For the folks who drive country roads at night, what tint percentage do you have on front side windows that doesn’t require rolling your windows down but still provide daytime privacy?
Also any recommendations for good NYC area tint shops appreciated
50% - adds decent privacy when the sun hits it right and most importantly, cuts down the heat hitting your chest while driving. Night time driving is great too as it cuts down on headlights hitting you. As long as you have good headlights (leds, etc), you should be good in country roads too.
The Art of Tint
Did my E-class. Highly recommend
Should’ve been more clear, I meant the front side windows. Can’t decide between 35% or 20%, I’ve driven cars with standard non ceramic 20% and had to roll down windows in dark spots, but supposedly ceramic has better visibility out at night… could be because of less reflectivity.
Ya heard good things about them from others as well. Did you get the Xpel XR tints?
35% all the way. I did an Autobahn i3 ceramic 20% on my X5 8 weeks ago, specifically hated the nighttime visibility out here in the sticks which was so bad that I was actually using Night Vision Assist for the first time 
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I then switched it to an XPEL XR ceramic 35% 6 weeks ago which has been substantially better. 50% may have been a better bet, tbh, but I’m not super confident that those door clips aren’t going to break after a third try, so I’m leaving it as is for now.
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Ill echo 35%. I have just standard 35% on the side front windows of the Jeep and its a nice balance between night time visibility and daytime shading. Ive also had super dark in the front before and I didnt like having to roll the windows down to safely make turns in darker/unlit areas at night. That said, the super dark stuff does look bad donkey during the day.
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That percent number is VLT… the fraction of visual light transmitted through the tint. By definition I don’t see how one 20% could pass through more visual light than another 20%.
What different materials can do is block more non-visual light like IR.
Side benefit of 35 or 50%: also lowers your chances of being pulled over
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Yeah…FL legal limit is 28% for the front (but many many cars are clearly darker).
Xpel has several models now on ceramic, did you do standard XR? Heard they have like a brownish tinge at night. Reason I really wanted 20% was to match rear factory tint on X7.
Eh, NY legal is 70😂
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I used a sheet of Prime XR Plus, and yes, if I want to get super particular about it, there is most certainly a warmer/brown-reddish hue to the front glass looking outwards as compared to a cooler blue on the factory rears, but IMO even at 35% it’s a darn near perfect match from the exterior. Beyond it being in the back of my head, it’s not glaringly obvious to anyone else after a bit either.
Will post some more pictures later today to better explain the color effect.
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What did they cost you for front side windows? Got a quote for $200 at the shop mentioned above but I’m assuming it’s not for the XR plus.
PA as well but I also believe these are secondary offenses meaning you cannot be pulled over in PA for tint but if you do get pulled over, you can be cited for it.
Also, who tints their front windshield? That sounds like a darwin award in the making…
I do on every car I hold for a long time, but with 70-80% ceramic tint. Does a fantastic job of cutting out IR to keep the heat down and isn’t visibly noticeable
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$39 for standard 3M metallic on my Jeep…nothing fancy but gets the job done.
130ish is the cost for a 10’ roll of the film from an online shop up in Canada and it takes ~3 hours including removing the old stuff, but tbh don’t do it - not worth your time especially if you’re obsessive about bubbles and the stress of the razor blading is way too much.
The installer I used to go to back in SEPA (Elite Glass in Newtown Sq) did a great job with the removal and fresh install of the same Prime XR Plus film on my dad’s F-Pace back in July for $230. While they’re of course buying the film in bulk, considering the 2-3 man hours of labor it takes to get it done, not a bad price in my opinion.
I would recommend 50% for the side windows… I also recommend getting 70% or 80% on the front windshield, which will cut down on the heat beating on you in the summer months… it makes a world of difference.
Make sure to get a ceramic tint as well… I recommend reaching out to Waterwerkz in Lynbrook… they did my tint.
I’ve got 50% on the windshield, 20% on side windows and back of my LT1. I forgot what type of tint it was but its very high quality (to me at least). Cant even see inside in the daytime (from the sides) and at night you can hardly tell I have tints.
It was either Carbon, CXP, or CIR. Sorry I can’t point to a specific one
Art of tint does a pretty good job. I’m a former customer and my buddies get their cars tinted there as well. Worth the premium over the $99 tint shops
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