Pretty much since Spring Nationals at Lincoln, I decided I would greatly benefit from tinting the windows. No limo tint or anything illegal, but enough to cool down the interior (black car, albeit white roof) & protect me from UV rays. The sun felt like it was 5 ft above me at Lincoln, and in general with all the traveling and time I spend and will continue to spend in the car, I started getting paranoid about sun exposure/skin cancer (google cab/truck drivers and skin cancer etc.).

Obviously a lot of choices out there, but the go-to name seems to be Llumar, which is what I decided to go with. There are number of choices and a lot of chatter on the Internet, so I thought I’d sum up what I could find in my searches. Each version seemed to have its own pros & cons, and I went with what I thought suited me best. All come with lifetime warranty for parts & labor against color fade etc. All versions and all tint levels block 99.9% of UV rays (!) & protect interior materials as well.

ATC: It’s biggest “pro” compared to the other versions, IMO, is that it doesn’t have any major cons. It’s biggest flaw is that it has the least heat rejection, at 33% or so for the 35% tint. It is a dyed tint, & the cheapest.

ATR: Much better heat resistance, with a sweet spot ~30% level tint. The problem is that it is a semi metallic tint, which potentially introduces signal quality issues (including radar detectors), which is a big no-no for me.

CTX: Best heat resistances, and a ceramic tint rather than a metallic one. However, a number of reports that it has a pretty blue color to it, and more troubling, a lot of customers have reported that the interior reflection is so bad that they’ve had to switch – some have reported not being able to see their own sideview mirrors. This is a no-no for me as well. On top of that, in my area, it is cost prohibitive.

Of these choices, I decided to go with ATC – pretty much solely to avoid the cons of the other two tints. I’m fairly happy with the results, and glad I didn’t go darker/do a 35/20 front/rear. The only thing that I’m not crazy about is how it looks over the dot matrix, but this wasn’t ever really a looks thing – like I said, strictly for UV protection + some heat rejection, which this tint does well. It may just be mental, but I feel like the car stays cooler inside with the AC, with cooler air circulating all around. The light that touches my skin feels different as well, just not as harsh… probably mental lol. I had toyed with going with one of their clear tints for the windshield just for the up front UV, but decided against it in fear of it being reflective. Pics (not great pics) below: