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At point of retail is aircon considered a must for the average buyer and does it get included as standard in the UK??
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It's a bit like ABS, power steering, and a CD player as standard: extremely common but by no means universal. Most mainstream cars seem to have it now. I'm not sure whether the average buyer considers it essential. I don't but I'm probably not typical.
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I think that, as many cars become 'globalised', it is as easy to bung in an aircon as not! So the car which NEEDS aircon in Africa, Asia etc will get it in Europe... (if you see what I mean?)
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They put different aircon units in for different markets, as an acquaintance found out when he imported a 4x4 from Saudi and took it on a long stay in Poland during the winter.
Cold climate, no heater but the mother of all aircons ... he loved it.
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Not so sure about that. Most Gulf cars have heaters as well as a/c and the two together are formidable, anyone driving in a Central Province KSA winter will know.
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It can get surprisingly cold in Saudi at times - they need heaters.
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I agree - I regularly visit the Middle East and the weather can be very surprising . Ask the major oil company whose underground car park became an underground swimming pool after the mother of all rainstorms.
However after last summer in UK I would not be without A/C.
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Aircon is one of these things you can do without until you have had it!
I would not care to be without the demisting capability now, for a start.
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It demists windows in seconds, even from cold - a real boon without having to wait for the engine to warm up.
On a hot day in summer you can sit in comfort without having to open a window and get deafened by wind roar or open the sunroof and get scorched by the sun (that gives me a headache and I'm not terribly keen on skin cancer either).
Aircon gets my vote.
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