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Dust, noise, smog, exhaust, allergies, privacy, comfort. The nasty gray film that gets on the inside of the windows from pollutants. There are a lot of reasons. Conditioned air is comfortable, and smells fresh. Cars that don't have A/C, or in which the A/C is never used, smell like a pile of dirty laundry. Same with homes that have no A/C, especially in humid climates. They ALL smell, despite ALL the owners insisting that their homes do not smell.
I do like using the sunroof, and all my cars have them. The sunroof doesn't swirl around outside air as much.
Finally--stereotype alert--it seems as if, in crappy areas, people roll around in 100 degrees with windows down and stereo bumping. Even in late model cars, and preferably with a carload of people. It took me a while to realize why people doused the interiors of their cars with that nasty air freshener fragrance. It's to cover up the smell of pits and feet from four sweaty, shirtless occupants. I'm sure that there is some reason that all four windows must be rolled down in blazing heat, but I don't understand what that reason would be.
While I do not know the answer to your question, I will point out that some people do not like to drive with their windows down, because the wind blowing thru the open windows messes up their hair.
My spouse is one of these people.
My wife is one of those people, too. Plus, she hates the smell of 'outside.' Even if outside is freshly mowed grass.
Other considerations:
Gas mileage
Car fumes/exhaust
Hearing your radio better
Hearing your phone better
Safety
I'm an avid convertibler, so obviously I just get over it at some point. But right now 108 is too hot to put the top down. But I'll have it down most of fall, winter, and spring. 40 degrees ain't too cold. Not when you have seat warmers.
Every frickin' time I drive with the windows rolled down it's only a matter of minutes before someone else's secondhand smoke from another car gets in my car. I HATE cigarette smoke and want my car smelling clean. Or, I get stuck behind some diesel truck, blowing in fumes into the car. For this same reason, I always keep the vents on recirculate mode.
I HATE this. The other day I got behind some chunk of **** that was running so rich it was pumping raw gas out of the exhaust. I didn't even have the !@#%$ windows open in the first place, the stench was bad enough that it got in through the ventilation system, through the cabin air filter, and permeated the interior. I didn't have enough warning to hit the recirculating button. Later that day, I picked up the shirt I was wearing when driving behind the gasoline smelling car and it still smelled like gas.
Cigarette and especially cigar smoke is nasty as hell.
Another option is garbage. At some speeds, garbage in the car will fly out.
I thought that's why people bought pickup trucks, so they could throw old McDonald's bags and beer cans out the rear window and into the bed, then they could just swirl around and fly out on the highway.
I've notice something odd about local drivers: they tend to never open their windows. Now, I realize most cars have heating and air conditioning, which is fine when it is cold or hot...but today it was about 72 degrees out, absolutely gorgeous, yet most cars I saw had their windows closed. It's like this every day it is nice out, and it's usually nice out (not too hot, not too cold) in Duluth in August. What gives? Does the same thing happen in your area? Do drivers see their automobiles as hermeneutically-sealed iron pods, from which nothing must escape nor into which nothing must enter? Or is there another explanation?
If you run your auto windows open...specially at speed..your fuel mileage drops! check it out.
1) I don't always want wind blowing in my face
2) I might be going somewhere important and don't want my hair all fubar'd
3) I have a lot of papers and other things in my truck and I don't want them to get loose from their binders or books and fly away
4) I like controlling my atmosphere, and although it might feel good outside to you, others might not agree. I know my mother shivers in 80° weather. Several people here have heaters under their desks because even though the office is quite warm inside (too warm for me, but I digress), their feet are freezing due to lack of circulation or something else.
5) Most of the time, I don't think to myself "man, what a nice day, I think I'll roll down the windows" - I get in the truck, drive around and get out
I've notice something odd about local drivers: they tend to never open their windows. Now, I realize most cars have heating and air conditioning, which is fine when it is cold or hot...but today it was about 72 degrees out, absolutely gorgeous, yet most cars I saw had their windows closed. It's like this every day it is nice out, and it's usually nice out (not too hot, not too cold) in Duluth in August. What gives? Does the same thing happen in your area? Do drivers see their automobiles as hermeneutically-sealed iron pods, from which nothing must escape nor into which nothing must enter? Or is there another explanation?
When you are tooling down the highway and bug comes flying into the car and whacks you in the middle of the forehead it's not fun. It's even less fun when it is a bee or wasp.
I've never had a bug fly inside while I was driving, but I have had a grasshopper or some other fairly large bug smack me in my hand while I was hanging it out the window once. It splatted all over me and I had to stop at a gas station and grab a few towels from the windshield bug remover station things
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