ctatum7

With the backseat and rear window shades in the 600h L, is it necessary to tint those windows? Just curious as to whether any purpose is served by tinting them.

peteybabes

definite advantage if you want the darkness without the blur of the screens.

or like in my case i have 15% all over, but with the back shades up it appears to be 5% in the back...

CJITTY

Tinting isn't just for privacy. Ceramic and other high end films dramatically reduce heat and harmful rays into the car. I have ceramic on all windows including my windshield and the heat reduction difference is amazing. The sunshades are just that. A little shade and from an angle it provides privacy. With tint, it's a nice blackout effect. My vote is tint for heat rejection benefit alone

<_CSIRenditionBlockData: 0x145c7de0>

tbilisi79

Live tints. But I don't like giving cops a reason to stop me. You never know what sort of rule crazy, trigger happy lunatic pulls you over.

greg3852

Trying real hard to not comment on the ignorant statement above, so I'll leave it alone.

As far as tint, I have 13% all around and it's perfect. The shade is ok, but keep in mind it goes down in reverse and might not block out enough of the sun. I find it becomes annoying every once in a while.

wbrian63

I can agree with the advantages of having quality IR-reflective tint installed. I'm not certain of the benefits for owners north of the Mason-Dixon line, but down here in the Scorching South, it definitely makes a big difference, especially on cars with dark exterior/interior colors.

That being said, my car served duty as a corporate limo-of-sorts before I bought it, and the back doors and rear window are tinted almost opaque. The tint is so dark that even in broad daylight, back seat passengers cannot be seen unless you cup your hands to the window and peer through. The front doors have no tint at all.
I don't like the tint that dark - it makes driving at night a real chore. I'm just trying to squeeze some time into my schedule to take the car in and have all the tint removed and replaced with some more reasonable level, adding the front doors to the mix at the same time.

I personally don't like the methods used by even quality shops around town to deal with the rub strip at the top of the interior door panel, so I take the time to remove all 4 door panels before taking the car in for the work. It's not that hard to do, and in my opinion you get a superior installation with much less chance of damage.

tbilisi79

Last I checked most northern states allow only 70% tints . NY and PA at least for sure. Law says that anything darker than that makes the job of a cop more dangerous.
Now on my previous cars with tints, I've had a cop pull me over only to tell me to take the tints off. On another occasion, cop gave me 5 tint tickets, for each one of the windows tinted. I had to waste a day, miss work and fight the ticket in court. In the end i only paid one ticket for one window. I don't know about you but I don't like to waste my time. If complying with the law and not waning to wast time is ignorant so be it. But if you think the chances of you being fined doesn't rely on a cops mood on that particular day, well, then.

greg3852

I had no issue with any of that. Fact of the matter is, you know when you put the tint on that it is illegal. The way the law is written, it actually is rather vague as to whether it is per window or per vehicle, so different cops write it different ways. Either way, you and I both know when we put it on our cars it is illegal. Personally I don't agree with it, but it is the law at this point. If I have to go to court to fight a fine (whether one window or 5) I knew going into it that it was a chance I was taking when I put the tint on.

That however is not the ignorant portion I had a problem with.

"You never know what sort of rule crazy, trigger happy lunatic pulls you over"

That is. Trigger happy lunatic. I did not expect to see this sort of statement on this forum. It is rather disappointing to see. If I need to explain how this statement is ignorant, then I fear we have nothing further to discuss.

There are several police officers on this forum who go to work every single day and do the most thankless job there is. They deal with more in one week than most people will see in there lives. They make split second decisions that are torn apart for months on social media and in the news by people who have never done the job, and don't understand what it takes. But this discussion is for a different forum.

Back on topic, if the tint is illegal, you run the risk of getting pulled over and having to deal with that. That is a chance I'm willing to take however. My interior is light, so even with 13% it still looks light. I love having my tint and highly recommend it.

R Z

I know here in TN or Memphis, you can't have a dark tint on the front two windows. My LS came with dark tints on the back windows and back and lighter tints on front windows. At night it's a bit tough seeing out the back window. With black seats I'm sure it will help keep them nice during the heat of the summer.

tbilisi79

I think you taking it the wrong way.
I understand and appreciate what police has to deal with on daily basis. The sick and crazy garbage they have to clean up and fix. I live in NYC and know exactly what they deal with. And for that I'm thankful.
I always thought that if they took a weekend off, the city would be upside down in 48 hours. Thanks to strict NYC gun laws leaving law abiding people with no way to defend for themselves. But that's another topic.
What I was saying is that I don't want to be dealing with a cop that's having a bad day.
And if you appreciate and respect the police as much as you say you do, then perhaps you would agree that 15% tint is not only illegal, but also dangerous to police, not to mention to the driver of the car who can barely see anything at night, putting themselves and others in danger. Because it goes without saying a person with no tints will have a lot quicker reflexes compared to one driving a car with 15% tints.
I'm not even gonna say anything about tinting the front window.

peteybabes

i'm in the "northern" state of Ohio, and the legal limit is 50% on the front windows only, you can have it as dark as you want anywhere else on the car, heck bolt metal plates over the window if you want. lol

i currently ride with 15% all over and 50% on the windshield and even then i have had several cases where i wanted it even darker...so i'm always driving with my rear and side shades up to block as much as possible...

CJITTY

Let's stick to the topic of window tint and power rear sunshades. For those of you who want to talk about anything other than that can take it the PM route or you can head on over to the Club Lexus chat forums...

R Z

Just out of curiosity, looking at this photo, can anyone guess what my tint % might be?

dlbuckls10

Tinting reduces heat and help protect the interior from harmful sun rays, plus it enhances the vehicle appearance. Window screens are great but can create blurring. I had 15% on my previous dark grey MB and I was periodically stopped by the police and they would check my tint. So I decided to go with 20% on my black LS and that eliminated the problem plus I use my window screen.

roadfrog

Dang it CJITTY!! And I was all fired up with a response to some of the above!

OK....deep breath.

So I'll admit that the 20% tint I installed is purely for aesthetic reasons. It definately keeps the car cooler which is nice with a black on black car, but there are also disadvantages as well. For one, I find it a lot harder to see behind me at night when backing up,