Monthly Motor - June 2014

Décor
Benefits of tinted
car windows
Motorists sometimes love when
the sun comes out from behind
the clouds – as they drive past
greenery in the rural and suburban
roads, until they have to
get into towns in mid-day! No matter what colour
the car is, the hot sun, in the jam caused by the traffic
snarl ups, quickly turn the car into a baking oven.
Not even the A/C is fast enough to avoid the sauna
that quickly prepare itself inside your car. This is the
main reason why you have to tint your car windows.
According to several articles online, tinting
your windows can keep the car up to 60%
cooler! When your car stays cooler, your A/C
doesn’t have to work as hard, putting less wear
and tear on its components and saving on fuel.
In addition to blocking a significant amount of
heat, there are several other advantages to tinting
your car’s windows.
It’s not only the heat that is blocked by the tint.
Window tint can block up to 99.9% of UVA and
UVB rays, saving your skin from these harmful
rays. These rays can also make the leather and
other fabrics in your car start to fade, so tinting
can help keep the interior of your car looking
new longer.
Tint can also make your car safer. The film that
is applied to the windows can help to keep the
glass together in an accident impact, preventing
broken glass from spreading both inside and
outside the car.
At Professional Tinting Firms such as Cancare
Uniglass Plus, a great selection of tint awaits you
to choose from. They offer Proline 3D films
that are pre-cut, pre-shaped and made to order
specifically for your car. Their Charcool® film
can be used on newer cars that have antennas or
GPS integrated into the back window.
Their skilled technicians will install the tint
properly and professionally, getting you back on
the road in no time. According to Darrell Smith,
the executive director of the International
Window Film Association (www.iwfa.com )
two major trends in window tinting is worth
consideration. “The first is that consumers are
more aware of the damaging effect of the sun’s
UV rays that can cause skin cancer. Factory car
side and rear window glass may not prevent
the harmful rays from coming into the interior
space and harming the skin or fading interiors.
Any quality window film, whether it’s clear or
has a tint, will block up to 99 percent of the UV
rays,” Smith writes. “The second trend is that
window film has a lot more technology behind
it. New films have coatings on them that will
not interfere with radio signals, such as GPS,
cell phones, radio and others. Some of the older
films had heavy metal coatings that sometimes
could interfere,” he stated.
The IWFA lists a number of other benefits of
tint: reduced fading and cracking of upholstery;
reduced heat and increased air conditioning
efficiency; comfort; less eye fatigue; and
improved vision and safety.
Shawn Shuman, a window tint film installer
for over 12 years, younger motorists generally
care more about appearance and privacy and
order basic grades of “metalized” film or dyed
films with a slight colour tint. To achieve this,
higher end carbon and ceramic film is now
available, like the Pinnacle 35 film, which may
be required for proper operation of the myriad
electronics in today’s cars. “Your car may have
an antenna in the rear window, Bluetooth or
even tyre pressure monitors which send a signal.
Films are available to avoid interference
with those items,” Shuman says.
Motorists must however, be educated about the
different options tenable in car window tinting.
For instance, “The Pinnacle grade film will
reject about 57 percent of heat, while the comfort
or middle grade will reject about 51 percent
and the classic or basic grade about 35 percent,”
Shuman says. The exact fit also matters. Do
not use quacks or poor technology, as your car
will look bad. In this vain, International Energy
Savers recommends the use of a computerized
layout machine to precisely cut the window film
panels to the make and model of the car.
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The use of technology is indispensable to avoid
using the razor knife and possibly cutting a
gasket or the film,” Shuman says. Shuman said
the average installation takes about two hours,
and costs vary depending upon the grade of
film and car. But a four-door saloon would run
in the range of Ksh 17,500 – 30,000 plus 16%
VAT, and last anywhere from 5 to 15 years. The
maintenance is equally important. Shuman recommends
customers use only soap and water to
clean the finished windows and no ammonia.
DAANN
For more details contact:
CMC Motors Group Ltd (Lusaka Road) P. O. Box 30135 – 00100 Nairobi.
Tel: +254 6932345, 6932301/2, 6932000 Fax +254 20 650795,
Mombasa: 041-2230490/1/2/3. Kisumu: 057-2023752/0138. Nakuru: 051-2211875/6/7.
Eldoret: 053-2062565/6/7. Kitale: 054-30382/3. Meru: 064-30984/991. Nanyuki: 062-2030033
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MOTOR JUNE 2014