Defender - is black (hot?) in summer?

[EastFreo]

Hi all

Quick question to all new Puma owners.

If I buy a black Defender will I regret it in summer?

Obviously it will absorb the heat but does the new air con cool you down enough?

Cheers

James

[discovery39]

ANY black car is gunna get hot.
The only regret you may have, is that you didn't buy a Range Rover!

[Jojo]

Yep, it will get hot, even at our latitude, not to mention Australia. A white roof and the upright windows make it somewhat better than in other cars, but I wouldn't want to have one in black, nevertheless.

[JDNSW]

In my view, anyone would have to be nuts to own a black car in Perth (or most of the rest of Australia). The colour will make more difference in a Defender, because the windows are near vertical rather than near horizontal as in most cars these days, so most heat gain will be through the roof rather than through the windows.

While the airconditioning will probably cope when the engine is running, think about what it will be like if you park anywhere out of the shade for a few hours and return to the vehicle mid afternoon, the airconditioning will not have kept the interior or any of your belongings or shopping cool while you have been away.

John

[carlschmid2002]

The zircon in a new Defender is still a joke when the temp goes above 40 Deg C. I have an Orkney Grey 90 and I wish I bought Indus Silver. Some people on here reckon the Puma zircon is so much better than the TD5.Well the TD5 must have been completely useless then.

[Drover]

Had my Black SVX since new in 2008 and love it.

The black does show the bush pin stripping and dust, but the black car and heat argument doesn't hold water for me.

Not saying black is as reflective as white or silver and sure it's gets a bit hotter, but how much hotter this translates to .......

I found this from an earlier thread about the same question -
Mythbusters
A black car heats up faster than an identical white car. (From episode 38 pilot 2)
CONFIRMED
A fan wrote in and asked a follow up question: "Does the color of a car affect the way it heats up?". The MythBusters used two identical cars, one black the other white and left them both out in the summer heat with thermometers in both. By mid-afternoon the black car had heated up to a temperature of 135 °F while the white car topped off at 126 °F, almost 10 degrees cooler. (5deg Celsius)

SWMBO silver Focus seems just as hot after sitting in the sun as my SVX does. The temp difference would be negligible and based on the MythBuster results you would need a thermometer to tell the difference......both are hot.




And black looks the goods

[Pickles2]

A black car when new, or when properly polished looks very good,.....but I would never own one, if I could help it.
The only black car I ever owned was a very special Brock/HDT Commodore that was S/H, but I just had to have it. It was a lot of work to keep it nice.
I remember being at the Winton races one year, & a friend of mine had his Commodore parked in the sun,...it was white. he said no worries,...feel the roof,...it was "cool", whereas you could've fried an egg on the roof of mine!!
Also, as soon as ya've washed/polished the vehicle, you can see the dust settling on it, just too hard to look after. On the other hand I have a friend who drives a black Landcruiser for his work car, & it is ALWAYS immaculate. He dusts it off with a microfibre twice a week, which he says he finds therapeutic!
So no, although they look great, I'd never want to own one.
Pickles.

[AndyG]

Well i have a Black Defender on order, illogical, but if i was logical i would not buy a Defender, i would buy something sensible like a white Isuzu D-Max.

Every car in my life has been white or silver, sensible colors.
I know with my boat (55' wooden) getting the high gloss white paint over the grey primer makes an immense difference, so logically we should all drive white vehicles with reflective stripes down the side.

However:
My Santorini Black with have an Indus Silver Roof, (Logic dictates it should be white)
Going for heavy 3M Scotchtint which i believe is one of the better ones.
And a sun roof to let the hot air vent out.

This is going to be my final car i think, so bring on the bling and pimp my ride !

Almost forgot the Sawtooth wheels, leather and color coded Bull Bar

[dullbird]

Colour coded bull bar? All bullbars come black

[Lagerfan]

We've got a Limited Edition (Nara bronze with black roof) and as Drover says it looks the dog's and is definitely a keeper (no regrets). The darker colours don't hold you back, I don't think we've ever said "you can't go to X it's too hot for a black roof".

But Pickles makes a good point, it's a bugger to keep clean, not that I worry too much about that... but some do. Also lighter colours are probably better suited to touring, easy to spot in the bush, and would certainly help keep the temps down a bit.