Window Tint - Suntek Carbon ?
 

Hey folks I am looking to get my boxster s windows finally tinted... I found one place that uses "Suntek Carbon" and the price seems pretty good overall but want to see what people know about it.

Thanks

Another question - what percentage tint looks best on our cars? I have Orient Red if that makes any difference....

I can't speak to the quality of the tint but I do suggest you check the local laws on what is considered legal including which windows you can do and how dark the tint can be. Depending on where you live it varies. For example in California tint is not legal on the driver's and front passenger side windows. Nothing more annoying then getting a ticket for illegal tint and having to remove it.

Indeed - here in my city in Canada the law is very clear that ZERO tint is allowed on any windows but 90% of cars have it so I guess you take the chance with the police. I was able to win a court battle with one cop because I was able to prove he was wearing sun glasses which compounded the 'darkness' when he was trying to look into my car.... the court room laughed pretty hard when I won that battle because the cop was being a real dink when answering my questions etc.

I guess I've gotten too tired of dealing with the police on this type of stuff so I stay on the staight and narrow. In California they were a real pain about tint and front license plates. Funny I personally knew a number of cops and guess what, they had their front windows tinted. Nice, huh.

Here in the Phoenix area people even tint the front windshield which is not surprisingly illegal but I get it with our hot summers.

I thought (briefly) about having the windows of my 2001 2.7 tinted.......Then I remembered that I bought it to drive with the top (and windows) down.
Since I don't use it as a daily driver, I rarely drive it with the top up.

So....no tint for me.

My DD on the other hand is 2 shades over the limit.
I was stopped once and given a verbal warning a couple years ago.

;)

I have a hardtop and put it on in summer hence the tint. Gives the car a completely different look and is more comfortable. Topless in August during the day equals no fun with the tint and hardtop I can keep having fun.

If you're going to have the hard top on all the time, then I can understand the tint. For me, I think it looks a bit douchey to see a convertible with the top down and tinted windows. Maybe that's just me.

Tony

It's either all up or all down as I agree having windows up, especially tinted ones, looks goofy.

As you said, in Ont the rule is 0% on the front, so why bother. Yeah, you won your case, but still a royal pain to get pulled over and then to have to go to court.....payoff just isn't worth it.
But it's your car and your time....

Plus, as the cop, I would have totally dismantled the argument that he was compounding the problem by looking into a tinted car with while wearing sunglasses. As a law abiding citizen, you should see that the legislature put the tint law into effect for a reason (normally to protect officers). You should also understand that people (including officers) wear sunglasses to protect their vision, and to cut down on the effect of blinding glare. Cutting down glare improves their safety as it allows them to see their environment better. As an officer, I wouldn't want to get hit by a car when I get out of my cruiser to make a traffic stop because the sun's glare prevented me from seeing the oncoming car. So why should the cop have to diminish his health and safety by having to remove his sunglasses because some boob decided to break the law by tinting his windows.

In the end, people should show a little respect to their public servants. They happily do a job that most wouldn't do for twice the pay.

Tony

Safety is important for all, Tony. Tinted windows can greatly reduce sun glare inside the passenger cabin, making it much safer for the driver. I, for one, suffer from a condition which makes me very sensitive to bright lights. All of my cars have tinted windows. Of course, it's legal here. ;)

The only time an officer needs to worry about windows being tinted to darkly is when dealing with a potential criminal or a known criminal at a stop or orherwise. Since that person is already a criminal, they're not gonna follow the law about tinting, so tinting laws are pretty useless as they only affect law abiding citizens.
A good comparison may be some folks take on gun laws. You can outlaw guns, but that will only affect law abiding citizens as criminals will still be able to get them (not necessarily my stance, just an example).
Or maybe a female victim of a violent crime would feel safer if men never went out in public. Outlaw the Internet since some use it for criminal activities. The line has be drawn somewhere. I'm not implying that window tint is all that important to safety or one's personal rights, but it's a slippery slope.

That's just my take on it. I do come from a LEO family, so understand both sides, just don't necessarily agree fully.

If only criminals all dressed the same and drove the same car with a specially marked plate. Unfortunately not that easy. You never know who you're stopping. Never.

Anyone have thoughts about "Suntek Carbon" that the OP ask about?

Hey Tony before you start calling people 'boob' you best get all your facts straight.... if that's the case why do Police cars here have tinted windows??? How about the police follow the same rules then.... yeah that's what I thought. Plus turns out the JUDGE agreed with me in that the cop should NOT have had this sunglasses on and that the cop WASTED my time and money by issuing me a ticket for some BULL crap of saying he couldn't see my hands in the car and blaming my tint.... oh yeah, same cop who issued me a ticket for signing my ownership in BLACK INK PEN and not a Blue Ink Pen.... this is the kind of bull crap us 'boob' citizens have to deal with.... cops wasting peoples time and money and wasting the systems time with crap like this.

Indeed - still looking for an answer to my original question please and thank you!! :)

Go with suntek carbon if your only concern is how cheap it will be. The best quality stuff is by 3m. Suntek carbon is not even suntek's best stuff, which would be cxp. You know the adage of getting what you pay for...I'd just go ahead and pony up for the quality if you want it to be an investment. If you're pawning the car a couple years down the road, then go with the cheap stuff since you aren't worried about longevity.

I have zero problem with window tint that is legal. In our state as long as I can readily identify the occupants of the vehicle it's good. I don't need to make out how many pimples they have, just the number of occupants. Laws are laws. Judges come from varied backgrounds...some impartially interpret laws. Some are former defense attorneys who forget the impartiality and act as though they are defending the defendant as if he or she is their client. Looks like your Judge was the latter. Glad it worked out for you, but don't expect every other Judge to be the same. Most will end up making the person who challenged the law look like an idiot...ask me how I know.

End of the day, your car do as you please. You know the laws and the way they are enforced in Canada better than I do. Blatant disregard of the law wouldn't work out as well for you in the states. Sorry you think all cops do is waste your time. I'd remind you that maybe the people truly wasting your time (and police time as well) are the legislators who put these laws on the books. Cops don't write the laws, they simply enforce them.

Thanks I will see if they have the 3m tint available as I don't mind paying a little more for better. What % do you ya'll think would look best on our cars ?

I drive my car in the summer months only so the windows are usually down anyhow as well as the roof. The tint is good for when the car is parked in the sun all day while at work etc.... I tend to roll my windows down right away if I am being pulled over just to avoid the 'can't see your hands issue' and I keep both hands on top of my steering wheel until the cop is at my door.... this hopefully solves all possible issues of safety etc...

The weird part about car tint here is that 95% of cars have it, and even cars straight off the car dealer lots already come with window tint... so this law must be pretty loose. Driving in this morning to work I could only see 1 car on the highway that did not seem to have tint on it and it was an old little car probably from the 80s I would guess. Its interesting how dealerships can get away with selling cars with tinted windows when the law says no tint is really allowed... buyer beware I guess just like everything else in life.

I thought about my experience with the tint I put on my Boxster versus another car I bought that had tint that the prevoious owner installed. On the Boxster I went with the darkest legal tint which is 33% VLT on the side windows. My other car is definently darker which looks sharp but as soon as the sun starts to go down I find that it's too dark to allow me to see properly for safe driving and I find myself in certain situations rolling the window down to see better. Based on that I would not recommend going darker then 33% VLT. Hope that helps.

Thanks that's a good tip. I think the tint will help too with the sun hitting the leather.

Most of the protection to the interior comes from the UV blocking ability of the tint not from how dark the tint is. I believe that most good tints block 95% to 99% of the UV rays regarless of how dark the tint is. I've had window tint on all my cars for over 25 years and only have good things to say in terms of the benefits.

First, the only person I called a "boob" was the person in my hypothetical situation.
Second, It's all about the officers' safety. The fact that a judge thought that he shouldn't have had his sunglasses on clearly doesn't add to the officers' safety. They don't wear them to look cool. They wear them for SAFETY. The fact that a judge (who has never walked a beat or driven a cruiser) would require the officer to reduce his safety margin because someone else decides to break the law shows a disregard for the officers' safety, and a lack of experience. The tint law (not rule) is there for the officers' safety. This is all about OFFICER SAFETY. EVERY TIME an officer pulls someone over for a ticket, they are putting themselves at risk of being killed by that person. If they can not see what that person is doing behind their tinted windows, that risk increases exponentially. If they then have to remove their sunglasses and expose themselves to blinding glare, the problem gets even worse. This is why it's never a "bull crap" excuse when an officer says they cannot see your hands. There are hundreds of documented situation where officers were ambushed during a traffic stop because they could not see the suspect.
Third, not knowing your situation, but judging from the comments you've made, it seems like you were not showing the office too much respect respect when you were questioning him in front of the judge. It's therefore fairly easy to assume (although I could be totally wrong) that you didn't show him too much respect during the initial stop. This would lead to him finding any reason at all to ticket you; that includes tinted windows, black instead of blue ink and any other reason he can find. Most of us hafve been stopped for a ticket at some point in our lives. Nothing can be gained by pissing the officer off. If you want to avoid a ticket, be nice, and try to obey the law. Otherwise, man up and admit when you're wrong.

That's why if I get pulled over I always put my windows down and put my hands on top of the steering wheel. I don't envy the risks officers have to take and will do whatever I can to put them at ease.

Amen, Brother!

Sorry for my rant. I'll climb off my soapbox now.

Tony

Sadly, in this case you are totally wrong. Even the judge agreed that the officer was in the wrong. The Judge even saw that the officer went above and beyond his professional duties by finding any possible ticket he could give (like stupid pen colour which I also proved that the licence department uses was wrong) - this worked totally against him in court. By the way Sunglasses are not part of an officer's official uniform in Canada and are not issued to them for 'SAFETY' as you claim. This maybe why some officers wear them and some not but is not part of the standard issue items here in Canada. I will not ever admit I was in the wrong for that issue (officer can't see in)... perhaps wrong for having tint but that was not the ticket I was given. Matter of fact when I was pulled over I did not say more than one word - I gave the officer my information/ID/etc and he came back with the tickets and that was that. Actually, he asked me "do you know why I pulled you over" and my reply was "no", then he asked for my ID/Licence/Insurance/Reg papers. The other thing too was that he admitted that the windows were rolled down when he approached my window but the windows were up when he spotted me driving by... therefore, the officer was NEVER in any harms way or had any safety concerns while outside his car.

Don't be sorry - its good to hear peoples views and stuff. Sometimes we don't see things from other peoples points of view right away. I leave here with more information than I did before so that's a positive thing for me. Rants are good sometimes!!

Wow. You edited a quote from me to remove all context.

Nevermind...

I'd go with 3M. I got my windows tinted just one grade darker than whatever was legal because Florida :D

Officer making a traffic stop was never in any harms way...

Hit On Stop

Shot

Shot

Shot

I don't care what you think about the reason you were stopped for. You've already admitted several times that you acknowledge your window tint was illegal.

On the issue of safety, You obviously know you aren't going to kill a cop. However, I have zero idea of who you are or what you are up to. I'm required to have in the back of my mind that every person I come into contact with may want to kill me. Unfortunate, but priority one is going home at the end of my day. Complacency kills. Don't sit there and tell me that the officer was never in harms way. He's in a uniform (which makes him a target) stopping someone he doesn't know on a public roadway where idiot drivers will run right into you.

I never go with more than 20%. Anything more looks like someone I'd profile if I were a police officer. :D

15-20% allows plenty of cabin visibility and still makes the passenger cabin much more tolerable on sunny, hot days.
You can see through it well enough that someone took a hammer to this window when parked on campus in an attempt to steal an iPod left on the seat (note the marks on the window). The Neon's glass won. :p

http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/a...09DDDB78CE.jpg