Vince D

A different perspective:
Up here in the Seattle area it doesn't get extreme 3-digit temps very often, but this past summer we had a heat wave with 110 degrees. A black car sitting in this heat can be brutal inside. 110 degrees outside and about 125 degrees inside. Wasn't a huge issue, really. Selected LO for the temperature control, and in about 3 minutes the car was starting to feel decent, and after 5 minutes it was cool enough to be tolerated then pressed the temp control to my usual 66 degrees and all was good. Even my back seat passenger was comfortable with his air vents blasting away. I'm not sure what the criteria is to gauge and give a score for how efficient air-conditioning is, but in 110 degree weather, ANY cool air is a good thing...

JB in AZ

I can't even begin to imagine the difficult time you guys had during that heat wave! I assume that most homes there do not have AC.

Here in Southern AZ, temps like that are not unusual, but all homes have cooling. Of all the cars I have owned here, the RDX was not the best for cooling, but it certainly worked. You found the secret, setting the AC to LO, fresh outside air, with perhaps a window open to exhaust the hot air to help cool the car, then "auto" at what ever temp you usually use. And seat ventilators set to high.

leomio2.0

About a month ago I went to get fish tacos with a female friend up on the North Shore. It was in the upper 80's with low humidity. Car was sitting out in the sun with the sunshade closed, as there were no trees to park it under. After eating for about an hour outdoors (comfortable enough that my sweaty ass wasn't sweating), we got back in the car. Obviously, it was hot, A/C already turned to Lo (where it's almost always set) and I cranked up the fan. After a couple minutes of driving, even my female friend made a mention of how shitty the A/C is in the car. We opened the windows as it was basically doing as good of a job at cooling.

The air coming out of the vents is cold, it's just that it doesn't do a good job of actually cooling the cabin. I don't know what it is, though I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the bullshit panoramic sunroof.

markAZ

We're a little north of JB, in the Phoenix area. Pretty much the same temps here except he's at a little higher elevation so it's a tiny bit cooler there...not that it really matters that much, tho. Anyway, that's the way we handle the A/C too. Opening the sunroof a little helps exhaust the hot air too. We always garage ours so it's not as bad leaving the house as when it's sitting in the sun. Parking spots in the shade are much coveted. I find the A/C in the RDX to not be that much different than any other car we've had. The ventilated seats are really nice, tho. Don't forget that you're not only cooling the air in the car, you're also cooling all the stuff inside as well. There's a lot of heat in there to remove so it takes time.

At any rate, it's a helluva lot better than back in the old days (the 70s) when our cars didn't have A/C, at least the ones we could afford didn't.

Funz51

What are you comparing it to?