Cheap tint > No tint. I’d personally never spend more than the equivalent of $10/mo for tint on a leased car.
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$360 for tint more than reasonable. Though cheap tint is better than no tint, the more expensive tint does have some heat deflection properties.
I wouldn’t spend more than that either.
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The $100 tint I got is the same stuff that usually goes for double the price or more. He also had ceramic for ~$300 but that is too close to a monthly payment and I only have a 24mo lease 
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What is the IR rejection percentage on it? If we’re talking about keeping the car cool, that’s the only thing that really matters. If you’re able to get something with a 95%+ IR rejection for $100(or even $200), you got a hell of a deal.
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It’s so true. I keep going back to the same guy for over 10 years. There has never been even the slightest bubble or seam issue.
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Too small of an amount of time for a 24 month for sure.
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Just curious, how much cooler does this keep the car? Are there exact comparisons that show with and without in same car, same spot same time? It seems to me, a big hunk of metal and glass will heat up under the sun. Insulation can reduce temps, think, new environmental insulation standards for homes, but obviously, not possible in a vehicle.
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Pretty significantly. It’s important to remember that on a hot day, the interior of cars get much hotter than ambient air due to the IR loading from the sun. It’s not just an issue of the outside of the car getting hot and then conducting in, but rather the interior acting like a greenhouse as the IR heats up all the air inside.
There was a study done in 2012 that compared a variety of different methods and was using some lower IR rejecting tints (75% rejection vs the the 95%+ available these days).
Some snippets from the study:
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Ok thanks. So according to this one study, about 3 to 5 degrees cooler with tint, depending on location in vehicle.
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More like 5 degrees, and celcius at that, so 8-9 degrees Fahrenheit. And that’s with lower performing tint
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No idea what the IR # is and I forgot the percentage of darkness as well. For a short, inexpensive lease it does the trick though 
To be fair, though, anything above 45 deg C is going to be… blistering.
While tinted windows can keep the car cooler even over several hrs, did the authors mention any practical benefit to this?
I mention this b/c my tinting vendor said something that I thought was useful (since I had never had tinted windows before): If you leave your car out in the sun all-day, it’s going to get really hot inside, tinted windows or not. The tinting perhaps helps the most when you are in the car and driving b/c of reduced glare and heat transmission, and your A/C may not need to work as hard [and, of course, you’ll get superior UV protection, even w/ cheap tint].
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This. I can’t tell the difference between 180 degrees and 190 degrees when I open my car door, hot is hot. It’s why remote start is so great.
I tint my windows so I don’t feel like the sun is beating down on my left side while I’m driving around, and for that cheap tint seems to do very well.
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Yah, that’s hot either way, but it’s the only quantitative data I could easily find. That isn’t to say it doesn’t make a difference at cooler temperatures as well.
From a qualitative stand point, I can tell you that driving in direct sun is much nicer with the tint. AC doesn’t do much to kill the IR from direct sunlight. With IR blocking tint, you can definitely run with the AC lower and just more comfortable in general. I live in the desert where high temperatures and heavy direct sunlight is a common occurrence. It makes a huge difference.
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You haven’t experienced good tint then. Driving with crystalline or wincos, i can see the blazing sun over AZ thru my drivers window and not even feel it on my face. First few times after tinting id open the window to be sure I wasn’t imagining things
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best thing is to just remote start your car, all problems solved.
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Remote start is great, but it does nothing for knocking down IR while you’re driving
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We have a top of the line tint on my wife’s Clarity (including 70% windshield) but to be honest she doesn’t feel a difference when it sits out in the hot sun for 8 hours.
If it was parked for shorter times, yeah, she would probably notice. And the difference between 120 or 130F is probably not subjectively noticeable.
I will say it is more enjoyable driving it around, but I probably wouldn’t spend all that money for tint next time (yes, it is a financed car).
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I can’t believe how BMW gives you ventilated seats. Just unbelievable, for even a luxury entry BMW they should be completely cooled seats.
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I notice somewhat of a difference when I get into the car after it’s been sitting in the sun (has full ceramic tint), but it’s not as big of a difference as I was hoping it would have been.
One thing I’m surprised no one has mentioned is good tint will block a significant amount of UV says. I spend a lot of time commuting and the sun is in my face the entire drive to work and again on the drive home. I’m sure my skin appreciates the ceramic tint.
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