What was the first car with factory air that you rode in?

[archiveman2977]

7-10-11

Today marked the 26th day over 100 degrees near Austin, Texas. This summer heat reminded me of the time that our neighbor took us boys to see Oklahoma in her new 1955 Oldsmobile 98 green-white sedan-with factory air. Heaven! At that time in Houston, no one even had central air-only a couple of neighbors had one or more window AC units.

We reveled in the ice cold air while driving downtown to the movie. Afterwards, boy did we get the --hot seat--. It seems that the rage then was to protect the beautiful upholstery with clear plastic seat covers!! Well we hit the roof when we sat down on the hot plastic because we were wearing shorts...

Anyone else have a story to tell??

Regards

archiveman2977

[Clincher]

Grandfather's new 1940 Packard Model 180 Super Eight Seven-passenger sedan.

[mrspeedyt]

first one that I remember was my grandfather's cad... think it was a used '57 eldorado around 1960. my folks didn't have factory air until a new 1967 bel-air.

Edited July 11, 2011 by mrspeedyt (see edit history)

[Jim Rohn]

the 1956 Continental mark II that was my dad's company car when he worked for the Continental Division in Dearborn.

It had a huge chart recorder in the middle of the back seat, my sister sat on one side and I on the other, it was a perfect barrier...

There were thermocouplings everywhere in the interior (don't touch those wires!)

Dennis Carpenter now owns it

[Fleek]

Wow!!!, This is unbelivable, Archiveman. The first car with ac for me was a 55 green and white Olds that my step father bought new in Albany Texas. It was an 88 though. The first 4 door hardtop sold in that dealership. He was good friends with the dealer and bought a new Olds every year thru most of the 50's until he retired from Mobil Oil and could not afford to trade that often. He gave me his well worn 55 Chevy work pickup as my first vehicle. Thanks for the memories.

[Matt Harwood]

I'm not really old enough to remember pre-air conditioned cars, unfortunately. My father's cars ALWAYS had A/C, but the earliest one I can remember was his 1966 Cadillac DeVille convertible. My mom's big new Ford Torino wagon, vintage 1972 or so (when I was 2), also had A/C. Like me, my father finds A/C to be the greatest invention since gravity. I used to look forward to my drive home from work on the construction site because of the A/C in the car.

[keiser31]

That would be my dad's 1964 Dodge Custom 880 convertible that had every option available for that year. I could not figure out why a convertible had A/C. Years later, I realized that some folks like to keep cool with the top up! The car was originally owned by another Chrysler executive (as most of my dad's cars were) and it was a cream color with a black top. For some reason, unknown to me still, my dad decided to have the car painted an olive-like green color. I could hardly stand to look at it after that paint job. For some other reason, the car was not waxed after it was painted and had a sort of flat paint look to it. UGH!!! You can just barely see it parked in the garage behind my '31 Dodge in this photo.

[trimacar]

Well, to go along with some previous posts, mine is an Oldsmobile also, from the 50's. My father started buying Oldsmobiles in the 1930's, and between personal and company use, was buying his 25th Oldsmobile in the mid 1950's. Attached is a picture of him taking keys for that car, it was a story in the local newspaper. Picture is upside down, don't know how to fix it.

I believe this was the first one he bought with air conditioning, know his two '58's had air (one black for him, one white for my mother).

fathers oldsmobile.pdf

[rhb1999]

The first one I remember, was my grandfathers '61 Cadillac, (he lived in Hollywood, Florida), then my uncles '64 Chrysler 300. My father saved up and bought a new '67 Chevrolet Impala 2-dr. hardtop with the belief the a/c would help him with his hay fever. In 1971, I bought a '64 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, condensation would drip from the vents, CCOLD!

[Guest De Soto Frank]

Mom & Dad's 1970 Ambassador SST 2-dr HT. medium metallic blue, black vinyl top.

[rocketraider]

First factory A/C car was my uncle's 1964 Olds Ninety Eight Luxury Sedan.

My folks had Sears underdash units on 65 and 69 Impalas. First factory air car they had was a triple black 74 Impala and my mama always said the air never worked good on it. She despised that car for many reasons, the "inadequate" (her word) A/C being only one of them. Her white 76 Cutlass OTOH would freeze you out of it, just like the old Sears units would.

[rons49]

My grand fathers 1970 Monte Carlo. A/C wasn't a big seller in New York until the the early 70s. Price wise, it was expensive and rides were usually short in distance. Contemplated a/c in a 68 Charger but would cost another $250 or about 7% more.

[Guest Don_Birdsong]

My dad's 1969 Fairlane 500.The AC didn't work too good, It had black vinyl seats so I still stuck to back seat.

[archiveman2977]

Grandfather's new 1940 Packard Model 180 Super Eight Seven-passenger sedan.

7-11-11

7-11-11

Thanks, Clincher for your comment to ...first AC car... Would you possibly have a pic of your grandfather's Packard?

Regards,

archiveman2977

[archiveman2977]

the 1956 Continental mark II that was my dad's company car when he worked for the Continental Division in Dearborn.

It had a huge chart recorder in the middle of the back seat, my sister sat on one side and I on the other, it was a perfect barrier...

There were thermocouplings everywhere in the interior (don't touch those wires!)

Dennis Carpenter now owns it

7-11-11

Hi, Jim

Thanks for your comment about the Mark II with your dad's electronic testing equipment in the back seat.

I am in the LCOC club, Texas Gulf Coast charter member, 1985, and formerly from Houston. I have the Continental Comments article that your dad wrote for the Continental Division in which he desert tested the new Mark II. I plan to note his testing and methodology in a book I'm writing about auto AC innovations.

Would you possibly have other images that I could use in the book? A pic of the testing gear in the back seat would be great for a start. Would this Mark II be the black one in his article?

Also, I seem to recall that you had posted in the Mark II Forum a pic of a white Mark II with a rear wiper which was a prototype.

Auto AC fascinates me as I grew up Houston in the 50's and 60's. The city coined the phrase "The world's most air conditioned city".

My post as to the first car with AC ridden in reflects the importance of my thoughts to ride in a cool car. Our first AC car was a new 1961 Chrysler--it was fabulous.

Thanks again,

archiveman2977

[Seldenguy]

My uncle Jack had a new 1957 Lincoln, black with a yellow interior, 2 door hardtop with factory air. The unit was in the trunk as was the 1940 Packard. The two outlet tubes into the car were clear plastic and rose up out of the package shelf behind the rear seat and ended above the rear window near the headliner. This blew air toward the windshield. My aunt and he were going to take a 6 month trip around the U.S. and bought this accessory because of the heat anticipated west of the Rockies and the Southwest. He never had a problem with the unit in spite of the fact he strongly had issues with the UAW. -Bob

[Guest danceswithpumps]

My uncle's '57 Caddy. The unit was in the trunk also.

Dad's first was a 63 Pontiac Bonneville. My first was a '70 98 Oldsmobile 2 door. I guess we've gotten spoiled down through the years. I remember when no stores or cars were air conditioned. Don't remember hearing of as many people dying like we do today either.

Thanks for the memories.

Rod

[Rusty_OToole]

First car I rode in that had air, that I remember for sure, was my fathers 198O Pontiac Parisienne Brougham which he bought new that year, the first new car he ever owned bought at the age of 6O.

First car I ever owned with working air was a 92 Dodge I bought about 5 years ago.

Who needs air when you live in the frozen north

[Jim Rohn]

7-11-11

Hi, Jim

Thanks for your comment about the Mark II with your dad's electronic testing equipment in the back seat.

I am in the LCOC club, Texas Gulf Coast charter member, 1985, and formerly from Houston. I have the Continental Comments article that your dad wrote for the Continental Division in which he desert tested the new Mark II. I plan to note his testing and methodology in a book I'm writing about auto AC innovations.

Would you possibly have other images that I could use in the book? A pic of the testing gear in the back seat would be great for a start. Would this Mark II be the black one in his article?

Also, I seem to recall that you had posted in the Mark II Forum a pic of a white Mark II with a rear wiper which was a prototype.

Auto AC fascinates me as I grew up Houston in the 50's and 60's. The city coined the phrase "The world's most air conditioned city".

My post as to the first car with AC ridden in reflects the importance of my thoughts to ride in a cool car. Our first AC car was a new 1961 Chrysler--it was fabulous.

Thanks again,

archiveman2977

not sure, I do not have anything here but my mom may have some pictures of that car

IIRC the car we rode in when he worked for Continental was the root beer brown one, I believe the serial number is 9502, again, going from memory. I do not recall if they painted it camo black or not ...

The white car with the rear wiper was Crusoe's car, he was way up in the hierarchy at Ford. I do not believe the car was a prototype per se ...

[kevin1221]

Our first car with factory air was a new 1968 Olds Vista Cruiser wagon. This car replaced a 1964 Ford Country Squire wagon that had aftermarket add on air.

My dad told a story of someone telling him that was not "real" air in the Ford, it was "Mickey Mouse" air! He remembered that many years later.

Kevin

[Dave@Moon]

Mom & Dad's 1970 Ambassador SST 2-dr HT. medium metallic blue, black vinyl top.

The first A/C in a car I ever saw was in my Dad's first new car, his 1969 Ambassador SST 4-door sedan (pale yellow, black vinyl top, charcoal vinyl interior). I was 11, and eventually learned to drive on the car and used it until he junked it with a bad transmission in 1976. It was a pretty amazing in 1969 to buy a $3500 car that had standard A/C.

Our (tiny) house was built in 1965, with then fashionable slider windows that barely opened at all and were all of 18"x24" when you did that. Of course there was no A/C in the house. After we bought the Ambassador, on hot summer nights (It's 84 degrees at 11:30 PM as I type this.) our family used to just ride around in it for hours to be in the A/C.

(None of us had learned about Climate Change yet!)

[Guest mortsciguy]

My family was in funeral service (as am I), and most of our professiniol cars had a/c, but I never rode in those as a kid. I think the first a/c car I rode in was my dad's 65 or 66 Buick Electra 225. It was a private driver, not a service vehicle. He had previously owned a 64 Bonneville rag top, but I can't recall if it had a/c or not. It may have, because he and mom took a driving trip to Mexico and the US southwest in summer with it.

Kelly Martin, Michigan

[Guest rsd9699]

The first FA car I rode in was my parents 58 Ford green and white station wagon. It was light years ahead of the fifty something Plymouth that was traded in on it. We kids slept like logs as we traveled on vacations. It was much quieter than the Plymouth and then when dad got the 64 impala - it was nosier and had kool-pack.

My second car I owned was a 60 Catalina with FA a/c - quieter than the Chevy and cooler as well - we traveled a lot in it as well.

Ron

[Guest Klayfish]

Like someone else posted, I'm really too young to remember when a/c was rare in a car. My earliest car memories were from when my parents had a pair of early 70's Pintos. I don't remember if they had a/c or not, as I was really little then. I'm pretty sure their mid-70's Maverick (I think it was a '74) had it.

But the first one I can say for 100% certainty was a 1979 Chevy Malibu they bought new. It also had the stylish-in-the-day vinyl seats. I very much remember getting in it to go to the local township pool during the summers. Either my father would go start the car and let it run with a/c for 10 minutes before we got in it, or if we were in a hurry, there were always towels stored in the car so we could sit on those.

Edited July 12, 2011 by Klayfish (see edit history)

[John]

My dad's 61 Ford had a hang-on AC unit under the dash. Came that way new, but not sure if it was factory or dealer installed. Anyway, it was 1st I remember.

John

[rocketraider]

Our first car with factory air was a new 1968 Olds Vista Cruiser wagon. This car replaced a 1964 Ford Country Squire wagon that had aftermarket add on air.

My dad told a story of someone telling him that was not "real" air in the Ford, it was "Mickey Mouse" air! He remembered that many years later.

Kevin

It was actually closer to a full climate control system than people realised, because it was a fully recirculating system. It cooled down what was in the car and then recirculated the already-cooled and dehumidified air which made it quite efficient- same as a house central airconditioner. Its disadvantage was no fresh air which meant the in-car air could get a little stale, not to mention it didn't exhaust odors, cigarette smoke etc.

My dad always opened a vent window when the air in the 65 was on, just for that reason. I remember he didn't think much of the 69 with its "Astro Ventilation" and no vent window he could open to let his L&M smoke out. He never thought the high-level dash vents on that car did much as far as ventilating the cabin.

*EDIT 7/13- Just for grins, I googled "Astro Ventilation" and it is appalling how much ignorance is out there concerning that system on non-Corvette applications.

Guess no one ever wondered what the vent grilles in their door jambs were for.

Edited July 13, 2011 by rocketraider (see edit history)

[PONTIAC1953]

my first memory of a factory a/c car is a 1958 rambler sedan that my foster mom drove, my sister and i both also could not sit on those plastic clear seat covers untill the a/c had been on for a few minutes. my first factory a/c car that i owned and drove was a 1960 oldsmobile dynamic 88 sedan in fresno,ca. back in 1978. my mother's uncle harvey bought the olds in 1962. charles coker, 1953 pontiac tech advisor.

[archiveman2977]

7-12-11

Re: clear plastic seat covers In the Texas heat cars parked in the parking lot suffered. The clear plastic seat covers would bake inside the car. Then they turned brown and started to crack and peel.

They, however, remain clear and supple today when the car was always parked at home in the garage.

Regards,

archiveman2977

[Larry Schramm]

My Dads 1963 Buick Special station wagon with factory installed a/c

[junkyardjeff]

Grampa and another relative both had a 71 impala 4 dr in the same color,the other relatives 71 I know had a/c but if grampas car had it he did not use it much. Mom and dad did not have a car with a/c untill 73 but it was only used on rare occasions.

[John_Maine]

Air was very uncommon around here until it started becoming standard equipment. I think the first car I saw with air was a new '64 Pontiac Catalina that belonged to some friends of my mothers. The first car with air that I owned was my '74 Gran Torino Brougham that I purchased in 1978. My mother didn't buy a car with air until 1981.

[rocketraider]

Heh- our neighbors across the road had a 64 Bonneville with factory a/c that would freeze you out of it. I have seen frost on the dash outlets of that car many times.

Their son was a year older than me. Big football player built guy who was really hot-natured, and summer heat just wore him out. Was not unusual for three or four of us to be riding around in that Bonneville in the summer and he'd have the air cranked down so low the rest of us were freezing, and he's sweating and taking clothes off, and asking us if we thought it was hot in the car. I can hear him now "Damn man I'm about to die in this heat!" Even though they put central air in the house way before anybody else in the neighborhood, the boy went and bought his own window unit a/c for his bedroom and would keep it 60 degrees in there. I learned if I wanted to hang out with Joe I needed to bring a light jacket.

[caddyshack]

56 Corvette. Just reached down and pushed the handle forward and an air vent popped up in front of the windshield. Armstrong air conditioning. Back in the day, Minnesotans did not need air conditioning, we were cold 80% of the time anyway. Must be a global warming thing now.

Stay cool.

[moody65]

My Dad always had Eldo converts, the first one I can remember was a '53, but the first with a/c I recall was his '55, which meant fewer top down rides

[Guest Mr Bill]

The first factory air conditioned car I rode in was a '61 Ford Fairlane 500 that belonged to my Godmother. She brought mother and I home from the hopsital after I was born. That was in September of 1961, so the car was quite new.

The first air conditioned car my father owned was a '55 Studebaker President Ultra Vista Sedan. Originally, it was the personal car/demonstrator of the Charlotte, NC Studebaker dealer and as such, was equipped with every factory option, including new for '55, air conditioning, which was trunk mounted and ducted cool air into the car via the two clear plastic tubes. Studebaker sourced their air conditioning systems from the aftermarket manufacturer, NOVI. These units did have an "Air Conditioned by Studebaker" tag on the unit so to appear this unit was actually manufactured by Studebaker. Mother said I liked to stand in the back seat and stick my face into the tube to feel the cool air.

Oh, to have that car now. While factory air was uncommon in cars back then, they were even less common in Studebakers. Records I have been able to obtain indicate a couple hundred were actually installed in '55.

Mr. Bill

Hamlet, NC

[Guest rsd9699]

As a side question - what ever happened to NOVI and does anyone have a NOVI parts manual - there is part of one on the Studebaker site.

Ron

[Guest Mr Bill]

I have no idea what happened to NOVI. I have seen some of these units installed in cars manufactured in the early 60's, so they must have been around during these years as well. I still have the original Studebaker Air Conditioning Manual that came with dad's President when he bought it.

An interesting aside, the dealer sold this 55 President to my father and had a new 56 President Classic ready to take its place. While the 55 was flashy, this 56 was a real beauty. It was black and white, had factory a/c, front and rear power windows (the 55 had power windows in the front only, the rears still cranked) and wire wheels. That would be the one to have.

All this took place before I was born and is exactly as told to me by my father. The 55 President was an excellent car and spent many years as my father's "work" car. It was traded in the fall of 70 along with a 49 Studebaker Champion Starlight Coupe in on a new 71 Chrysler Newport Royal. I understand someone from Thomasville, NC who was passing through the neighboring town of Rockingham saw the 49 and the 55 and purchased them both.

Mr. Bill

Hamlet, NC

Edited July 18, 2011 by Mr Bill (see edit history)

[john2dameron]

The first car I owned with factory A/C was a '65 Cadillac convertible. In January of 1968 I traded it for a '68 Chrysler 300 conv. with air. When I was car shopping and told a dumb-a** salesman that I wanted A/C he lit up and informed me you could not get it on a convertible. I told him you could and he said he never saw one with it. I told him to go look at my Cadillac. I didn't trade with him. The only thing that he knew less about than cars was how to do business and how to work with customers. First car I drove with factory A/C may have been a new '64 Ford Galaxie that the owner of the dealership drove. It had all the other options so I would think it also had A/C but don't remember for sure. First pickup I owned with air was a '89 Ford Ranger.

[john2dameron]

Just recalled something else. About 1965 the first aid squad that I belonged to bought a 1957 Pontiac ambulance. The thing had air but every time you turned it on, especially in town, the engine would overheat so the air didn't get used much.

[john2dameron]

David Coco, when you scan photos into your computer, if they come up upside down, you should have a "view" option at the top of your screen. Click on it, then select "rotate" and click it; that will rotate the photo 90 degrees, then repeat the process one more time and the pix will be right. The Olds in your photo is a 1956 88.