Quote Originally Posted by Derek A.
Thinking about doing a light tint on my windows. Looking for pros & cons. How dark did you go and have you had any legal trouble.
Derek,

If you live in a sunshiney climate then it is a great investment IMHO. When I was living in Atlanta it was outstanding. I could run the AC on 1 or 2 in the heat of summer (black leather) and it was comfortable. It also keeps the interior cooler when the car sits (assuming you use a visor too) for a couple hours. The key to tinting is to get a quality job and make sure the film is fully metalic. Dye's will wear over time and fade/turn purple. Metalic films will not fade or wear much over time, so say you have a window smashed in 4 years from now, a shop could put the same piece of metalic film in and it would match perfectly. The downside is that metalic film will absorb laser and radar beams if you use a V1 or similar, greatly cutting down the effectiveness.

Now that I am in Boston for a few years it is not mandatory. But I do like the look of a quality tint job and in the summer it is still pleasant. My film is 5 years old and it looks just as good as when I had it installed. Also, I have had great experience with FormulaOne metalic films. You will pay a bit for them (probably $250-300 for the job) but it comes with a lifetime warranty. My car has a 35% film which offers basically the same protection as a 20% legal rear window limit, but the tint color is uniform on all windows. Also, try to find a shop that does a single piece film for the rear window so there are no creases. YMMV.



Best,
Rory