SUV for dogs! AC requirements

Buying/Selling
1

My job is I take other people’s dogs out to the woods for exercise, and once in a while that means leaving one or more dogs in the parked car, while I’m picking up or dropping off a dog at their home. Obviously I leave windows cracked, and park in the shade when possible, and keep my stops as quick as possible; but what I really want is to be able to leave the AC running while the car is parked and locked. Is there an SUV with that feature? If not, is that something that a car customizing shop can rig up?

The other thing I’m hoping for is AC vents in the middle or back areas of the car, for the dogs. Is that a thing, or do all cars just have AC vents in the front?

I’d consider new or used. For reference, I haven’t been car shopping since 07, when I got my RAV4, and even then I was only looking at the used market, so I have no idea what my options are now.

2

You have to leave the SUV running to use the air conditioning. If leaving the car running and locking it doesn’twork, the remote start feature could be used. It was designed to heat or cool the vehicle before you are ready to get in and drive off. Lots of SUVS should have that.

3

Not all vehicles have rear air conditioning… but all vehicles with air conditioning will allow the A/C to keep working as long as the engine is running.

4

On those occasions I just carry a second set of keys, leave the car locked and running.
There are SUVs and minivans that have various forms of vents for rear seat passenger. But off hand I can’t provided any names for you.

5

Here’s a recent list of 10 SUVs with rear ac: https://www.autobytel.com/sport-utility-vehicles/car-buying-guides/10-suvs-with-rear-air-conditioning-133340/ And a blog post from 2016 if you’re looking at something used: https://community.babycenter.com/post/a58704586/compact_suvs_with_rear_ac_vents

6

Consider this: hybrid car/SUV will have AC system running on electric (at least this is the way Toyota/Honda are doing it), so leaving your car ON and AC ON will pretty much keep AC going with no engine running, until you drain your hybrid battery, then engine starts up and pushes some energy to battery and gets off again.

When I’m in one of my hybrids and have to wait for my kid coming out from some activity, usually it’s something like 3-5 minutes of AC draining high-voltage battery, then a couple of minutes of engine pumping electricity back, followed by next slow discharge cycle.