Glovebox light (lack of)

[Wowzz]

One thing ive never found is looking at a Puma and thinking it is a good looking car, the front is gross ugly the rear ok. And the interior - especially new version - improves nothing. Similar to original Puma, that was an unappealing car too. Maybe because I think the ugliest car ever to the point I want to puke is the 1st gen Juke, that is one hell of an ugly car and the Puma does resemble it. New model Juke isn’t so bad. The Mazda CX3, yes vastly superior is very nice apart from the stupid ugly plastic things around the wheel arches, I know of a chap who got them painted body colour before he collected it! The real stand out cars for looks these days are Renault, Peugeot and some Kia/Hyundai versions.

Yes I hear the thing about getting in and out, and the slightly better leg room jacked up cars can give if it’s required. But all else about a conventional hatchback is better. Drive and economy being the most obvious, so a couple of seconds getting in and out isn’t an issue to me. Never was for 100 years.

The freezing (any car will freeze on inside if its damp and below 0) and condensation is weird and had to be a leak somewhere or the condenser was ( if your a a/c permanently on person) collecting large amounts of water due to your area, just a more powerful a/c. Fix is simple, turn it off apart from on hot days! Would you put your house a/c on in winter if you had it?

I always thought that the advice was to leave your a/c on permanently to avoid the seals drying out (or something like that). Or am I wrong ?
Certainly in the last 20 years I have never turned the ac off in any car I have owned.

The advice is to leave the AC on all the time to keep the seals lubricated.

Thank you - that is what I thought. So why is 4251 so insistent on never turning the AC on ? What possible benefit is there by keeping it turned off.

[4251]

One thing ive never found is looking at a Puma and thinking it is a good looking car, the front is gross ugly the rear ok. And the interior - especially new version - improves nothing. Similar to original Puma, that was an unappealing car too. Maybe because I think the ugliest car ever to the point I want to puke is the 1st gen Juke, that is one hell of an ugly car and the Puma does resemble it. New model Juke isn’t so bad. The Mazda CX3, yes vastly superior is very nice apart from the stupid ugly plastic things around the wheel arches, I know of a chap who got them painted body colour before he collected it! The real stand out cars for looks these days are Renault, Peugeot and some Kia/Hyundai versions.

Yes I hear the thing about getting in and out, and the slightly better leg room jacked up cars can give if it’s required. But all else about a conventional hatchback is better. Drive and economy being the most obvious, so a couple of seconds getting in and out isn’t an issue to me. Never was for 100 years.

The freezing (any car will freeze on inside if its damp and below 0) and condensation is weird and had to be a leak somewhere or the condenser was ( if your a a/c permanently on person) collecting large amounts of water due to your area, just a more powerful a/c. Fix is simple, turn it off apart from on hot days! Would you put your house a/c on in winter if you had it?

I always thought that the advice was to leave your a/c on permanently to avoid the seals drying out (or something like that). Or am I wrong ?
Certainly in the last 20 years I have never turned the ac off in any car I have owned.

That’s a proper old wifes tail! Absolute nonsense. I have never had a problem or had to re gas any car I have had from new and that’s many dozens over many 100k’s! I have just had to re gas a 4 year old mk4 Focus after I got it and no doubt ut was on permanently. I turn mine on about once a month for about 10-15 mins just to run the mechanics , does zilch with the seals. And just think of the vast amount of money youve poured down the drain leaving it on

[4251]

I always thought that the advice was to leave your a/c on permanently to avoid the seals drying out (or something like that). Or am I wrong ?
Certainly in the last 20 years I have never turned the ac off in any car I have owned.

The advice is to leave the AC on all the time to keep the seals lubricated.

Thank you - that is what I thought. So why is 4251 so insistent on never turning the AC on ? What possible benefit is there by keeping it turned off.

Car doesn’t steam up when it’s standing like Smartguys and you save a considerable amount of money, and it doesn’t wear the mechanics out of the system prematurely. Stupid leaving it on when its not required. Do you leave your heating on in the house in summer, or a/c if you have it in winter, no of course not, so what is the difference with a car?

[Wowzz]

The advice is to leave the AC on all the time to keep the seals lubricated.

Thank you - that is what I thought. So why is 4251 so insistent on never turning the AC on ? What possible benefit is there by keeping it turned off.

Car doesn’t steam up when it’s standing like Smartguys and you save a considerable amount of money, and it doesn’t wear the mechanics out of the system prematurely. Stupid leaving it on when its not required. Do you leave your heating on in the house in summer, or a/c if you have it in winter, no of course not, so what is the difference with a car?

Never had any maintenance issues by leaving it on permanently, and in cool weather the ac isn't operating anyway, so no additional costs. Same as the central heating in our house - it is always "on", but only operates when the thermostat kicks in

[Smartguy67]

It's common knowledge that leaving the AC on helps with demisting. On my Kuga if have everything switched off and hit the max defrost button it brings everything on including the AC if it's switched off. Not sure on the Puma as I haven't tried it. Perhaps Ford thought the AC would help too.

As for AC units in the house they can provide heat as well as cool but no doubt expensive to run despite their efficiency according to my neighbour who has one in his extension.

[4251]

It's common knowledge that leaving the AC on helps with demisting. On my Kuga if have everything switched off and hit the max defrost button it brings everything on including the AC if it's switched off. Not sure on the Puma as I haven't tried it. Perhaps Ford thought the AC would help too.

As for AC units in the house they can provide heat as well as cool but no doubt expensive to run despite their efficiency according to my neighbour who has one in his extension.

Its a chicken and egg scenario, the a/c removes moisture from the air (not particularly healthy) which accumulates in the condenser, when you stop and while the car is standing this moisture evaporates back into the car misting it up (as in your Mokka). Hence the need to be tempted to put it back on again to clear it at start up. If you leave it off, 90% plus of the time you don’t get misting up and what you do can easily be removed with the normal ventilation or with the heated screens if it’s bad enough. That’s once you get the condenser dried out, you get very little misting up. As long as you keep the climate control in full auto set to say 21, all vents open with a/c off, don’t mess around with it manually it is never required. Countless times I get in other cars with the climate manually adjusted all over the place making it useless, leave it alone in auto and a/c off in my case. If manual heating, in winter I keep all vents open with air directed to floor and screen, fan 1 or 2, a/c off for same result. Summer directed to vents snd screen only,

[4251]

Thank you - that is what I thought. So why is 4251 so insistent on never turning the AC on ? What possible benefit is there by keeping it turned off.

Car doesn’t steam up when it’s standing like Smartguys and you save a considerable amount of money, and it doesn’t wear the mechanics out of the system prematurely. Stupid leaving it on when its not required. Do you leave your heating on in the house in summer, or a/c if you have it in winter, no of course not, so what is the difference with a car?

Never had any maintenance issues by leaving it on permanently, and in cool weather the ac isn't operating anyway, so no additional costs. Same as the central heating in our house - it is always "on", but only operates when the thermostat kicks in

Only cars I’ve had issues with are the second hand one’s where it’s undoubtedly been left on. Basic physics really. Both my recent Focus ST and Focus Titanium required taking back to get the A/C re-charged, never ever have I had to do that with any car I’ve had from new. The a/c compressor is always engaged drawing considerable engine power, especially from a weedy little 1.0 at idle, unless outside temperature is below approx 5 degrees, some less. Plus the considerable extra wear and tear.

Central heating is completely different, when the stat turns off the whole system does. Car a/c doesn’t turn off the compressor, it is engaged and runs permanently unless the outside temp is very low.

[Wowzz]

Car doesn’t steam up when it’s standing like Smartguys and you save a considerable amount of money, and it doesn’t wear the mechanics out of the system prematurely. Stupid leaving it on when its not required. Do you leave your heating on in the house in summer, or a/c if you have it in winter, no of course not, so what is the difference with a car?

Never had any maintenance issues by leaving it on permanently, and in cool weather the ac isn't operating anyway, so no additional costs. Same as the central heating in our house - it is always "on", but only operates when the thermostat kicks in

Only cars I’ve had issues with are the second hand one’s where it’s undoubtedly been left on. Basic physics really. Both my recent Focus ST and Focus Titanium required taking back to get the A/C re-charged, never ever have I had to do that with any car I’ve had from new. The a/c compressor is always engaged drawing considerable engine power, especially from a weedy little 1.0 at idle, unless outside temperature is below approx 5 degrees, some less. Plus the considerable extra wear and tear.

Central heating is completely different, when the stat turns off the whole system does. Car a/c doesn’t turn off the compressor, it is engaged and runs permanently unless the outside temp is very low.

Car doesn’t steam up when it’s standing like Smartguys and you save a considerable amount of money, and it doesn’t wear the mechanics out of the system prematurely. Stupid leaving it on when its not required. Do you leave your heating on in the house in summer, or a/c if you have it in winter, no of course not, so what is the difference with a car?

Never had any maintenance issues by leaving it on permanently, and in cool weather the ac isn't operating anyway, so no additional costs. Same as the central heating in our house - it is always "on", but only operates when the thermostat kicks in

Only cars I’ve had issues with are the second hand one’s where it’s undoubtedly been left on. Basic physics really. Both my recent Focus ST and Focus Titanium required taking back to get the A/C re-charged, never ever have I had to do that with any car I’ve had from new. The a/c compressor is always engaged drawing considerable engine power, especially from a weedy little 1.0 at idle, unless outside temperature is below approx 5 degrees, some less. Plus the considerable extra wear and tear.

Central heating is completely different, when the stat turns off the whole system does. Car a/c doesn’t turn off the compressor, it is engaged and runs permanently unless the outside temp is very low.

Thanks - out of interest, my current mpg is roughly 52mpg. How much higher will it be if I turn the AC off ?

[4251]

Approx 5% on average, usually more on small engined cars and less on larger engined cars. Obviously the highest consumption is in warm weather

[Smartguy67]

Here's the RAC view
https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/car- ... hs-busted/

Here Honest Johns view
https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/askhj/answ ... itched-on-

Here's Halfords view
https://blog.halfords.com/why-you-shoul ... in-winter/

Here's Elite Garages view
https://www.elitegarages.co.uk/2021/11/ ... -in-winter

Found loads like these but looks like they are all giving bad advice.

It's coming up to 6 years now with my Kuga. AC always on summer and winter, still blows cold enough in summer to make my hands numb and guess how many times it's been re-gassed...yep, none. I guess car manufacturers just put a better system on what would have been a lot more expensive car when it was new.

There's nothing wrong for those who want to turn it off but if you leave it off through winter you are maybe asking for trouble but then who needs it in a car in the summer when you can open a window. Not like it's much noisier in a Puma lol