Practically Classics Forum

Well, after the automatic gearbox went on mothers volvo yesterday, she went out
without me and bought a car.

Well you know that bad vibe/feeling you get when you clap eyes on a car for the first
time and you know that this isn't right! I got that in spades when I seen the car she
just bought!

Someone had fitted after market tint to all the windows, darker in the back than the
front and a strip across the top of the windscreen. The top of the tint is already coming
away on the front passenger door of the car

The car is a astra 1.6 hatchback in silver, on an '02'm plate.
Inside it looks like it has been professionally valeted and engine bay looks steam cleaned.
but that tint is setting alarm bells ring like the clappers!

What's so wrong with window tinting? By the way, the fronts should normally be lighter than the rears

Think on who normally puts tints into cars, it's usually the kids who driver around like idiots
ragging the cars. Also those who don't want people to see what is going on in the car, which
are usually law breakers.

So will it be on a police database somewhere for stop and search? (if previously stopped)
Then there is what could be future problems with the car having tinted windows, as it attracts
the wrong sort of attention from both the fuzz and the scum.

I have already sugested to mother to remove the tint as it is already peeling on one window.

Has it got a winch fitted ? That could be more worrying

One or two around here have had their side windows tinted and they most certainly aren't the "young idiot" type, they are adults with younger children who suffer from the heat that builds up when there is sun shining on them. I know it sounds a bit daft, but there you go - unless you want a four year old leaning out of an open back window to get cool! I had a lift in one of the cars (mk1 Focus estate) and, with the black windows and black interior and little view out of the front (thanks to the driver and his headrest), I was only too happy that it was only a three mile trip (back from the garage one MOT time): so much so, I think I'd walk home if I was offered a lift with him again!

I think plod are only interested if they can't see the driver through the front door windows. If they can see the driver, they can work out if it's an "old dear" or a chav and react accordingly!

If the tint is peeling (and, TBH, if it isn't), I think you're right - get it stripped off and see daylight again!

I hate to say it but there are one or two Astras of similar age around here and, apart from one having had a bit of money spent on it, they have been good little motors (probably better than a certain 2008 Golf!).

tractorman wrote:I think plod are only interested if they can't see the driver through the front door windows. If they can see the driver, they can work out if it's an "old dear" or a chav and react accordingly!

Mother has to sit on a cushion normally she was 4 foot 10 inches when she was in her prime and you have to remember people shrink with age!
So can you imagine the sight of a pair of sunglasses just say peering over the steering wheel normally and the tinted strip ,ight be too low for anybody else driving the car too!

I tint my car windows for the reason that the stuff was invented in the first place - to keep the car cool and to reduce glare. It makes a significant difference to the interior temperatures after the car has been standing in the sun.

tinted windows plus colour blindness equals problems. Also black attracts heat, better off with the A/C

Black doesn't attract heat, it absorbs it. Tinted windows do a wonderful job of shading people in the car from sunburn.
I agree that teenagers often tint their windows however so do lots of older people. the CEO of the company I work at has the windows on his Range Rover tinted, I have never seen him drive faster than 50. Both of my brother in-laws have the windows on their Audi / Range Rovers tinted, they seem to drive them everywhere at 56.
I don't have my windows tinted and know what the actual top speed of all my cars is and how they handle on the limit because I have driven them to find out (doing doughnuts in a morris minor is GREAT fun)
I suspect you don't like the car because you didn't get to chose it not because of the tints. Let it go.

cant you replace the gearbox on your mums car??