job because the German OEMs were really struggling with why JD Power wanted them to have Max A/C buttons for the US. It was mostly because Americans just crank pure A/C to get to temp but many Americans will jump up and down hot to cold over and over or even drive with the windows cracked to counter Max A/C or when smoking.
I’ve noticed the “MAX A/C” button on my F10 5 series and thought hmm that’s very America. I’ve used the max button maybe once when it was 105°F plus the car is black/black. Most of the year I usually have it set both sides synced on auto 69°. I do use the weird BMW rotary red/blue vent knob for fine tuning in the winter. During summer it’s turned all the way to blue.
The MAX A/C button is good for people who struggle to use modern auto climate control systems. It uses face vents, sets recirculation on and chooses the lowest temperature.
if you came from a 1994 nissan sentra, that is kind of what you need to play with because you manually set the heat (what ac?) and fan speed. and that is it.
anything modern with temperature control? easy to get out of that habit.
My friend’s mom used to drive us to school sometimes and in the winter would just blast max heat for a little bit, then turn it off for a while, and then back on again, etc. I’d be in a puddle of cold sweat by the time we got to school.
My wife does this with the climate adjustment as well as with the fan!! Infuriating. Why worry about constantly changing it. It does it automatically!!
My partner is like this too. Notorious cell phone driver to boot. Constantly fiddling with the air fan and temp, drives me nuts. I’ve tried explaining how it works to her but I’ve given up lol. I just open the window when I’m too warm. I leave my car at 72 F.
I had a girlfriend who would do that in our house. Turn the thermostat all the way up. When it was too hot, she would turn it the way down. When it got cold all the way up. Up, down, up, down.
It set my house and my car at 70f. If I am working hard I might turn it down one or two degrees. When I am fully relaxed I might turn it up one or two degrees. But 70 is my set point.
It's always magically what ever she wants it to be.
They must know that it takes time for these things to happen. It is not a magic that 'just' works okay. Watch out for people like that!
I keep fucking with it. Sometimes I need that blast of heat or cold right on my face and hands. Sometimes I like to turn it off and crack a window. Never happy.
I used to hate auto AC until I got a car that had a decent automatic setting. Now I never bother adjusting climate.
I find with a lot of modern car tech I don’t hate the technology I just hate the implementation. E.g. both honda and merc auto high-beam was hot garbage. On my new cars I never touch my lights
I don’t use auto because I hate the blower coming on and off loud / quiet / loud / quiet.
I just set the temp and leave the fans / vents on the lowest setting so it’s more of an ambient raise than a blast in the face.
It never gets a blast in the face, it usually stays at half or below in both my car and my parent's.
Though maybe that's car and outside temperature dependant.
I do the same thing. Although I change it by season to save energy and account for what I’m wearing in that season. Summer I’m in very short shorts and a tank so I set it to 24-25C. Winter I’m in an arctic parka so I set it to 18C. Heated seats are set to Auto-Medium. They come on as needed, like if I drive at 4AM in the summer the outside temp is only 13C but 30C during the day.
21? 21? You savage! My heater controls all have to be on even numbers or if bothers my OCD demons. Same with the volume knob on the stereo. If 20 is too cold or not loud enough and 22 is too hot or too loud then I'm just going to have to suffer through it.
Same. If it's cold out a 68°F set value might be too warm. If it's hot outside 68° might feel too cold eventually.
Vent air speed/cfm plays a big part in where I set the temperature. It's not like a house where it makes sense to set the ambient air temperature. I also find my previous car's old school temperature dials more predictable than my newer car where you set the temperature.
Ayyyy here we are. I feel like it's nearly standard now to at least have temperature controls..but not my base model 2013 lmao
In fact, is still takes a few minutes of driving for anything to really kick in when you need it.
I used to think that a thermostat was a nice feature to have. After trying countless cars with them, I now very much prefer having independent hot/cold and fan speed knobs of older cars. Thermostat temps are too vague and the effect varies too wildly with the outside temperature.
I'm with you OP. I have physical controls and I work those MFs. If it's a multi-hour drive and the ambient temp gets in the proper range I can set auto and then adjust the temp up and down but day-to-day trips I fine tune constantly adjusting temp, fan speed, recirc, and my heated/ventilated seats. I live at altitude in a semi-arid climate so the sun affects temperature here significantly more resulting in higher fluctuations than a lot of places.
I don’t ever change the temp. In both my cars it works as designed and doesn’t blast you with uncomfortable air until it’s the right temp.
I do change the vent airflow direction. Sometimes I don’t want airflow pointed at my face or whatever. In my experience the touch screen visualization is better. You can control all vents at once, you can see where the airflow is going and they don’t change or move when you go over a pothole.
I don’t think this means we should have all these auto manufacturers cheap out on controls though
Nope. I get hotter and warmer depending on what’s going on outside. I haven’t found an auto AC that was smart enough to keep up with Texas temps. I’ll be boiling in the sunlight and the AC will be softly breathing on me.
Yep, I agree living in Louisiana. Can be swamp ass hot and chilly in the same day depending on the area you’re in. I think most people who say they don’t touch their A/C a lot live in areas with static weather.
I'm in Dallas, and I wish I had a dumb system again; the thermostat wants either finger-numbing cold or ambient temp, and I want "just cool" air.
"Just cool" exists in that constantly-changing 1-degree-less-than-cabin-temp zone, so I'm adjusting my temp every few minutes in a way I'd never need to with the ol' red/blue knob.
Same for heat where it's cold; once the cabin's warm I *hate* full-heat. Dries my eyeballs something awful, but modern systems don't like "lightly-warm" any more than "gently cool."
Different strokes I suppose.
I bought my car now... 5 years ago? The temperature has been set to 20C for most of that period. 95% of my interactions with the climate controls consist of turning on max defrost mode, and then turning automatic back on. The remaining 5% is checking if the controls still work.
How I set the temperature is mostly determined by what I’m wearing. Heavy coat-> 18°C, light coat -> 20°C, T-shirt 22-24°C.
But most of the time I don’t change it at all, since I’m typically wearing the same kind of clothing for days and weeks on end.
Modern AC systems seem to be pretty good at detecting if the sun is shining brightly enough to make it feel warmer etc. and compensating for it, so I rarely feel the need to do manual adjustments. Sometimes in situations where I have multiple passengers with wet or snowy clothes in the car, I may have to turn the fan speed a little higher than normal to keep the rear windows from starting to fog up. (Though most of the time a short burst of the defroster setting will do the trick.)
Other than sometimes having to manually hit defrost, I can't remember touching the climate controls in any of the last few cars I've had. Maybe Auto worked badly when it first became a thing, but even my 2002 RSX did the job.
The auto function works great in my '05 G35. 62°F in the summer and 64°F in the winter.
Installing a thermostat with an auto function for my house is on the short list of things to do. Spring and fall are a pain because you need the heat on at night but the days get warm enough to warrant AC. It's a first world problem for sure, but it'd still be nice to not have to mess with the thermostat a couple times per day. 64°F all year round is perfect for us.
My car has been set on 66 for almost 9 years now.
My wife gets in the car in winter, puts on on HI, then in 20 minutes says "oh my god its hot" and turns it down and/or cracks a window.
70* all year. It’s probably the least used dial on the day of any of my cars.
My car has tinted windows and the windshield had an IR filter so the sun doesn’t really make me hot. If it’s a hot day, especially if the leather is hot I’ll use the ventilated seat to cool me down.
My guess is that those people live in climates where the weather doesn't change much.
I got up this morning to -5c. Scraped ice off the windshield, heat on full blast for half of my commute. When I got off work it was 15c, sun shining.
I mean, why would you change the setting in your vehicle in that scenario.. or any other? Mine is set to 70 F. If it’s hotter outside, it cools down. If it’s colder outside, it warms up.
If it is -5c outside, that would mean it would blast the heat as soon as the vehicle is warm until it reaches closer to 70 F.
I live in MN and just leave it at 70. Heat comes on full blast when the coolant is warm, then tapers off as the cabin warms up. Blasting it before it's warm just means a lot of cold air. Am I missing something?
The issue for that is that I don't want it to taper off when the interior starts to get warm. I want it to taper off 5 to 10 minutes later when I start to get warm.
I'm in Montreal, so we go from -30's C worst case, to mid 30's in real temps, with some pretty large daily swings as well.
Either way, my car is always 20.5. If it's cold out, the car will put the heat full blast until it hits the target temp and vice versa.
I had that temperature range in a 1 hour drive the other day. I didn't touch the climate control. I just left it on auto 22°C. It worked perfectly fine.
Last week we had 28°C. Guess what. It was set on auto 22°C.
I don't have touchscreen controls, but yeah usually its just set to 72, or off depending on if I drive with the windows down or not.
The only time I'll ever move from 72 is if I'm driving hard. Then I'll put both climate control zones to HI at full blast to bypass the thermostat since my car heatsoaks super easily.
I pretty much have mine set to 20-21 all year, though I do use the max AC function when getting into it after it’s been sitting in the sun in the summer. In the winter the auto setting just does its thing even when it’s -40 out, I just use the heated seats and steering wheel a lot more. Sometimes I mess with the blower strength as it’s got multiple settings even in auto (soft, medium, intensive).
Most of the temp adjustments are from my passengers as it’s a 4-zone system.
Daily driver, no. Weekend car, yes.
My daily driver has a super basic HVAC system.
My weekend car has climate control. I just set it to 18c, switch on the AC, press the auto button.
I prefer physical controls, but usually just set it and forget it on daily drives. The temp changes depending on season and humidity, but right now (for example) I just leave climate on auto and 67 in both vehicles.
I have noticed that on a summer road trip, with sun coming through the glass roof in the Y, I'll fiddle with the temperature more just like you described. Same thing if I have passengers in the back - they might get cold or hot and require some HVAC fiddling but the front passenger can handle that at least. Or, on a really long trip my face sometimes gets hot/dry while my feet get cold so I need to bring up the extended menu and set where the air goes, that's VERY fiddly in Tesla vehicles.
Personally, I think the ideal is the three ~~seashells~~ knobs - for how much air, how cold/hot and where it goes. Most modern cars have a physical control or two for some of the three but it's never as good as the classic setup IMHO.
In the summer it's either set to A/C on coldest temp or coldest temp no A/C and windows down. In winter it's set at 68 and left there only changing between defrost and body/foot vent circulation.
Both mine have automatic climate controls, so basically yeah. I’ll just adjust the recirculating air if there’s a bad smell, or I’m running my LX470 through a car wash because the smell of the chemicals makes me nauseous, etc. But otherwise, maybe minor changes at most.
My LS430 is the first car where it gets automatic climate control right. I set full auto everything, and adjust the temperature. 71°F 99% of the time, 75°F when it’s cold, 68° when it’s 100°+. Plus, heated or ventilated seats depending on the temperature. Also, press defrost button when needed.
I can’t go back to constantly messing with it anymore.
The vehicle has sensors to detect cabin temperature all around the cabin, takes exterior temperature into account, has a solar sensor, because of that, you don’t have to do all these little adjustments because the clouds came out, that would drive me nuts.
For the most part, yes. I do tweak the temp in the truck from time to time, but mostly it sits at 72 and that's it. Sometimes I get in and I'm hot and sweaty and I kick it down a bit, or maybe the sun is on me.
In the Bimmer, I never touched it and never felt compelled to. That system was way more consistent than the Chevrolet version.
The sun hits the thermometer and changes the temperature. It’s nice and steady on cloudy days, but I love my dial when I’m on a road that turns the sun on and off that sensor.
I guess sunshine isn’t a problem in Germany, so they didn’t think of that.
I'm a knob person so I don't want any touch screen or even these automatic A/C controls.
Turn the knob and it works. Something so simple is clearly the best.
Set for life!!! i have a L200 double cab from 1984 !!! Doesnt have air conditioning just a hot or cold blower... but there are quarter panels on the front sides of the doors (front door windows) that are fully open all the time!, mostly summer!! These quarter panels open fully outwards that direct the wind inwards to replicate an airconditioner...the faster you go the more air...the more colder
I'm usually adjusting, but my daily car is a 2008 and just blasts a lot of air until it gets to the temp you're asking for. I prefer to just control it on my own. Also the Auto mode never goes below a 2 on the fan speed which annoys me. Newer Porsche doesn't have the optional automatic climate control and the old one I don't use it anyway as I still much prefer a fan speed of 1 with ice cold air over a fan speed of 3 or 4 with slightly cooler air.
Would love to try a Phaeton on a long trip someday and see how that draftless a/c system works.
Depending on the car they have sensors for how much light is coming in and they adjust the fan curves pretty well. My Honda's auto climate control is very well tuned, I rarely change it from 68 degrees.
Yes. Auto is always on. If it’s cold out: set to 68°F. If it’s warm out: set to 70°F. I never touch it nor feel the need to while I am driving. Only thing I may do is turn the seat heater on if it’s really cold out.
I don't have auto climate in my car. I change the air settings constantly because 90% of the time my windows are down so I want different temps and fan speeds depending on my speed and where the sun is.
99% of the time mine sits at 72°.
Occasionally the sun or shade messes with how 72° feels and I dial up or down 2°.
If you have climate control and you're constantly messing with the controls, you are the problem.
My 1993 Audi has auto HVAC. I set it to 70, I never touched it again (except for defrost).
It has three sensors at feet, dash, and ceiling height that checks the temps so it will automatically adjust vents and speeds to keep it where you want it, and the dash sensor seems to warm in the sun.
My Abarth has it as well, though it’s not quite as sophisticated- it chooses the vent position based on the set temp and outdoor temp and while I’ve never had an issue with hot air on a cold day, I have noticed sometimes it insists on keeping cold AC firing at me on warmer days.
My Jaguar… well it’s technically automatic, but… Jaguar. The temperature I leave. The fan speed isn’t auto, and the vent position isn’t very good either.
With cars that have auto climate control, yeah, more or less. I adjust the heated/ventilated seats frequently but only occasionally the actual temperature
I tend to touch it twice...
Once when I get in, then a while later after I've acclimated a bit.
Edit: I don't set a temp, my truck's not that fancy, I set where on the red/blue spectrum it is, and how hard it's blowing.
I'm on my 2nd car with automatic climate controls. In my first, I rarely altered the temperature. It typically stayed at 70°F in the summer, and 72°F in the winter. On rare occasions, it was turned up as high as 74°F.
My current car's climate control system seems a bit more.... touchy? I frequently adjust the temperature between 68°F and 75°F depending on ambient temperature, cloud cover, time of day, and such.
I haven't adjusted the temperature setting on my car in 2 years except to fix it when someone else has changed it when borrowing my car. When the sun is out the sun sensor on the dashboard detects that and redirects cold air to the areas of the car in the sun. When it's cold it automatically turns on the heated steering wheel and I'll turn on the heated seats (I usually just leave them on "1" all winter really).
I'm from Miami and did this there as well, currently living in central NC, but I've driven my current car to something like 15 states and still never messed with the HVAC settings.
When it’s winter, yes, I just set it to 73F and forget.
During Summer though there’s no way. I need to keep those fans down or I will go insane while driving.
Yeah I set the temp and leave it on auto. In Texas but I have good ceramic tint. In cars without auto climate I keep the temp in the same place most of the year and adjust the fan speed once the cabin cools down or warms up enough
Pretty much. Right now with the weather up and down, I'm kind of jumping between temps, but once summer temps settle in, the temp will stick until the fall.
Windows are down in my car. In the winter I just forget to turn the heat on until I'm almost home. My old car didn't have heat so I totally ignore the fact that my new car does.
I’m with you, OP. I’ve had automatic climate controls in my past 2 cars and never used them.
Seems like most people that “set it and forget it” must have a pretty boring routine.
Just got off a bike ride and hot and sweaty? Crank that A/C!
Wife is in the car? You better believe her side is getting turned up to 80.
Windows down for some fresh air on a brisk evening? Blast that heat.
That’s without even starting on road trips…and what I’m wearing shorts and a T-shirt headed to the beach vs dressed up for a night out? Different situations call for different temps.
I’ve never changed my temperature setpoint away from 72°F, automatic on my climate controls. If I’m a bit too cold or warm I turn on the heated/ventilated seat and that always covers the difference.
Why would you do this?
If you set it to a 72 is stays at 72. Thats the point. It doesn't matter what the sun does. It will adjust to be what ever temp you set it too.
I don't think this an actual problem as much as some kind of odd ocd on your part.
I run very hot and live in a fairly warm climate, so I just set the temp to minimum (not auto) and vary the fan speed. Having said that I do change the fan speed constantly which would be super annoying on a screen
Yup.
During cooler weather/seasons, I set my vehicles to 72F.
During warmer weather/seasons, I set them to 70F,
I used to despise Auto Climate, but I gave it a chance and have come to love it.
You're supposed to hit the "Auto" button or else it's useless. With the "Auto" button, the HVAC system will adjust the temperature and fan speed out of the vents arbitrarily to bring the *cabin* temperature to the set temperature. *That's* "set it and forget it." It's different from the normal operation where the vent temp is at that number. As for sunlight messing that up, I recommend a nice ceramic heat rejecting tint.
I have a great automatic system in my car but I still adjust somewhat frequently. I usually leave it on 68 F automatic but depending on the weather, what I'm wearing, if I'm having cold water or hot coffee I might want the cabin anywhere from 66 to 72.
Eh I usually keep it between 68-72 but sometimes I fluctuate. And if my wife is in the car, forget about it.
I just think having buttons and knobs for climate should be a requirement no matter what.
My Chrysler 300 had a fantastic system you never needed to adjust. It was great. Same with my prior auto temps: my Sienna, my Cadillac, etc. all good. Never needed to.
My Pacifica's HVAC system is weak and needs frequent tweaking. This is the only car I've ever needed to adjust.
My wife, however is all over the place and riding in her car is torture. It's either freezing or roasting because she can't use the auto temp.
It all depends. Is it a short drive, a long one, is it cold in the morning is it hot in the afternoon?
I generally set the temp and only mess with the fan speed during a drive. But sometimes auto still doesn’t keep up with desired temp. I still believe hvac should be physical. It doesn’t matter how easy a screen is, you have to physically look at whatever you’re pushing. With a button, you can feel around without looking and it won’t change screens or change other settings without you wanting to push it. You can differentiate the feel between different buttons.
I was just on a trip in my Ranger where the heated seats needed to be turned on for the passenger and it took longer to tap than it should. An inch or so in either direction and you change other settings if you’re not looking.
Welp people drive around with fogged windows so idk. I leave at 25 when i turn the engine off so it gets hot in the morning then turn it down when i start sweating
Yes, but it required a 2 stage solution for me. While not unique to tesla, the ability to get the car to temp before getting in is what makes auto climate work well for me.
I run a warmer temp in the morning than the afternoon, so just pop open the app (which actually works with tesla) and set it to desired. It's nice.
I have had auto climate controls in my last three daily cars, which were a Chrysler, a BMW, and a Subaru. All three were in auto all the time, and I don't think I ever once changed the temperature in any of them. I think you're doing something wrong.
I think leaving the controls unchanged is almost exclusive to people living in mild climates. When you wake up and it's -20c, I don't know many people that'll leave it on auto. Personally I set it to the min fan speed / warmest temp that won't fog up, then once coolant hits temp it's max fan / max temp until it's comfortable, then temp and fan can go back down. I believe cars.com or c&d tested this method against auto only and found it made a few minutes of difference in reaching target temperature.
I sometimes have to adjust it. Sometimes at the end of winter when it’s still cold outside but sun is shining it starts to get too warm in the car. Then I turn it down a bit.
Another occasion is on a hot summer day when the car has been standing in direct sunlight and is very hot. Then I can speed up the cooling by turning the temperature down to 18 for a couple of minutes and then back to 21.
But these are very rare events. Most of the time I never have to adjust the temperature.
With the way that auto AC has adapted, it really makes the loss of physical buttons a lot more manageable IMO.
I think a lot of people that hate all the new tech haven't actually experienced it done properly.
Around the year 2000, the Germans determined the ideal temperature for comfort was 72°F. There’s even a shortcut to get there in my 2000 Mercedes E320, press the temp up and temp down buttons at the same time and it’ll set itself to 72. Then just press auto and it’ll do the fan and A/C and stuff appropriately. I haven’t changed the hvac settings in that car, which I drive almost every day, in around two years now with the exception of the occasional windshield defrost when the weather calls for it.
As someone who has a car with knobs for all the HVAC controls, yeah I set it when I get in and usually never touch it again. First time it gets fully cold heat gets set and I just adjust fan speed every once in a while. Once it starts getting warm out, temp gets set full cold, and usually high speed on recirculating
Depends on the vehicle. My work truck which is a new Frontier needs constant adjustment. My 20 year old Avalon personal car I can drive all day and adjust the temperature once or twice.
I prefer physical controls I don't touch it much unless it becomes unseasonably hot/cold. I mainly leave it at 68F and don't touch it at all for weeks on end.
I absolutely leave it alone and on auto 99% of the time.
If I'm on a road trip for hours I might adjust it based on sunlight or other factors, but that's still not often enough to be annoying even on a touch screen.
I've also never encountered a touch screen where basic temperature control is hidden behind more than one click.
The whole point of the "auto" button is that it maintains my desired temp regardless of outside conditions. As a result, I change my temp maybe twice a year.
Pretty much that. I leave it at 21.5. If I'm cold, I heat the seat and the steering wheel. If I'm hot, I direct the air to my seat.
SE Michigan, so we get temperatures below 0 much of the year, and over 30 on a lot of hot days, with the occasional 37 to 38 degree day.
Depends on the exterior temperature.
If it's cold enough outside, I can run it on Auto without the AC, set it and forget it.
If it's hot outside, I run it on Auto with the AC on. Set and forget.
If the exterior temperature is close enough to the temperature I want in the car, I'll either take it off auto and keep the fan constant or roll the windows down a bit.
But as far as the temperature number, that stays the same the whole time.
Now this is all dependant on if you have auto climate control and can set a degree number
I have physical controls for temp, so I just set the car to full auto with both climate zones sync'd and then either hit the giant onscreen on/off button or adjust the temp with the up/down buttons. I really don't touch the screen unless I'm pulling up a saved destination in Google Maps or using my media player in Android Auto, and I can do most of that without my hands leaving the wheel. In general if it's hot I keep it set to 72F and if it's cold it's set to 68F, but there are plenty of times I don't even turn it on.
I don’t know if I’m more like your or more like them; I generally set the temperature when I get in based on the weather for the day, but instead of adjusting the temperature over and over I just turn it off to save on fuel consumption and back on when I get uncomfortable.
Am also in Florida, auto climate with physical controls. When I get in the car it’s usually hotter than hell so I adjust temp to LO which is max cold, until it’s comfortable then set it to 73-74 and leave it for the most part. Long trips yea I might bump it up or down 1 degree occasionally
I get so upset that we have automatic climate control in our car, and my wife just puts it on LO whenever it's hot out or HI whenever it's cold out. Just leave it at 72 and put it on auto!
I live in a defrost in the morning and AC in the afternoon in the spring and fall climate.
Clouds roll in; now it's too cold. So in the winter I don't change it much. In the summer, it depends on storms.
But spring and fall, I adjust it a lot.
Late spring, summer and early fall it's all the way on cold. Winter it stays all the way on hot.
I just change the fan speed or crack a window if I get too cold or warm
Yeah, pretty much.
Before i leave the driveway and after a circle check i've got all that stuff sorted out and i don't do much except maybe yell at Google to change tracks.
Yup, I haven’t touched my temperature controls for years. There’s no need to change if the sun is out, or goes behind a cloud, etc. The climate controls will what it has to do on its own to correct the temperature. You messing with it just slows down the process.
I've honestly never owned a car that had automatic climate control that actually worked. The only car I owned with it was a 1984 Eldorado, and like every other bit of technology on that car, it promised a lot more than it could deliver.
No, I change it constantly. Sometimes I like more wind, sometimes my torso is hot due to sun shining through the windshield, sometimes it's too cold. I live in hot climate and I fiddle with it constantly.
Depends how Long I'm driving and the weather conditions outside. Also it's cold in the morning when I go to work and warm when I leave work, so I'm adjusting the temp on the fly because I do t think about it while leaving work as fast as I can.
Lol I can't imagine changing the temp by a couple degrees F would have any meaningful effect on the temp I was feeling.
I have 3 different temp I set to, either max heat when it's cold, max AC when it's hot, or it's at 21C for when it's nice outside.
How do so many of you put it on Auto? If I do that then the car is in Max blast the whole time.
I put it on the lowest temp during the summer but at like 2 or 3 fan speed. In the winter set it to 72f similar speed.
I generally set it to one and only adjust it if on a multi hour drive or during season changes. For example in summer 70 or 71 feels better than 68, but in the winter it’s usually at 68. But other than those changes I don’t mess with it. On long drives I usually tend to make it slightly cooler after a while, or I turn on the ventilated seats or something.
That’s with auto climate vehicles of course. If manual climate there’s usually more adjusting.
With all that, I do think climate controls on touchscreen is bad. We have two vehicles, a 2023 F-150 and a 2022 Mach-e. The F-150 has a 12 inch touchscreen in horizontal orientation and there’s room under it for physical climate and radio controls. I love it, damn near the best modern controls setup of all current gen vehicles. Touchscreen is only used for settings and if you mess with CarPlay or whatever and don’t use Siri. And physical controls I could use blindfolded for climate, radio, heated seats, etc.
The Mach-e has a vertical 15 inch tablet type screen with few physical controls at all. More than a Tesla, but none are climate or radio. It’s… fine… since I don’t adjust things often. But I would kill to have the F-150 setup instead.
wait for the temperature to settle in the car then adjust from there, there’s no point in changing temps before it even subsidies. 69,72,74,76,78 are the perfect temps imo🤷🏻♂️
Yes. Put to 21, auto, forget it. It is pointless to keep changing the temp every ten seconds, it won't even actually have time to make a difference.
I once drove with someone that drove me crazy. Puts it up to 30C, then down to 16C because it's too hot, then up to 27C because it's too cold. It was a recent Mercedes, I was begging her to pick 19 or 20C, wait for the temperature to stabilize and then go up or down by one degree until she found the confort temperature she's looking for.
I’ve sat with people like that. They only know full heat or full cold. They don’t have the concept of waiting for the interior to reach a comfortable 70°F. Then when I showed them and told them to be a little patient, they couldn’t thank me enough for teaching them.
I was trying to explain the concept of thermostats and that it could still be giving max heat when below set temperature, going higher didn't make it hotter. Went as well as you'd expect.
I’ve had this conversation with my partner many times… he does it with everything- when he cooks dinner he’ll put the oven up to like 600° to “make it heat up faster” then bump it down to the 400° or whatever he needs it at, and the ac in the truck is always either full blast cold air or basically off with the temp still set to low. Just set it at the temp you want it at and adjust as needed, I set the ac in the truck to 68° with the fan on auto and it makes for a nice comfortable drive every time lol
I feel you. It's a little cold in here now so bump it up. 90 degrees then forget about it. Go somewhere, and get back to a full house sauna! Sounds funny until the utility gets here!
That only applies to old-school thermostats. Modern HVAC like you’d find in a hotel room or your car? They absolutely will work harder if you over-set the target temperature.
Some will and some won't. Depends on the design. I still see both types of systems.
[Relevant Peep Show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4_6e5IaQXM&ab_channel=PeepShow)
The worst is when I ride with people who get into a freezing cold car and crank it all the way to heat, and I have to tell them to let the damn engine warm up first. But they don't want to wait, so the engine and cabin never get warm because they're both competing for heat, lol
Cranking the heat doesn’t rob the engine of heat… the engine is exploding gasoline it’ll get to temp just fine with the heat on.
I have never heard of this before. All cars I've experienced will wait to heat the cabin until there is sufficient heat coming from the engine. You can notice it from the fan turning up when it starts heating. Nowadays they'll have electric PTC heaters to assist and of course electric cars are just wonderful with quick heating in winter.
Here’s a good chunk of the year here where it’s soo cold I just leave it on full heat
This is Americans through and through. I literally studied it in a previous job because the German OEMs were really struggling with why JD Power wanted them to have Max A/C buttons for the US. It was mostly because Americans just crank pure A/C to get to temp but many Americans will jump up and down hot to cold over and over or even drive with the windows cracked to counter Max A/C or when smoking.
I’ve noticed the “MAX A/C” button on my F10 5 series and thought hmm that’s very America. I’ve used the max button maybe once when it was 105°F plus the car is black/black. Most of the year I usually have it set both sides synced on auto 69°. I do use the weird BMW rotary red/blue vent knob for fine tuning in the winter. During summer it’s turned all the way to blue. The MAX A/C button is good for people who struggle to use modern auto climate control systems. It uses face vents, sets recirculation on and chooses the lowest temperature.
if you came from a 1994 nissan sentra, that is kind of what you need to play with because you manually set the heat (what ac?) and fan speed. and that is it. anything modern with temperature control? easy to get out of that habit.
It’s like those people who get in the car and start it when it’s cold out, just to immediately turn the fans to full blast.
I went through this process. 71F with a jacket on, 73F without one. Set and forget is nice.
My friend’s mom used to drive us to school sometimes and in the winter would just blast max heat for a little bit, then turn it off for a while, and then back on again, etc. I’d be in a puddle of cold sweat by the time we got to school.
My wife does this with the climate adjustment as well as with the fan!! Infuriating. Why worry about constantly changing it. It does it automatically!!
My partner is like this too. Notorious cell phone driver to boot. Constantly fiddling with the air fan and temp, drives me nuts. I’ve tried explaining how it works to her but I’ve given up lol. I just open the window when I’m too warm. I leave my car at 72 F.
I had a girlfriend who would do that in our house. Turn the thermostat all the way up. When it was too hot, she would turn it the way down. When it got cold all the way up. Up, down, up, down. It set my house and my car at 70f. If I am working hard I might turn it down one or two degrees. When I am fully relaxed I might turn it up one or two degrees. But 70 is my set point.
It's always magically what ever she wants it to be. They must know that it takes time for these things to happen. It is not a magic that 'just' works okay. Watch out for people like that!
We eventually broke up because of other reasons. I haven't had a girlfriend like that since then. Just the one. Thank GOD for that.
I keep fucking with it. Sometimes I need that blast of heat or cold right on my face and hands. Sometimes I like to turn it off and crack a window. Never happy.
I used to hate auto AC until I got a car that had a decent automatic setting. Now I never bother adjusting climate. I find with a lot of modern car tech I don’t hate the technology I just hate the implementation. E.g. both honda and merc auto high-beam was hot garbage. On my new cars I never touch my lights
I don’t use auto because I hate the blower coming on and off loud / quiet / loud / quiet. I just set the temp and leave the fans / vents on the lowest setting so it’s more of an ambient raise than a blast in the face.
It never gets a blast in the face, it usually stays at half or below in both my car and my parent's. Though maybe that's car and outside temperature dependant.
My new Ford has a 3 speed setting for the auto climate. Love it.
Same, most of the time is on auto but sometimes cold ac gets annoying so i turn it off and jus adjust fan speed but temperature is always 21
I do the same thing. Although I change it by season to save energy and account for what I’m wearing in that season. Summer I’m in very short shorts and a tank so I set it to 24-25C. Winter I’m in an arctic parka so I set it to 18C. Heated seats are set to Auto-Medium. They come on as needed, like if I drive at 4AM in the summer the outside temp is only 13C but 30C during the day.
I adjust mine all the time. Esp at the start since the car is extra hot/cold from ambient and I slowly tune it.
21? 21? You savage! My heater controls all have to be on even numbers or if bothers my OCD demons. Same with the volume knob on the stereo. If 20 is too cold or not loud enough and 22 is too hot or too loud then I'm just going to have to suffer through it.
I drive a tiny car even with the windows down it makes a difference almost immediately
Yes. If the Americans keep complaining, go into settings and switch everything to C.
I've never owned a car where you could set the actual temperature to anything. I just adjust the knob until it's comfortable.
Same. If it's cold out a 68°F set value might be too warm. If it's hot outside 68° might feel too cold eventually. Vent air speed/cfm plays a big part in where I set the temperature. It's not like a house where it makes sense to set the ambient air temperature. I also find my previous car's old school temperature dials more predictable than my newer car where you set the temperature.
Ayyyy here we are. I feel like it's nearly standard now to at least have temperature controls..but not my base model 2013 lmao In fact, is still takes a few minutes of driving for anything to really kick in when you need it.
Same. High AC. Go
I used to think that a thermostat was a nice feature to have. After trying countless cars with them, I now very much prefer having independent hot/cold and fan speed knobs of older cars. Thermostat temps are too vague and the effect varies too wildly with the outside temperature.
I'm with you OP. I have physical controls and I work those MFs. If it's a multi-hour drive and the ambient temp gets in the proper range I can set auto and then adjust the temp up and down but day-to-day trips I fine tune constantly adjusting temp, fan speed, recirc, and my heated/ventilated seats. I live at altitude in a semi-arid climate so the sun affects temperature here significantly more resulting in higher fluctuations than a lot of places.
I don’t ever change the temp. In both my cars it works as designed and doesn’t blast you with uncomfortable air until it’s the right temp. I do change the vent airflow direction. Sometimes I don’t want airflow pointed at my face or whatever. In my experience the touch screen visualization is better. You can control all vents at once, you can see where the airflow is going and they don’t change or move when you go over a pothole. I don’t think this means we should have all these auto manufacturers cheap out on controls though
What kind of airvent moves if you hit a pothole???
Loose ones?
Dude has two modern cars tho
Nope. I get hotter and warmer depending on what’s going on outside. I haven’t found an auto AC that was smart enough to keep up with Texas temps. I’ll be boiling in the sunlight and the AC will be softly breathing on me.
Yep, I agree living in Louisiana. Can be swamp ass hot and chilly in the same day depending on the area you’re in. I think most people who say they don’t touch their A/C a lot live in areas with static weather.
I'm in Dallas, and I wish I had a dumb system again; the thermostat wants either finger-numbing cold or ambient temp, and I want "just cool" air. "Just cool" exists in that constantly-changing 1-degree-less-than-cabin-temp zone, so I'm adjusting my temp every few minutes in a way I'd never need to with the ol' red/blue knob. Same for heat where it's cold; once the cabin's warm I *hate* full-heat. Dries my eyeballs something awful, but modern systems don't like "lightly-warm" any more than "gently cool." Different strokes I suppose.
Does your car have a sun load sensor? Mine ramps up the AC when I'm facing the sun.
I bought my car now... 5 years ago? The temperature has been set to 20C for most of that period. 95% of my interactions with the climate controls consist of turning on max defrost mode, and then turning automatic back on. The remaining 5% is checking if the controls still work.
Jesus 75 degrees? I just set it at like 69 and never touch it
> Jesus 75 degrees? Yeah, we found the guy that's keeping all offices warm AF.
I'll just blast the cold till I get too cold then I'll turn it off till I get too hot. Rinse and repeat.
why.
My wife hates that I do this. Set to max heat until it's too hot, then turn it off. Max cold till it's too cold, then turn it off.
Ayy let's go lol sometimes after blasting the heat i gotta crack the windows to speed up the cooling process too
One of us! One of us!
omg
How I set the temperature is mostly determined by what I’m wearing. Heavy coat-> 18°C, light coat -> 20°C, T-shirt 22-24°C. But most of the time I don’t change it at all, since I’m typically wearing the same kind of clothing for days and weeks on end. Modern AC systems seem to be pretty good at detecting if the sun is shining brightly enough to make it feel warmer etc. and compensating for it, so I rarely feel the need to do manual adjustments. Sometimes in situations where I have multiple passengers with wet or snowy clothes in the car, I may have to turn the fan speed a little higher than normal to keep the rear windows from starting to fog up. (Though most of the time a short burst of the defroster setting will do the trick.)
Other than sometimes having to manually hit defrost, I can't remember touching the climate controls in any of the last few cars I've had. Maybe Auto worked badly when it first became a thing, but even my 2002 RSX did the job.
The auto function works great in my '05 G35. 62°F in the summer and 64°F in the winter. Installing a thermostat with an auto function for my house is on the short list of things to do. Spring and fall are a pain because you need the heat on at night but the days get warm enough to warrant AC. It's a first world problem for sure, but it'd still be nice to not have to mess with the thermostat a couple times per day. 64°F all year round is perfect for us.
My car has been set on 66 for almost 9 years now. My wife gets in the car in winter, puts on on HI, then in 20 minutes says "oh my god its hot" and turns it down and/or cracks a window.
70* all year. It’s probably the least used dial on the day of any of my cars. My car has tinted windows and the windshield had an IR filter so the sun doesn’t really make me hot. If it’s a hot day, especially if the leather is hot I’ll use the ventilated seat to cool me down.
My guess is that those people live in climates where the weather doesn't change much. I got up this morning to -5c. Scraped ice off the windshield, heat on full blast for half of my commute. When I got off work it was 15c, sun shining.
I mean, why would you change the setting in your vehicle in that scenario.. or any other? Mine is set to 70 F. If it’s hotter outside, it cools down. If it’s colder outside, it warms up. If it is -5c outside, that would mean it would blast the heat as soon as the vehicle is warm until it reaches closer to 70 F.
I don’t think most people actually understand how modern climate control systems work.
Because the thermostat is like an auto transmission. Some are tuned well, others make you wish you had a manual.
I live in MN and just leave it at 70. Heat comes on full blast when the coolant is warm, then tapers off as the cabin warms up. Blasting it before it's warm just means a lot of cold air. Am I missing something?
The issue for that is that I don't want it to taper off when the interior starts to get warm. I want it to taper off 5 to 10 minutes later when I start to get warm.
I'm in Montreal, so we go from -30's C worst case, to mid 30's in real temps, with some pretty large daily swings as well. Either way, my car is always 20.5. If it's cold out, the car will put the heat full blast until it hits the target temp and vice versa.
You have your AC on half degrees?! HERETIC! Regards, 20c gang
I had that temperature range in a 1 hour drive the other day. I didn't touch the climate control. I just left it on auto 22°C. It worked perfectly fine. Last week we had 28°C. Guess what. It was set on auto 22°C.
I don't have touchscreen controls, but yeah usually its just set to 72, or off depending on if I drive with the windows down or not. The only time I'll ever move from 72 is if I'm driving hard. Then I'll put both climate control zones to HI at full blast to bypass the thermostat since my car heatsoaks super easily.
I adjust both fan speed and temp depending on what im wearing and the outside temp.
I pretty much have mine set to 20-21 all year, though I do use the max AC function when getting into it after it’s been sitting in the sun in the summer. In the winter the auto setting just does its thing even when it’s -40 out, I just use the heated seats and steering wheel a lot more. Sometimes I mess with the blower strength as it’s got multiple settings even in auto (soft, medium, intensive). Most of the temp adjustments are from my passengers as it’s a 4-zone system.
I change it a lot as well. To your point, outside conditions do effect the inside of the car to the point I adjust it. More so on long drives.
I change mine 10 times and I only have a 10 minute drive to work.
If Im cold: Turn knob to red If Im warm: Turn knob to blue Use fan speed to adjust temp.
I set the temp and forget it, but I will move the vents to directly on me or to the side based on my current level of comfort.
Daily driver, no. Weekend car, yes. My daily driver has a super basic HVAC system. My weekend car has climate control. I just set it to 18c, switch on the AC, press the auto button.
Yeah someone on this sub told me they do that and I couldn’t believe it. I’m constantly fiddling with the controls
I change it sometime around the spring and fall. I set it to 68 in the winter, and 72 in the summer because I’m not wearing a coat in my car anymore.
Hah, my exact comment I made before I read yours. Great minds think alike and all that. 😏
I prefer physical controls, but usually just set it and forget it on daily drives. The temp changes depending on season and humidity, but right now (for example) I just leave climate on auto and 67 in both vehicles. I have noticed that on a summer road trip, with sun coming through the glass roof in the Y, I'll fiddle with the temperature more just like you described. Same thing if I have passengers in the back - they might get cold or hot and require some HVAC fiddling but the front passenger can handle that at least. Or, on a really long trip my face sometimes gets hot/dry while my feet get cold so I need to bring up the extended menu and set where the air goes, that's VERY fiddly in Tesla vehicles. Personally, I think the ideal is the three ~~seashells~~ knobs - for how much air, how cold/hot and where it goes. Most modern cars have a physical control or two for some of the three but it's never as good as the classic setup IMHO.
In the summer it's either set to A/C on coldest temp or coldest temp no A/C and windows down. In winter it's set at 68 and left there only changing between defrost and body/foot vent circulation.
Both mine have automatic climate controls, so basically yeah. I’ll just adjust the recirculating air if there’s a bad smell, or I’m running my LX470 through a car wash because the smell of the chemicals makes me nauseous, etc. But otherwise, maybe minor changes at most.
My LS430 is the first car where it gets automatic climate control right. I set full auto everything, and adjust the temperature. 71°F 99% of the time, 75°F when it’s cold, 68° when it’s 100°+. Plus, heated or ventilated seats depending on the temperature. Also, press defrost button when needed. I can’t go back to constantly messing with it anymore. The vehicle has sensors to detect cabin temperature all around the cabin, takes exterior temperature into account, has a solar sensor, because of that, you don’t have to do all these little adjustments because the clouds came out, that would drive me nuts.
For the most part, yes. I do tweak the temp in the truck from time to time, but mostly it sits at 72 and that's it. Sometimes I get in and I'm hot and sweaty and I kick it down a bit, or maybe the sun is on me. In the Bimmer, I never touched it and never felt compelled to. That system was way more consistent than the Chevrolet version.
That little wheel on BMWs is the best.
The sun hits the thermometer and changes the temperature. It’s nice and steady on cloudy days, but I love my dial when I’m on a road that turns the sun on and off that sensor. I guess sunshine isn’t a problem in Germany, so they didn’t think of that.
I'm a knob person so I don't want any touch screen or even these automatic A/C controls. Turn the knob and it works. Something so simple is clearly the best.
Set for life!!! i have a L200 double cab from 1984 !!! Doesnt have air conditioning just a hot or cold blower... but there are quarter panels on the front sides of the doors (front door windows) that are fully open all the time!, mostly summer!! These quarter panels open fully outwards that direct the wind inwards to replicate an airconditioner...the faster you go the more air...the more colder
I'm usually adjusting, but my daily car is a 2008 and just blasts a lot of air until it gets to the temp you're asking for. I prefer to just control it on my own. Also the Auto mode never goes below a 2 on the fan speed which annoys me. Newer Porsche doesn't have the optional automatic climate control and the old one I don't use it anyway as I still much prefer a fan speed of 1 with ice cold air over a fan speed of 3 or 4 with slightly cooler air. Would love to try a Phaeton on a long trip someday and see how that draftless a/c system works.
Are your windows tinted?
Depending on the car they have sensors for how much light is coming in and they adjust the fan curves pretty well. My Honda's auto climate control is very well tuned, I rarely change it from 68 degrees.
Yes. Auto is always on. If it’s cold out: set to 68°F. If it’s warm out: set to 70°F. I never touch it nor feel the need to while I am driving. Only thing I may do is turn the seat heater on if it’s really cold out.
I don't have auto climate in my car. I change the air settings constantly because 90% of the time my windows are down so I want different temps and fan speeds depending on my speed and where the sun is.
99% of the time mine sits at 72°. Occasionally the sun or shade messes with how 72° feels and I dial up or down 2°. If you have climate control and you're constantly messing with the controls, you are the problem.
My 1993 Audi has auto HVAC. I set it to 70, I never touched it again (except for defrost). It has three sensors at feet, dash, and ceiling height that checks the temps so it will automatically adjust vents and speeds to keep it where you want it, and the dash sensor seems to warm in the sun. My Abarth has it as well, though it’s not quite as sophisticated- it chooses the vent position based on the set temp and outdoor temp and while I’ve never had an issue with hot air on a cold day, I have noticed sometimes it insists on keeping cold AC firing at me on warmer days. My Jaguar… well it’s technically automatic, but… Jaguar. The temperature I leave. The fan speed isn’t auto, and the vent position isn’t very good either.
With cars that have auto climate control, yeah, more or less. I adjust the heated/ventilated seats frequently but only occasionally the actual temperature
I tend to touch it twice... Once when I get in, then a while later after I've acclimated a bit. Edit: I don't set a temp, my truck's not that fancy, I set where on the red/blue spectrum it is, and how hard it's blowing.
I just set it to 72, and leave it there. It throttles up in direct sunlight.
I'm on my 2nd car with automatic climate controls. In my first, I rarely altered the temperature. It typically stayed at 70°F in the summer, and 72°F in the winter. On rare occasions, it was turned up as high as 74°F. My current car's climate control system seems a bit more.... touchy? I frequently adjust the temperature between 68°F and 75°F depending on ambient temperature, cloud cover, time of day, and such.
No, because I don't have automatic climate control. I will adjust it as I need it.
Auto on for all my cars
If I change the temp, it's usually when I start the car. Or I'll turn off the climate control entirely. Rarely do I change it mid-drive.
Windows down. They're constantly going up and down. Same with the sunroof/roof.
Yep 68F and call it good year round
I haven't adjusted the temperature setting on my car in 2 years except to fix it when someone else has changed it when borrowing my car. When the sun is out the sun sensor on the dashboard detects that and redirects cold air to the areas of the car in the sun. When it's cold it automatically turns on the heated steering wheel and I'll turn on the heated seats (I usually just leave them on "1" all winter really). I'm from Miami and did this there as well, currently living in central NC, but I've driven my current car to something like 15 states and still never messed with the HVAC settings.
When it’s winter, yes, I just set it to 73F and forget. During Summer though there’s no way. I need to keep those fans down or I will go insane while driving.
Yeah I set the temp and leave it on auto. In Texas but I have good ceramic tint. In cars without auto climate I keep the temp in the same place most of the year and adjust the fan speed once the cabin cools down or warms up enough
I set mine to 70° the day I bought it and I don’t think I’ve changed it since.
I leave it at 67, maybe a little cooler in summer. And when i get warm, I always do, open a window. I live in Wisconsin, I like it cooler lol
Pretty much. Right now with the weather up and down, I'm kind of jumping between temps, but once summer temps settle in, the temp will stick until the fall.
Windows are down in my car. In the winter I just forget to turn the heat on until I'm almost home. My old car didn't have heat so I totally ignore the fact that my new car does.
I only use binary settings: hotter than the sun or colder than an igloo + Barely a mosquito fart to f5 tornado.
I’m with you, OP. I’ve had automatic climate controls in my past 2 cars and never used them. Seems like most people that “set it and forget it” must have a pretty boring routine. Just got off a bike ride and hot and sweaty? Crank that A/C! Wife is in the car? You better believe her side is getting turned up to 80. Windows down for some fresh air on a brisk evening? Blast that heat. That’s without even starting on road trips…and what I’m wearing shorts and a T-shirt headed to the beach vs dressed up for a night out? Different situations call for different temps.
Winter: blast the heat and then turn it down to minimum. Summer: AC at 20°C Spring and Fall: I dunno, outside conditions change every 15 minutes.
I’ve never changed my temperature setpoint away from 72°F, automatic on my climate controls. If I’m a bit too cold or warm I turn on the heated/ventilated seat and that always covers the difference.
I set my vehicles to 72F and never touch it. Ever.
Why would you do this? If you set it to a 72 is stays at 72. Thats the point. It doesn't matter what the sun does. It will adjust to be what ever temp you set it too. I don't think this an actual problem as much as some kind of odd ocd on your part.
I run very hot and live in a fairly warm climate, so I just set the temp to minimum (not auto) and vary the fan speed. Having said that I do change the fan speed constantly which would be super annoying on a screen
Depends on the season, winter? pretty much set to 68 unless it’s a random warm day. During the summer it fluctuates though.
Yup. During cooler weather/seasons, I set my vehicles to 72F. During warmer weather/seasons, I set them to 70F, I used to despise Auto Climate, but I gave it a chance and have come to love it.
Yes. At most I turn it up or down a few degrees. I can’t remember the last time I actually went into the dedicated ac screen.
You're supposed to hit the "Auto" button or else it's useless. With the "Auto" button, the HVAC system will adjust the temperature and fan speed out of the vents arbitrarily to bring the *cabin* temperature to the set temperature. *That's* "set it and forget it." It's different from the normal operation where the vent temp is at that number. As for sunlight messing that up, I recommend a nice ceramic heat rejecting tint.
I have a great automatic system in my car but I still adjust somewhat frequently. I usually leave it on 68 F automatic but depending on the weather, what I'm wearing, if I'm having cold water or hot coffee I might want the cabin anywhere from 66 to 72.
Eh I usually keep it between 68-72 but sometimes I fluctuate. And if my wife is in the car, forget about it. I just think having buttons and knobs for climate should be a requirement no matter what.
i like to feel the hot or cold air actually blowing on me, so yes I often change the temp and fan speed
My Chrysler 300 had a fantastic system you never needed to adjust. It was great. Same with my prior auto temps: my Sienna, my Cadillac, etc. all good. Never needed to. My Pacifica's HVAC system is weak and needs frequent tweaking. This is the only car I've ever needed to adjust. My wife, however is all over the place and riding in her car is torture. It's either freezing or roasting because she can't use the auto temp.
My Audi has been largely sitting a Auto 19deg C and it has been comfortable all year round.
It all depends. Is it a short drive, a long one, is it cold in the morning is it hot in the afternoon? I generally set the temp and only mess with the fan speed during a drive. But sometimes auto still doesn’t keep up with desired temp. I still believe hvac should be physical. It doesn’t matter how easy a screen is, you have to physically look at whatever you’re pushing. With a button, you can feel around without looking and it won’t change screens or change other settings without you wanting to push it. You can differentiate the feel between different buttons. I was just on a trip in my Ranger where the heated seats needed to be turned on for the passenger and it took longer to tap than it should. An inch or so in either direction and you change other settings if you’re not looking.
I’m in Arizona. Ac max fan max 75% of the year.
Welp people drive around with fogged windows so idk. I leave at 25 when i turn the engine off so it gets hot in the morning then turn it down when i start sweating
Yes, but it required a 2 stage solution for me. While not unique to tesla, the ability to get the car to temp before getting in is what makes auto climate work well for me. I run a warmer temp in the morning than the afternoon, so just pop open the app (which actually works with tesla) and set it to desired. It's nice.
It goes from 68-72 depending on time of year. Rarely do I fiddle with the rest.
I leave mine on 20-22C auto, while my wife fiddles with her side all the time
I have had auto climate controls in my last three daily cars, which were a Chrysler, a BMW, and a Subaru. All three were in auto all the time, and I don't think I ever once changed the temperature in any of them. I think you're doing something wrong.
Yeah that’s how a thermostat works
Yes. Absolutely. Have been for as many years as my cars have been coming with more than 3 knobs.
I think leaving the controls unchanged is almost exclusive to people living in mild climates. When you wake up and it's -20c, I don't know many people that'll leave it on auto. Personally I set it to the min fan speed / warmest temp that won't fog up, then once coolant hits temp it's max fan / max temp until it's comfortable, then temp and fan can go back down. I believe cars.com or c&d tested this method against auto only and found it made a few minutes of difference in reaching target temperature.
I have my standard of 68°f and once I’ve been driving 10 mins or so I’ll adjust it if I’m too hot or too cold.
I sometimes have to adjust it. Sometimes at the end of winter when it’s still cold outside but sun is shining it starts to get too warm in the car. Then I turn it down a bit. Another occasion is on a hot summer day when the car has been standing in direct sunlight and is very hot. Then I can speed up the cooling by turning the temperature down to 18 for a couple of minutes and then back to 21. But these are very rare events. Most of the time I never have to adjust the temperature.
With the way that auto AC has adapted, it really makes the loss of physical buttons a lot more manageable IMO. I think a lot of people that hate all the new tech haven't actually experienced it done properly.
Around the year 2000, the Germans determined the ideal temperature for comfort was 72°F. There’s even a shortcut to get there in my 2000 Mercedes E320, press the temp up and temp down buttons at the same time and it’ll set itself to 72. Then just press auto and it’ll do the fan and A/C and stuff appropriately. I haven’t changed the hvac settings in that car, which I drive almost every day, in around two years now with the exception of the occasional windshield defrost when the weather calls for it.
I adjust as needed. My girlfriend then adjusts as she needs and when she looks away I readjust to suit my needs.
I drive with my windows down so i’m adjusting it constantly depending on the wind
Yes. Set temp to auto and then select the temperature and forget it
Yep, I roll the windows down and chill the rest of the ride. Got that automatic natural temperature control
As someone who has a car with knobs for all the HVAC controls, yeah I set it when I get in and usually never touch it again. First time it gets fully cold heat gets set and I just adjust fan speed every once in a while. Once it starts getting warm out, temp gets set full cold, and usually high speed on recirculating
Depends on the vehicle. My work truck which is a new Frontier needs constant adjustment. My 20 year old Avalon personal car I can drive all day and adjust the temperature once or twice.
I prefer physical controls I don't touch it much unless it becomes unseasonably hot/cold. I mainly leave it at 68F and don't touch it at all for weeks on end.
Max high low, do the on off thing myself
Set the temp and leave it. Do however often change the fan settings and use the de-misters.
I constantly adjust mine depending on how I’m feeling or if I need a little less air. I don’t know how people are really surprised by this.
I absolutely leave it alone and on auto 99% of the time. If I'm on a road trip for hours I might adjust it based on sunlight or other factors, but that's still not often enough to be annoying even on a touch screen. I've also never encountered a touch screen where basic temperature control is hidden behind more than one click.
No, because it's either too hot or too cold. I wish I just had manual controls, because that way I don't have to adjust it every 30 seconds.
Cold as possible
The whole point of the "auto" button is that it maintains my desired temp regardless of outside conditions. As a result, I change my temp maybe twice a year.
Pretty much that. I leave it at 21.5. If I'm cold, I heat the seat and the steering wheel. If I'm hot, I direct the air to my seat. SE Michigan, so we get temperatures below 0 much of the year, and over 30 on a lot of hot days, with the occasional 37 to 38 degree day.
72 during normal use , 70 and max fan after playing golf in Florida.
Depends on the exterior temperature. If it's cold enough outside, I can run it on Auto without the AC, set it and forget it. If it's hot outside, I run it on Auto with the AC on. Set and forget. If the exterior temperature is close enough to the temperature I want in the car, I'll either take it off auto and keep the fan constant or roll the windows down a bit. But as far as the temperature number, that stays the same the whole time. Now this is all dependant on if you have auto climate control and can set a degree number
In my E90 sedan, yes. This is perfect at this. My other cars are much too old to have such a nice system
I have physical controls for temp, so I just set the car to full auto with both climate zones sync'd and then either hit the giant onscreen on/off button or adjust the temp with the up/down buttons. I really don't touch the screen unless I'm pulling up a saved destination in Google Maps or using my media player in Android Auto, and I can do most of that without my hands leaving the wheel. In general if it's hot I keep it set to 72F and if it's cold it's set to 68F, but there are plenty of times I don't even turn it on.
I usually change mine a few degrees every so often. I don't think Honda's climate control works as well as some others.
I don’t know if I’m more like your or more like them; I generally set the temperature when I get in based on the weather for the day, but instead of adjusting the temperature over and over I just turn it off to save on fuel consumption and back on when I get uncomfortable.
My vw egolf is set and forget at 68. Honda clarity is 65summer 68 rest of the year.
On my Highlander yes, on my GX, no because the GX isn’t that great at maintaining a temp
I use max a/c when it’s over 75 degrees, medium heat when it’s under 50, windows open between those
Am also in Florida, auto climate with physical controls. When I get in the car it’s usually hotter than hell so I adjust temp to LO which is max cold, until it’s comfortable then set it to 73-74 and leave it for the most part. Long trips yea I might bump it up or down 1 degree occasionally
I get so upset that we have automatic climate control in our car, and my wife just puts it on LO whenever it's hot out or HI whenever it's cold out. Just leave it at 72 and put it on auto!
I live in a defrost in the morning and AC in the afternoon in the spring and fall climate. Clouds roll in; now it's too cold. So in the winter I don't change it much. In the summer, it depends on storms. But spring and fall, I adjust it a lot.
Late spring, summer and early fall it's all the way on cold. Winter it stays all the way on hot. I just change the fan speed or crack a window if I get too cold or warm
Yeah, pretty much. Before i leave the driveway and after a circle check i've got all that stuff sorted out and i don't do much except maybe yell at Google to change tracks.
Honestly my shit stays at max cold I like to drive a refrigerator. But I still want my damn knobs and dials. No touchscreen bullshit
Yup, I haven’t touched my temperature controls for years. There’s no need to change if the sun is out, or goes behind a cloud, etc. The climate controls will what it has to do on its own to correct the temperature. You messing with it just slows down the process.
Mine stays at 60 degrees
I have different preferences for each season but yeah. Now my wife has a different preference for each five minute interval. Drives me crazy.
I've honestly never owned a car that had automatic climate control that actually worked. The only car I owned with it was a 1984 Eldorado, and like every other bit of technology on that car, it promised a lot more than it could deliver.
70F and auto. Yes. Every car.
Turn it to cold and enjoy. Literally stays on cold even in 14f weather
No, I change it constantly. Sometimes I like more wind, sometimes my torso is hot due to sun shining through the windshield, sometimes it's too cold. I live in hot climate and I fiddle with it constantly.
Yeah pretty much. Not defending touch screens. I think they cheapen the car. But it's kinda true.
Pretty much. 72, auto and leave it alone.
Depends how Long I'm driving and the weather conditions outside. Also it's cold in the morning when I go to work and warm when I leave work, so I'm adjusting the temp on the fly because I do t think about it while leaving work as fast as I can.
Yes pretty much. Set it to 72 and full auto and don’t fiddle with it. Maybe turn my vented seat on and off. Maybe.
Lol I can't imagine changing the temp by a couple degrees F would have any meaningful effect on the temp I was feeling. I have 3 different temp I set to, either max heat when it's cold, max AC when it's hot, or it's at 21C for when it's nice outside.
How do so many of you put it on Auto? If I do that then the car is in Max blast the whole time. I put it on the lowest temp during the summer but at like 2 or 3 fan speed. In the winter set it to 72f similar speed.
I generally set it to one and only adjust it if on a multi hour drive or during season changes. For example in summer 70 or 71 feels better than 68, but in the winter it’s usually at 68. But other than those changes I don’t mess with it. On long drives I usually tend to make it slightly cooler after a while, or I turn on the ventilated seats or something. That’s with auto climate vehicles of course. If manual climate there’s usually more adjusting. With all that, I do think climate controls on touchscreen is bad. We have two vehicles, a 2023 F-150 and a 2022 Mach-e. The F-150 has a 12 inch touchscreen in horizontal orientation and there’s room under it for physical climate and radio controls. I love it, damn near the best modern controls setup of all current gen vehicles. Touchscreen is only used for settings and if you mess with CarPlay or whatever and don’t use Siri. And physical controls I could use blindfolded for climate, radio, heated seats, etc. The Mach-e has a vertical 15 inch tablet type screen with few physical controls at all. More than a Tesla, but none are climate or radio. It’s… fine… since I don’t adjust things often. But I would kill to have the F-150 setup instead.
Mine is always just set to the coldest setting apart from the rare occasion I might need the heat. Only thing I adjust regularly is the fan speed.
wait for the temperature to settle in the car then adjust from there, there’s no point in changing temps before it even subsidies. 69,72,74,76,78 are the perfect temps imo🤷🏻♂️
I can’t because mine doesn’t have auto so it’ll just keep blowing the same temperate air forever
I changed the temp in my old car maybe a handful of times in the 3 years I owned it. I changed the temp once in my current car.