Heat shades, good visibility, rental recalls

By Kristin Varela

August 20, 2012

3 minutes to read

We’re in the middle of a serious extended heat wave across the country. The other day, I left my car in the sun for 30 minutes while picking my three girls up from camp. My black car with black leather seats was parked outside, baking under the beating rays of 101-degree temperatures. When I loaded the girls into the car, dressed in shorts and spaghetti strap tanks, all three screeched and jump back out. Every surface of the car was scorching hot, from the seat bottoms, to the seatbacks, to the black nylon seat belts and seat belt buckle receptors.

I had been spoiled by my recent stint in the Hyundai Azera, which has rear and rear side sunshades to help keep the sun out and tolerable temperatures in. This feature is even more important for families with infants who can’t always verbalize their discomfort when loaded into a car seat. Even on seemingly mild days, temperatures inside cars can rise dramatically. According to Safe Kids USA, on an 80-degree day, it can take only 10 minutes for the temperature inside a car to soar to 100 degrees.

A combination of power (for the rear) and manual (for the rear side windows) sunshades is a common feature in many luxury cars, but you can find them on cars of all shapes, sizes, and price ranges. Of course, if you don’t have a car with sunshades or aren’t in the market to buy one, you can easily add a deep tint to the rear windows to help out, or even use aftermarket suction-cup sunshades. Volvo even offers suction-cup window shades as an accessory for every car in its lineup.

For parents with kiddos in child-safety seats, a freezable Cold Seat can help chill down the seat when not in use, though the idea of taking it out of the car, freezing it, then remembering to put it back in the car sounds like it would easily get left behind. To help prevent the girls from getting burned, I’ve gone low-tech and started draping beach towels over the backseat when we’re not in the car.

Cars with good visibility

Having trouble seeing out your rear window? Recent styling trends have resulted in a growing number of vehicles with narrow rear side windows and rear windows, plus thick roof pillars, all of which hinder the driver’s view. Tougher federal regulations to prevent whiplash have resulted in taller headrests that add to the clutter. On top of all that, virtually every crossover has rear privacy glass, which at night is like wearing sunglasses in the dark.

Look at the Toyota Venza, a crossover that has drawn complaints about poor visibility to the rear and over the right shoulder.

In contrast, the Subaru Forester’s upright design, tall windows, and relatively narrow pillars give the driver better visibility than most crossovers. Among others that are better than average is the Nissan Murano, thanks to its large rear window.The Ford Escape, Honda Pilot, and Jeep Liberty have upright styling that gives those vehicles taller rear side and rear windows than most.

Law aims to end recalled rentals

Legislation has been introduced in Congress that would require rental car companies to not rent or sell unrepaired recalled vehicles, according to the Detroit News.

As the law stands now, rental car companies— which sell, rent and buy millions of vehicles a year—don’t have to disclose that a vehicle has been recalled nor do they have to fix the issue, according to the Detroit paper.

The legislation, co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), would prohibit the rental of vehicles under a safety recall.The bill was introduced after two people were killed in 2004 when their unrepaired, recalled Chrysler PT Cruiser, which was rented from Enterprise, caught fire and crashed.

The rental car industry has been under pressure for some time to make these rules standard; Boxer sent a letter to several large rental car firms urging them to stop renting recalled vehicles earlier this year. Only Hertz agreed to stop the practice, according to the Detroit News.

Enterprise, Avis and Dollar Thrifty say they repair their vehicles whenever it is practical to do so and ground vehicles when a manufacturer recommends the action. These three major rental firms dispute the proposed legislation’s plan to ground all unrepaired recalled vehicles because they say some recalls are for only minor issues and would disrupt their business unnecessarily.

GM and Chrysler have told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that only about 30 percent of cars sold to rental companies were repaired within 90 days of a recall and more than 50 percent were repaired within a year. Earlier this year, CarFax found nearly 2.7 million vehicles on sale with safety recalls still open.