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The question almost speaks for itself. But I need to specify what criteria makes up best. I can only think of three.
(1) It is for the 2013 Fit.
(2) How well it stays in place.
(3) How well and easily it folds away out-of-the-way when not used.
If possible, I'd like to not take up seat space.
My current windshield shade is a mirror-like generic off-the-shelf reflector from Canadian Tire. But the edge has this paper-ish trim that sheds and makes a mess of my car. I just re-visited Canadian Tire, and even though the current offerings differ cosmetically, and the front companies on the label are different, it has the same paper-ish trim. I have no idea what the designers were thinking, or what Canadian Tire was thinking in carrying that brand. Despite its flaw, Howevever, a valuabe feature is that when it is folded up, it tucks away into the folds of the cargo cover (an add-on Honda accessory).
I have googled, but I'm hoping to get actual testimony along the lines of my three criteria. This will augment the reviews that I find on amazon.ca.
I know there exists a "Fit-specific" windshield shade from Honda, but I have been using one from my Odyssey (had an extra, so essentailly "free") to great effect. It covers most of the windshield with just a little bit of a gap near the rear view mirror. I have to bring down the sun visors to help hold the top of the shade in place. It is a rolling-type sunshade, so unfortunately you are left with a fairly long cylinder. I usually toss it in to the trunk where it is smashed and otherwise deformed by other objects. It always comes back to its original shape.
As for after-market accessories that get mashed in the trunk -- I might have to go for that, but I'd like to see if I can track one down that tucks away nicely first. The trunk is really quite small, especially since I have a bin of standby products taking up a third of it -- Oil, coolant, washer fluid, electric air pump, manual pump, starter cable, etc. I'm trying to alleviate the crunch back there by tossing a few windshield scrapers under the rear seats, but they tend to creep out to the foot area.
The frustrating thing is that a good design already exists. The one from Canadian Tire. They just have to use decent trim material. This international race to the cheapest and lowest common denominator is maddening. I mean, what about those who don't want cr@p in their lives because it actually creates more grief than the few bucks that it saves? I'm not looking for some exotic luxury, driven by vanity or ego -- just for something with materials other than *paper*. Even plastic trim would be more practical.
*Sigh*.....OK. Rant off. The mission is still the mission -- find a windshield shade that doesn't take up a seat or compromise the piddly trunk space, and doesn't leave a layer of paper dust everywhere....
this isnt my car...or even a honda fit for that matter....but this is the style that i use. $10-$12. twist n fold em up and they slide right into the pocket behind the passengers seat nice n flat. no flaking. no mess. no taking up the whole back seat....unless you are like my lady who is totally perplexed with the twisty fold action required to fold them down compact.
measure ur windshield to make sure you get the right size obviously..i got mine at a local OReily's autoparts store...im pretty sure they are the jumbo....but they might be the extra jumbo...i cant remember. i know the height measurement is pretty close to the actual windshield size, and the width is like 6 inches over...which works out fine. more overlapping coverage. they had a picture of a big ford truck or something similar on the front of the package. they fit the four corners of the windshield almost perfectly. sometimes i think it doesnt matter since my car has no tint....but when i forget and the car is sitting in 100 degree desert sun...oh yea!
@marmaladedad: Thanks for the link to Handa. I did run across that, but consider that source to be after-market. Since I am relying on testimony on suitability, I consider that option to be without "data". As for replacing the trim, the paper trim seems to be a stress relief layer for threading that goes around the entire perimeter. If I could, I'd just remove it and see whether it survives, but it literally just falls apart. I might try to remove all of it, but I think that large pieces will be held down by the thread and disintegrate with time. I'll forgo replacing it because it would mean re-sewing all around the edge. And the round corners would be tricky.
@eulogy, @Goobers: Thanks for the photo of the 2-piece shade! As I am in Canada, I'll forgo O'Reilly Auto Parts and try my luck at our Walmart (it tends to have different and fewer options, but we'll see).
@marmaladedad: Thanks for the link to Handa. I did run across that, but consider that source to be after-market. Since I am relying on testimony on suitability, I consider that option to be without "data". .
I used this sunshade from Handa and it fits perfectly on the windshield. The only downside is storing it. But I just throw it in the rear or in the trunk.
@eulogy, @goobers: Unfortunately, a rather big-ish Walmart near me doesn't sell windshield shades in-store. Buying it online is no better than perusing amazon.ca, as I cannot inspect it up close and handle it. Eulogy, would you be able to say what the brand name is, and perhaps the product code? Thanks!
unfortunately i dont recall the brand (auto expression maybe?)...but im pretty sure the different brands are all made by the same company, as they all look exactly the same with different packaging when i compared them at autozone, pepboys, oreilys, walmart, target.
there are two main variations i have noticed, one with a silver colored side/ black on the other side ( which is what i have), and some that are reflective metalic (almost chrome) one side/black on the other side.
mine are 37.5''Length x 31''Width each. the main thing is getting the length right so they stay up with your visors.
heres an example on
, you might be able to find cheaper with some legwork but the dimensions are correct.
heres how mine fit..u can tuck them almost perfectly into the corners and edges if you take a few more seconds than i did...
@eulogy: Thanks! I will try a few more auto stores around town before ordering. I noticed that you store the flat collapsed screen in the seat-back pouch. Unfortunately, the Fit 2013 doesn't have such a pouch. The amazon page shows it tucked between the seat and the door, but I roll my seat back to get in and out. Having to tuck it by the back seat would be inconvenient. I might go with taking up trunk space instead.
@marmaladedad: I just noticed the pseudonym. Very cool. In answer to your question about removing the trim, It's *messy*. The paper is disintegrating into powder, and the degradation is inconsistent along the entire perimeter. So I can remove some, but not all (not without tugging on the threading too much). So much of it still remains on the edges at variable states of degradation. Hands are caked with this weird powder. I spoke to Canadian Tire about how nonsensical it is to carry such a product, and took photos of the current offerings (with same kind of trim) to review it online. Not sure if that will change things, but at least there might not be the same kind of garbage on their shelves when it comes time to get new ones years form now.
I don't know.
While I see that generic windshield shades can work, I really think it's a good investment to get custom fitted ones. Especially for the Fit, which has such a large windshield in comparison to the size of the vehicle.
My thinking is we buy these to block out the sun..as much as possible. Even the smallest gap or uncovered space, can let a lot of heat in, on a hot day. So I think as perfect or full coverage as possible is a good thing.
That being said, I bought a custom fit windshield from my dealership when I purchased the vehicle. It does fit the front windshield very well. BUT...it's a little thin, and what I find is that the visors aren't big enough to really hold it up in place, and being so thin it has a tendency to sag, creating gaps.
With my 2010 fit...now gone..and my previous vehicle, I ordered a more expensive custom fit one over the internet. Can't remember the brand name. But they were thicker, and held in place much better.
I may be forced to upgrade.
But I think in doing so, I'm still going custom fit.
on my last car that didnt have the seat pouch, i would just fold up the shade and stick it between the center console and the passenger seat so that a majority of it was sticking into the rear passengers foot section.
custom fit shades are definitely cool, and i like the ones that even wrap around and cover the front quarter windows, but the extra bulk...and mostly the price pushed me to my cheapo ones. not really cheapo...cuz these ones with the silver/grey coloring (not chrome) are capable of withstanding years of the new mexico sun.
I also think custom shades look cool when used, but the hassle of putting it away is a bigger annoyance to me.
In addition:
@Fitchet... you say the slightest gap will heat up the car? Well, you know, there are NINE other windows on the car. Even with them fully tinted, the car is still going to roast you on a hot sunny day, no matter how fully you cover the one front windshield. It's only a matter of "to what degree." Incidentally, I have nice and dark 30s on all those windows (30% allowed light).
I purchased a bunch of those static-window-sunshades from Amazon to help keep the sunlight out on the passenger windows. Enough sunlight gets through the front to bother my wife (my noggin resides about 9" higher than hers). Those front visors do diddly-squat to block out the sun, hence the purchase of the static-shades.
Even though I have the rears tinted to 5 and the fronts at 20, the car feels like an oven when I open the doors. I crack the windows to help ameliorate the stuffiness, but it only helps a little bit.
There's always the hope that global warming brings an ice age a bit sooner.
@fitchet: I'm not too fussed about whether the shade is custom or generic. The three criteria in my original post are the foremost on my mind. My current cr@ppy shade is too short by about two thirds of a foot, but I find it tolerable. The car cools down as soon as I start moving anyway. As Goober said, there are other uncovered windows anyway, and though I take a bit of effort to point the front of the car toward the sun, I often don't have that flexibility -- there's usually some sun coming in somewhere, regardless of the fit of the shade to the front windshield. Convenience is as important to me as coverage.
@eulogy: I drive stick, so I'm concerned about storing a shade anywhere near the parking brake, which I use a lot when stopped at lights. Not sure if it gets in the way when I'm backing up, and need to reach out behind the passenger seat. Here is a photo of the interior of my Fit: https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/gene...ml#post1398829. However, I just reflected on the fact (pun intended) that I am the sole occupant of the car almost all of the time, so I might be too anal about keeping the other seats free. Even the current cr@ppy shades normally rests on the front passenger seat. I tuck it into the folds of the cargo cover when visiting the folks in another city and chauffering the fam around. But during those times, I'm not packing the trunk to the hilt, so it is definitely an option for storage.
@marmaladedad: I just googled the static shades. I'm pretty decided on getting fully opaque and solid shades, preferrably mirror-like. I have no evidence that the typical shade with a shiny surface actually reflects more energy than the typical matte-looking shade, so I'm assuming.
No comment on the blurb about global warming. Our west coast is burning, and I recall the California was suffering a similar fate not long ago. It seemed like just yesterday that Daybreakers showed a world in which there was a constant risk of wildfires from vampiric animals bursting into flames in sunlight.
For giggles, here is a photo of the mess that my cr@ppy shade leaves:
You can't see the fine layer of gritty dust that accompanies the tuffs of material. It covers *everything* and gets into all nooks and crannies. Full-blown professional detailing is needed after I replace the cr@ppy shades. The insidious thing is that the current offerings at Canadian Tire appear to have different trim, but if you actually handle it, you see that it is the same J-cloth-like material, but painted black to hide its cr@ppy nature. It's not just engineered to last a short time, but engineered to make of mess of your car's interior so that you don't delay replacing it.
It's certainly working on me, but I'm not going to reach for the most convenient option of replacing it with the readily available variations of the same dust-bomb product. My desperation is such that cost is a secondary consideration, as long as the 3 criteria are met, it is convenient to use, and it isn't circumscribed by a J-cloth dust bomb. I guess that's actually 5 criteria. I checked out two reputed hard-core car accessories shops today. One carried variations of my current cr@ppy shades, the other does not carry shades regularly. I've already checked out the only other places that they could think of checking out.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, all!
Amazon, here I come!
AFTERNOTE: Ugh! Only thousands to look through the reviews of....
i say just buy the ones i linked you to and call it a day. theyll fit your window, keep a bit of the sun out...and worrying about your sunshade will be a thing of the past :P
Well, to be fair about the search, a bit of mussing around shows some decent filtering. As usual, the US version is more advanced, and I can filter by car, year, model. On amazon.ca, I can filter by rating:
The top rated silver one at amazon.ca, with slightly lower rated page on amazon.com:
Unfortunately, it doesn't exist on amazon.ca. However, trying to find it led me to a car-filtering page on amazon.ca, even though I couldn't navigate to it from the amazon.ca. homepage:
Oddly, the fit checker at the top shows that it fits the Sport trim, but not the DX trim. I did not realize that they differed that much. I thought the fin above my hatch indicated a sports trim, but checking my purchase paperwork indicated that I have an LX trim. Fortunately, the aforementioned fit checker confirms that it fits my Fit.
Of course, your option has direct testimony behind it:
Anyway....I won't get carried away. The disintegrating cr@ppy shade ensures that. Not surprisingly, I saw negative reviews to that effect when looking at amazon offerings that resembled mine, e.g.:
Cautionary note: One has to be wary of the accuracy of the amazon fit checker. Your (eulogy's) recommendation doesn't show up when I enter my make, model, year, and trim:
Furthermore, the product options for "Motor Trend Front Windshield Sun Shade - Accordion Folding Auto Sunshade for Car Truck SUV 58 x 24 inch" look *exactly* like my cr@ppy shade, yet has great reviews. I wonder how that's possible.
Last edited by TommyMadison; 08-22-2018 at 07:53 AM.
I also think custom shades look cool when used, but the hassle of putting it away is a bigger annoyance to me.
In addition:
@Fitchet... you say the slightest gap will heat up the car? Well, you know, there are NINE other windows on the car. Even with them fully tinted, the car is still going to roast you on a hot sunny day, no matter how fully you cover the one front windshield. It's only a matter of "to what degree." Incidentally, I have nice and dark 30s on all those windows (30% allowed light).
That's absolutely true. I agree.
But you fight the battle the best you can, is how I feel about it. If I'm going to bother to even use a windshield shade, then I want the best coverage I can get.
But I totally agree.
You park your car outside on a hot day, it's going to get hot.
I use mine for to try obviously to minimize the oven like heat that builds up, but also to keep the sun from directly baking my dashboard.
If you really want to, you can buy the sun shield with the cast of 1977 Star Wars in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon on it.
08-19-2018, 08:55 PM
