[canis]

I never had air-con until I got the T4 last year. The previous V40 had it, but it was empty of it's freon and left unused. I know it was empty, because I emptied it. Which is a £2000 fine, iirc???

It's perfectly obvious the V40 had air-con added as an afterthought. One glance at the routing of the pipework involved shows this, and it's a bloody nuisance. Gets in the way of just about everything. My opinion was to remove the entire shebang and fit a smaller auxilliary belt. But the wife, who owns the car, objected to this plan. So the air-con remained in place, useless and unused.

The T4 air-con actually worked. And it's the full proper climate controlled version too. Automatic temperature control, which works just not as good as you might expect. I still have to turn the temp up when i'm cold, and down when i'm hot, the idea that it has a thermostat taking care of temperature just doesn't hit the mark. Great idea in principle - if only it actually did it's job. This isn't a malfunction, it's simply not built very well.

What other posters have said about the dehumidified air and demisting - absolutely spot on. That's been my experience too. It's brilliant at clearing the screen, even in winter when the engine isn't yet hot.

But it does sap enormous power from the engine. Those who are saying it doesn't must drive very slowly. The compressor gives enormous drag to the engine, you can hear it when it starts. Immediate RPM drop, and the idle bypass valve opens to take up the drop.

I'm rather concerned about the environmental cost. Freon horrible for the atmosphere and they will all leak eventually. And how many garages are releasing this stuff ("It's alright, we'll get nextdoor to re-gas it for you. It'll work better then too! It only costs £30!") to get access to engine components and just hoping nobody will notice - i shudder to think. The extra effort to pump this stuff around - and yet people will rattle on about saving one tenth of a penny from their petrol station, but drive around with the air-con on all the time. The loss of one mile per gallon due to tyre-pressures and they'll rant about safety and economy, yet drive aroudn witht he air-con all the time. This is hugely wasteful, though i realise int he grand scheme of entire buildings being made not only cool, but actually cold as a mark of status and economic muscle, will render this effect minimal. Nevertheless, it bothers me.

Then there's driver habits. I can well imagine thousands of cars every day attempting to squeeze every last kilojoule of heat the vehicle has stocked up through that tiny half-inch pipe. Now if the climate control controlled the windows too - that'd be something. ("lol") It's completely insane to get into a hot car and use the air-con to cool it. ("What???") It's grossly inefficient. ("I can afford it!") The real loser is, of course, the environment. ("Oh shut up you tree-hugger!")