There are two ways to express grades of window tint. One is a percentage of light transmitted, the other is a percentage of light rejected. So one countries 30% tint is another countries 70% tint.

What we call 35% tint would be called 65% tint in the UK.

I'm not a fan of tints. Looks a bit odd to me when rear windows are done but not fronts. Just wear sunglasses while driving

Bella500 said:

Disagree on the Volara Blue, the colour of our car, we are just about to get ours done. When we ordered our car tints were standard on our model and we saw a Sky Blue car with the windows tinted and it looked great.

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I haven't seen it in the flesh so I might well be wrong about volare blue not suiting tinted windows. Always liked this colour on the 500 - my friend has a 500C in volare blue with a tan roof and it turns heads.

MarginWalker said:

I haven't seen it in the flesh so I might well be wrong about volare blue not suiting tinted windows. Always liked this colour on the 500 - my friend has a 500C in volare blue with a tan roof and it turns heads.

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Just the same as us and it does turn heads everywhere.

Bella500 said:

Just the same as us and it does turn heads everywhere. View attachment 148793

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That is a stunning colour combination on the 500c

306maxi said:

You don't NEED it. In all my 23 years of life in Australia neither me nor my family ever owned a car with tinted windows. There's a massive industry in Australia devoted to making people think that they NEED their windows tinted. Yeah your seatbelt bucked get a bit hot at the height of summer, meh.

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Thanks for YOUR opinion, 306maxi.

We've owned two cars of the same model at the exactly the same time in Australia (Melbourne). One of the vehicles had window tint and the second didn't. The car with darkened windows was more comfortable in the summer, seats, steering-wheel and yes seatbelt buckle were nicer to use. The AC was used much less, or on a lower setting to be more correct, in the car that had window tint, and this vehicle, was a black painted version with a moon roof where as the white car, without tint and moon roof, was hotter. The darkened side windows in the black vehicle also helped with sun strike on the daily commute during the spring and autumnal seasons. Tint is probably not necessary in the UK, nor is it a must in Australia, but my in-laws have spent all their of lives in Australasia, over many generations, and they have found the same as has my family, that window tint is useful and not just the product of marketing by 3M and other window tint manufactures and their dealers and fitters. And, I think, cars can look better with it too.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it isn't a nice thing to have, just saying that it's not something that makes a car inherently useless if it doesn't have tints. I've always just used those tinfoil type reflective sunshades and sought out shade on hotter days.

You even say it's not a must so you're agreeing with me.

The law says that 75% of light must come through the windscreen and 70% through the front side windows. You would more than likely fail an MoT too, as VOSA have the meters that measure it.

My Cmax comes with very black back window and rear sides and it definitely enhances the look of the car

We had ours done - max legal
Both for better driving conditions (Queensland) and best UV protection
and it looks GREAT too IMHO of course LOL
and for the record I have no problem what so ever at night

Aussie500nut said:

We had ours done - max legal
Both for better driving conditions (Queensland) and best UV protection
and it looks GREAT too IMHO of course LOL
and for the record I have no problem what so ever at night

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Irrespective of whether you like it or not (and FWIW I do rather like the way yours looks), tinting the front windows of a 500 to any appreciable degree is simply not possible in the UK if you wish to stay legal.

So the real question from an aesthetics perspective for Ashley is "would it still look good if you could only do the back & rear side windows"?.

Personally speaking, I'm not so sure.

Aussie500nut said:

We had ours done - max legal
Both for better driving conditions (Queensland) and best UV protection
and it looks GREAT too IMHO of course LOL
and for the record I have no problem what so ever at night

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Looks great Aussie, I intend getting mine done similarly when I can afford it. The only concern I have is reducing rearward visibility - how do you find it? The tiny cabrio rear window already makes reversing a tad dicey.

OT
not sure where to put this
and I apologise in advance for the dumb question(s)

I noticed that the photo in my last post has disappeared, now just a little box with an "X" in it

Did I do something wrong when I put the photo in ?
Is there a better way to include photos ?
I notice the blue convertible above is a fingernail that can be opened up
Is there an option to do this ?

EDIT Thanks JRKitching - will try here
missing photo
P1010780s.jpg
latest photo with side decal
P1020400s.jpg

jrkitching said:

Irrespective of whether you like it or not (and FWIW I do rather like the way yours looks),tinting the front windows of a 500 to any appreciable degree is simply not possible in the UK if you wish to stay legal..

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We have the same regulation here as well - no tinting to windscreen - sides as previously posted
The photo seems to look a lot darker than it is
Maybe because the photo was taken on a very hot sunny day ????
Who knows
Since then I have added "500" sidedecals in black
Will put in another photo once I learn how to do it and have it stay there
EDIT Done above - thanks JRKitching

Piccolo Nero e Bella said:

Looks great Aussie, I intend getting mine done similarly when I can afford it. The only concern I have is reducing rearward visibility - how do you find it? The tiny cabrio rear window already makes reversing a tad dicey.

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I had a panel van back in those days
No side windows, so I learn't to back on the mirrors and have done it ever since no matter what car I'm driving
So I can't really comment as I don't look out the back window in the 500
But in passing, having driven both, I don't think the rear window is all that much better vision in the tin top anyway
The only "problem" with the mirrors is that they are convex so the wall behind you looks further away than it really is - but like everything else in life - you get used to it
Or else you hit the wall - at least once anyway LOL

Aussie500nut said:

OT
not sure where to put this
and I apologise in advance for the dumb question(s)

I noticed that the photo in my last post has disappeared, now just a little box with an "X" in it

Did I do something wrong when I put the photo in ?
Is there a better way to include photos ?
I notice the blue convertible above is a fingernail that can be opened up
Is there an option to do this ?

Click to expand...

No probs, I'll try to help...

not sure how you put that picture in your post, but it appears to be externally hosted and the problem may be with your hosting service.

The best way to include a picture is to upload it to this forum, that way it's not dependent on the vagaries of a third party service. You can do this by attaching it as a file to your post, following this guide.

I can't seem to link to it either, but I do seem to still have a copy of it locally cached in my PC. Would you like me to try to edit it back into your previous post?

Edit: I see you've done it unaided .

jrkitching said:

. Would you like me to try to edit it back into your previous post?

Edit: I see you've done it unaided .

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Ehhhhhhhhhhh I DID ?????????????


actually I can't take any credit for that
I added the images to my later post and somehow it fixed the first one
all smoke and mirrors I believe
not complaining mind you
the wonders of computers and thanks for your offer

@Aussi500nut

As per your picture, if you tinted your front side windows like this in the UK


Then you would be pulled by the police and made to remove the tint at the road side, and maybe also fined for it, as previously stated you can pretty much only tint the windows behind the driver, the front screen and sides have a very small allowance because glass never lets 100% of the light through and most modern car glass has uv filtration built in or polarisation on expensive cars, and sometimes heating elements, but basically a standard fiat 500 pane of glass is already 'tinted' to the limit of what is allowed in the UK, as I say your car would be very illegal

AndyRKett said:

@Aussi500nut

As per your picture, if you tinted your front side windows like this in the UK

Then you would be pulled by the police and made to remove the tint at the road side, and maybe also fined for it, as previously stated you can pretty much only tint the windows behind the driver, the front screen and sides have a very small allowance because glass never lets 100% of the light through and most modern car glass has uv filtration built in or polarisation on expensive cars, and sometimes heating elements, but basically a standard fiat 500 pane of glass is already 'tinted' to the limit of what is allowed in the UK, as I say your car would be very illegal

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As someone said in an earlier post, we DO get a lot more sun here in Queensland.
I can't remember the last car that we had that DIDN'T have tinted windows


But in reality the tint is not as dark as the photo seems to show
It makes the car look great in the photo but "in the flesh" it is not that dark
and of course the windscreen is as it came from Fiat - no tint allowed

Aussie500nut said:

As someone said in an earlier post, we DO get a lot more sun here in Queensland.

But in reality the tint is not as dark as the photo seems to show
It makes the car look great in the photo but "in the flesh" it is not that dark
and of course the windscreen is as it came from Fiat - no tint allowed

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Though I appreciatate you get more sun it's kind of irrelevent to the OP who is UK based.

It might not look as dark in real life but it's still too dark for the UK so would be illegal as mentioned it's the darkness of the side windows

This is an example of what is legal in the UK (only talking of the front side windows) any darker would be illegal

So the issue for Ashley is to eyeball Aussie500's lovely car, re-visualise it in pink (work with me on this!) and remove the tint from the two front windows.

And if you can do that, Ashley, you're better than I am, but it might give an idea as to whether it is worth you doing your rears.