Jerry Brown: Bring back those old-fashioned floor vents and triangular vent windows and save fuel!

Yep, my '72 Duster didn’t have vent windows (no Dusters did, starting in '67). Didn’t have a/c, either, until I put it in.

^
The OP’s claims are essentially all baseless and simply represent somebody who is unfamiliar with how his HVAC system can be operated, and also has a lot to learn about fuel economy-related topics.

+1 for VDCdriver. I’ll rely on your word since I stopped reading at the words “Jerry Brown.”

A great deal of effort was made to keep passengers cool before air conditioning became a factory option. Fold out windshields, floor vents, swing out windows front and rear and a great many roof openings. The old VW bus had a vent in the overhanging roof at the front that pushed a lot of air into the passenger area at highway speed. Today all the effort is toward individual climate control for each seat.

Screws up the aero and likely wastes fuel. The Mythbusters guys did a somewhat flawed segment on AC On vs Windows down on a truck and found the AC On was a tiny bit better. The same argument is used for pickup truck drivers to run with the tailgate down. Ford tested this one and said it doesn’t help fuel economy to run tailgate down. (flame-on! for the tailgate thing, lots of arguments here)

In theory, you could source inlet air from a stagnant, high pressure area (like the front bumper) and discharge it to a low pressure area with disturbed flow (maybe the wheel wells?) and both ventilate and reduce equivalent flat plate area.

While the tailgate down may look more aerodynamic to the casual observer the wind tunnel doesn’t lie.

@missileman,

Say what you want about Jerry Brown, but I’ve been reading that he’s really turned things around in California in a way Arnold never could have. Arnold never understood the concept of conducting program evaluations to determine which programs were worth cutting. He stuck to his guns on across-the-board budget cuts, which can often waste more money than they save.

In my Cruze, I don’t always need to run the A/C. When the temp out is reasonable, all I need to do is direct the air through the dash vents, crack open the passenger front window a bit, and I get all the cool air I need without running the fan or the A/C. Since the open window is on the opposite side of the car, the noise factor is minimal.

@Whitey…it’s my opinion that if you mess up most of your life…sooner or later something good has to happen. That’s what happened to Jerry Brown.

Remember in things I miss in cars someone said vent windows were discontinued by congress due to theft problems. Bust a big window vs a little one makes no sense to me, is it true I do not know, but the cost savings are obvious.

lavaman,
Read the related post in here about things we miss / or don’t / about older vehicles.

Good comment, but I don’t think the solution is vent windows. Cars should provide plenty of fresh air venting powered by the blower fan. That way, the fresh air circulation is good even if you are not moving.

My early 90’s Corolla has no AC, no triangular vent windows, no need to even roll down the windows, no need even to be moving. The fresh air ventilation is excellent. The 4 speed ventilation blower does the work, pulls in plenty of fresh air from the outside through the air vents under the windshield. For good ventilation of course, getting air in is just 1/2 the battle. It has to go back out too. The Corolla has built in escape passages which allow the air to escape, from passages under the doors and surrounding the rear side windows. In a mild climate such as the SF Bay area, other than a day or two in the summer, I’ve found no need for AC.

Unless it’s been revised, there is or was a Federal statute on the books which stated that cars not equipped with A/C must allow some fresh air in at all times.

Fresh air ventilation doesn’t work too well in OK summer time as it’s usually equivalent to a blast furnace.
The old Corvette I used to have had no A/C. Fresh air was gotten through a cowl flap at the bottom of the windshield and which was controlled by a handle under the dash.

It was usually kept closed because a 100 degree day and the entrance of air coming over a hot, thin fiberglass hood would feel very similar to a space heater at full bore…
The only time that car was tolerable in summertime was at night with the top off or at highway speeds.

I like vent windows and wish they would come back. I think they’d be perfect on retro-inspired cars like the newer Challenger, Camaro, etc. But I can’t see them saving fuel–quite the opposite. You have one of these open and you’re increasing drag.

Mythbusters actually did a show (not with wing windows) where they tested how fuel efficient a car was with windows up, A/C on, windows down, A/C off, and windows up, A/C off. Not too surprisingly, windows up, A/C off was most fuel efficient, if least tolerable, A/C on, was next most F.E., and windows down used the most fuel.

You might argue that if you just had a floor vent you could open, that you could leave the windows up, but the incoming air has to come from somewhere, and for flow you still need a window down a little. While the fresh air intake on your HVAC system also is open to the outside, the fan eliminates the need for this to be an open ‘scoop’ wrecking the aerodynamics of the car.

As told by Buddy Hacket, about 1959;

A middle aged New Jersey couple vacationing to Florida and driving through Miami at noontime and the wife tells her husband “roll up the windows.” Husband replies, “it’s over 100 degrees out there.” Wife demands, “roll up the windows. You don’t want people to know we don’t have airconditioning.”

Such vanity.

Original Camaro didn’t have vent widows. Why should the new one?

I agree but it’s just pie in the sky thinking. The traffic prior to AC vs what is going on now in most areas makes dealing with polution and heat during rush hour traffic and construction sites, only possible with cabin filters and dehumidifier cooler air. One of the technologies that makes travel possible for we “elderly” is AC. We would be the first complain about the lact of it no matter how much we may relish in the thought of our youthful days without it. Leave the heat and humidity to the young. It’s mandatory now.

“Original Camaro didn’t have vent widows. Why should the new one?”

Perhaps GM can make vent windows an option for those purchasers of new Camaros who are like the OP, and cannot figure out how to operate the HVAC system’s vents w/o activating the A/C compressor. Maybe the car salespeople can ask prospective buyers, “Do you plan to read the Owner’s Manual, and if so, are you able to comprehend it? If not, you should opt for the vent windows”.

;-))

@circuitsmith…you dinged me with an “off topic” when I was answering @Whitey.