What kind of shit-buckets are you people driving that requires you to turn on defrost just because it starts raining!?
I regularly drive in conditions that go from sunny to rainy, or even sunny to snow/slush…that’s pretty much all our weather is where I live. I never have to start defrost mode while driving, ever. I use defrost to defrost and remove ice from the the car before I start driving, the AC keeps everything fine without me adjusting anything no matter the change of conditions while I’m driving.
I generally get cold. I don’t turn on the A/C unless it’s hot out. So generally what happens is, in winter (because of where I live and the amount of daily precipitation) I either leave the climate controls off or I turn them on when I get cold or when my windshield starts to fog over. Not everyone who drives a car drives a nice brand new car with nice modern brand new features.
I don’t know what kind of car you do drive but I will say your experience is probably not the norm and certainly not enough to justify your original statement. You keep using the term A/C which suggests to me that you have climate controls that either automatically adjust to a specific setting when you start the car, or you turn the A/C on every time you get in the car.
How much condensation builds up depends on a lot of factors. Your own body chemistry can add to it. I have a friend who runs hot and every time he gets in the car he cracks the window because if he doesn’t him sitting there will fog that window up.
AC also keeps the car warm you know…and yes, I tell it to keep my car at 21°C and it does just that. Its a Peugeot 308, medium trim level, that’s more than a decade old with +250k km on it, I’m not driving a nice new car at all. My wife’s VW up is exactly the same, also not new and definitely not a “nice” car.
The AC does not keep the car warm. The HVAC system does. The AC settings specifically do two things. They lower the temperature of the car, or a blend door is used to allow air cooled by the AC system to mix with air heated by the heater core to provide temperature between the absolute maximum heat and the absolute maximum cold.
But regardless, you tell it to keep your car at a specific temperature. That’s not how I or seemingly most people use their climate controls.
On days where I used to have drill, my drilling station was something like 70 miles away from my home. If it’s not raining and in comfortable I don’t turn on the climate control system at all. But weather absolutely can be much different there than it is at my home. Climate control is there when I need it. Same as manually controlled headlights, or, wipers, or the map light. I don’t need to take my eyes off the road to press the dedicated defrost button. I drive a manual car so taking my right hand off the wheel for shifting is normal and I really don’t understand why anyone would advocate for changing any of those settings to a touch screen.
