Vent windows were once a very common feature on domestic cars, but they have followed three-on-the-tree manual transmissions, AM radios, carburetors, arm-strong steering, and distinctive car designs into the dustbins of automotive history.
Just to be clear, vent windows were part of the side glass configuration on retro vehicles and offered a small blast of fresh air for their passengers on a road trip.
Jim Sutherland
Vent windows made their debut on domestic vehicles during the 1930s and became a standard feature on most retro rides for many decades because they provided fresher and (optimistically) cooler air for anyone who took a road trip.
The cooler air angle was the upside, particularly during an era when automotive air conditioning was in its infancy and an extremely costly option.
Various vintage cars offered rear vent windows, presumably to help rear passengers delude themselves into believing they were in the front seat since most vehicles only provided front vent windows.
Vent windows were a cool idea in both a literal and figurative sense, but were heavily compromised by build quality, along with the ravages of time and weather on rubber components on most vehicles left to face the music outside of garage protection.
The net result was hurricane-force sound levels when drivers stormed down the road at high speeds–even higher when freeways entered into the equation and vent windows encountered massive turbulence on the road.
A typical vent window simply latched into place on the car and was unable to compensate for gaps or weaknesses in the rubber insulation or metal clasp, either of which may have been a cheapskate factory shortcut product or lost their effectiveness over the passage of time. The net result was plenty of old vehicles equipped with the latch vent windows were also equipped with some form of paper product wedged between the tired latch and vent window frame to tighten the fit and cut down the wind noise.
Some vintage vehicles had either a small vent window crank or even a power vent window to add muscle and get a tighter fit to lesson the wind noise. Fact is these two other choices worked better and provided a quieter cabin in most cases.
However, the domestic car builders eventually upped their air conditioning game and provided more efficient AC options for their customers. Initially, the target customer was typically more affluent and wanted every creature comfort offered for their vehicle choices.
But the AC choice eventually became more affordable and a part of the option choices for the unwashed masses over the years, so the vent window was phased out of domestic vehicle production in the 1990s, first by cars (e.g. Ford’s Crown Victoria) in the early Nineties and finally by vans in 1996.
North American car builders initially offered the full ventless window in the back nine of the 1960s and ran with the concept because no vents meant less wind noise inside the cabin. Most of the early vent window-free cars did not have AC, but they had a workable electric fan that pulled in outside air, pushed it through the cabin, and was supposed to eliminate a need for vent windows. It was not a great system during heat waves, a fact that pushed the need for real AC when eggs got fried on sidewalks.
We at MyStarCollectorCar can easily remember the golden years of the vent window, mainly because we never rode around in AC cars when we were kids.
Like everyone else, our 21st century vehicles came with AC, but we still have vent windows in our old rides. And we still know how to use them.
Jim Sutherland
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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