Cool yourwheels with customauto sunshade
The Texas sun can be brutal on the inside of your vehicle — and on you, when you slide into your wheels after they’ve sat on a blacktopped Houston parking lot all day.
Most drivers here know the value of automobile sunshades, those reflective panels you wrestle into place behind your windshield. While most folks make do with cheap ones bought at discount or auto parts stores, I’m here to tell you that life can be better.
Consider getting a sunshade custom-cut to fit your specific vehicle. Paying a little extra for something that actually fits your windshield can make all the difference.
I discovered this recently when the inexpensive sunshade I’d used for a couple of years began to collapse — literally. I’d picked it up for about $20 to replace one that began disintegrating, with pieces of it peeling off and littering the inside of my vehicle, then a red 2014 Toyota Corolla with a black interior.
The newer one seemed sturdier, but it had foam padding between its reflective layers that, over time, began to lose its stiffness. Getting it to stay up in my newest vehicle, a red 2019 Toyota C-HR with a heat-retaining black roof, became impossible.
Iwas about to succumb and re
place it with yet another generic-sized, low-cost shade when I spotted something during a service visit to my car’s dealer. There, nestled among the waterproof floor mats, sequined licenseplate holders and fur-lined steering wheel covers were sunshades designed to fit specific Toyotas. The one for my C-HR was about $35, which was a lot more than I wanted to pay, so I decided to see what I could find online.
It turns out the dealership versionwas a bargain. I found some that cost more than twice that, and the average price seemed to be around $40. That’s what I wound up paying when I bought a shade made by Intro-Tech Automotive through the AutoAnything.com website.
The difference in quality between what I’d been using and the Intro-Tech model is dramatic. The shade is noticeably thicker and stiffer, and I’m not worried about it collapsing or peeling over time.
It fits the inside of my windshield perfectly, wrapping nicely around the road sensor mounted behind the rearview mirror at the top and tucking neatly into the seam between the glass and the dash at the bottom. Because the shade is rolled up when it’s not in use, the side edges curl slightly, but not enough to be an issue.
The tight fit lets less light in, which reduces heat. Given that the C-HR has a touchscreen that sits upright above the dash, where the sun would bake it if it were unprotected, this clean fit is important. While my car still feels like an oven when I get into it, the black leather seat and steering wheel is bearable to touch. It’s a definite improvement over my budget sunshade.
The only downside — it’s sometimes a struggle to roll up the shade when it’s time to put it away. The same stiffness that keeps it fixed in the windshield becomes a detriment when trying to roll it up tightly. I’m still working on my technique.