I have been looking for a new sun shade to replace the one I’ve had a for a couple of years that’s disintegrating. I didn’t want to buy the same old cheap crap I’ve been getting at the auto parts store that only lasts a year or two before it gets saggy, or the stitching breaks down. I also wanted something that didn’t fit like crap.
I started looking around and I came across the Intro Tech Ultimate Car Sun Shade at AutoAnything.com. What’s different about these sunshades is that they are made for a specific vehicle, not some universal fit. The pictures on the website certainly made them appear to fit very well and the reviews were almost all positive, so I decided to pull the trigger and get one. Checkout with AutoAnything was smooth and painless and the sunshade arrived promptly. The shipping packaging was good and upon opening the box, I was VERY surprised to see the level of quality this thing really has. I’ll let the pictures do the explaining.
No crappy elastic band to hold it together. This is a stitched vinyl bag to store the sunshade in.
The sunshade itself is great quality. It appears to be based on some sort of rigid material, I suspect it’s styrofoam. There are separate panels and they are covered in a reflective coating on one side, and a nice felt-like material on the reverse. The reflective side does as you would expect and reflects the heat out of the vehicle. The reverse side serves it’s own purpose though. During the winter, flip the sunshade over, and it will act to ABSORB heat and help to heat the vehicle. What a great idea!
And lastly is the fit. This thing lays almost completely flat against the windshield and none of the dash is exposed to the sun, NONE!
As for performance, I haven’t directly measured the difference, but it certainly seems like the car is cooler with this sunshade vs. an el-cheapo one from the parts store. And it definitely makes a huge difference having it in. After I got, it my wife commented that she didn’t think that it was doing much as we opened the car on a hot day and it was very hot in the car. As she was putting our kid in the car seat, I removed the sunshade and she said, “Whoa! That thing DOES block out the heat!” She instantly felt the temperature start to climb in the car when I took the sunshade out.
This isn’t just a product for hot, southern states. I live in Kansas and not only has this made getting in the car on a hot day completely tolerable, but it should help warm the car up on those cold Kansas mornings too!
Thanks to AutoAnything for the great service and product. If you haven’t used them before, you should give them a try. I’ve been using them for about a year now and they are ALWAYS competitive on pricing, shipping is great, and customer service is everything you would want it to be.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you on the forums!
Ryan (float6969) is a long-time NICOclub Moderator and our resident CA18DET expert!