Family's first airconditioned car

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Our first was a 1955 Chrysler Imperial.  The outlets were in the back behind the back seat two big vets on each side that flipped up and a stationary one in the middle.  It would get so cold it would spit ice out an down out necks.  The in early 60's the Chryslers started having the same thing only in the front on the top of the dashboard. 
We were in Needles California on a trip and was night time and dad pulled us over to get gas.  The attendant started filling us up and went to clean the windows and where the vents had been pushed down to keep the air from blowing so hard on all of us in the car.  Anyway her saw the big spot on the window and kept wiping it to clean off.  It stayed.  He asked dad what is it.  Dad reached over and the glass was frosted.  It was cold cold air. 
 
My Dad got a new 1957 Ford--I don't remember if it was a Custom 300 or a Fiarlane--I know it wasn't a Fairlane 500.  The A/C vents were up on the dash near the windshield.  They were angled to blow up and over the front passengers.  I don't remember if there were any other vents.  It was not a 2-tone car color.  It was kind of like a celery green--the same green color as pictured in the Country Squire Station Wagon that's not the fake wood grain. 

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New 1970 Chevrolet Caprice.......

Ma added the air conditioning for resale value, but it took her a little longer longer to fall in love with the air conditioning than it took my sister and me.

The only thing I can remember about the guts is a big thing in the engine compartment that said "Harrison?" on it. If I had seen anything labeled Frigidaire, I sure as heck would have remembered it!

All subsequent cars, up to and including the 1994 Plymouth Acclaim had air conditioning.

I'm fairly OK with heat, but humidity makes me very unhappy.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
First car with a/c was the 1974 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser. Dad did buy a '77 Malibu w/out a/c but regretted it immediately. All subsequent cars had a/c, including a '78(?) Plymouth Horizon (VW engine and transmission) w/dealer added a/c. The compressor didn't cycle so we had to do it w/a manual switch.

My first car was an '81 VW Rabbit. No a/c and that was my last car w/out a/c! Since then if there was no a/c, I wasn't interested.

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GM rebadged it's Frigidaire A-6 compressors as "Delco Air" around 1976, my 1975 Electra that was built in March of 1975 has a Frigidaire compressor and my former 1976 Electra which was built late in the model year (June 1976) had the same compressor badged as Delco Air.  Around that time, GM also started to use their crappy R-4 compressors.   The rest of the A/C systems were tagged as "Harrison" like the radiators. Usually, there's a "Harrison" sticker on the A/C box or on the VIR units of mid-1970s cars. The early trunk-mounted a/c units of 1953-55 were badged as Frigidaire but later in-dash units were badged as Harrison.

 

Around where I live, a/c wasn't very popular until the mid-eighties. My parent's oldest car with a/c was a 1986 Jetta GL Turbo Diesel. I have seen many late 1960s and even early 1970s luxury cars like Cadillacs without a/c.

My current 1965 Buick Wildcat lacks A/C and my former 1974 LeSabre and 1968 Wildcat also lacked it. I also had a 1989 Jeep Cherokee and 3 1990-93 Toyota pickups with no a/c. The 1993 Toyota pickup I currently have has a/c but it was originally sold in the US and most of those that were sold in Canada didn't have it.

 

 

Now, most cars sold here have a/c but some economy cars still lack it.

 A friend of mine has a black 2007 Honda Civic that lacks a/c. It has power windows but that's all (it does not even have power door locks...). He got it used for cheap two years ago probably because not many wanted a black car without a/c! He's quite rich but doesn't care much about that as he mostly uses his 5$ bicycle on nice days and so does his girlfriend who's now 8 months pregnant! They live in a small single bedroom apartment on the third floor of a building that they own (no a/c there of course!) and they don't plan moving soon... 
 
The car belonged to Westinghouse, not 'the family'. It was a 1957 Buick. 'The family' got a (slightly) used 62 Pontiac in 63, that was "our" first AC car.

MY first AC car was dad's company 67 Plymouth he sold me in 75. Had to replace the expansion valve but after that it would ICE the vents, not just frost them.
 
Parents' cars: first two with factory a/c were a 67 Camaro and a 68 Buick Sportwagon 400. Cars previous to these had no A/C, though this was in Southern California where it was needed maybe one month a year.

My cars: first car was a new 1980 Toyota Tercel, no a/c. A/C was added at the dealer as a factory unit when one wanted a/c. It was not installed at the factory. My next car was a 1985 Toyota Celica liftback which had factory a/c. My cars subsequent to this have all had a/c....not sure if you can get a new car w/o a/c now.
 
Harrison

Harrison was GM's Radiator Division and was originally credited with ownership of the air conditioning systems - with a footnote that the compressor was supplied by Frigidaire.

 

lawrence

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'62 Chrysler Newport

It had the vents on top of the dashboard, which really allowed the cool air to reach the back seat faster. That was great for long trips. Also, it had the coveted "Air Conditioned by Airtemp" label on the window. So did our '69 Newport, but I always loved the '62 with its "plucked chicken" styling and space-age dashboard. And that super air conditioning system!
 
1967 Cadillac Coupe deVille

The oldest car I owned with factory air was a pristine 1967 Coupe deVille I bought in 1982 with just 30 kmiles, here in Buenos Aires. The odometer was in kilometers, and it reached 200! It was a fully loaded car (I'd never seen a car with so many Factory options before), and the air conditioning was automatic, you could select the inside temperature with a rotating wheel, and you would get cold or hot air as needed to keep that temperature, automatically.

The system had a constant running Frigidaire compressor. The cold output of the system was regulated by a closing (choking) refrigerant valve in the suction pipe of the compressor, which restricted the refrigerant flow when less cold was needed inside the car. This was achieved by a bulb sensor attached to the discharge side of the evaporator. As this pipe started to reach temperatures close to 32 °F the suction valve would start closing, choking the compresor of refrigerant, diminishing its output, in order to avoid the evaporator from freezing up. It worked flawlessly!
Emilio
 
Ours ...

... 1979 Caprice Classic station wagon. Two-tone burgundy with burgundy interior and luggage rack.

Sharp-looking car it was!

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My dad worked for GM, and to the best of my knowledge, all of our cars (mostly station wagons) had ac. But the '65 and '66 both had climate control and am/fm stereo radios.

Even though the picture is showing a Bel-Air (ours was an Impala), this is what the '65 looked like. The '66 (also an Impala) was white.

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