The Best Car Sun Shades for Protection & Heat Management [2023]

What is a Car Sun Shade?

A car sun shade in a sheet of semi-rigid material that is meant to fit inside the windshield of your car and blocks the sun and heat from getting inside. These car sun shades all work to varying degrees based on fit and material, but finding the right one for you can give you a much more comfortable ride. If you’re looking for something to cover all of your windows quickly and easily, then you may enjoy our article on the best car covers.

Advantages of Using a Car Sun Shade

UV

Ultraviolet light is known to damage a car’s interior over time. It will cause fading and crack in both your dashboard and your seats. A good sun shade will have a UV protective layer that blocks these rays from reaching the interior of your car.

Heat

One of the most brutal parts of summer is opening your car door and getting blasted with a wave of hot air. This often makes it feel like you’re getting into an oven. This is where a car sun shade can help. These shades are built with heat-rejecting materials that work to keep the inside of your vehicle much cooler. With some shades advertising the ability to keep your car up to 50 degrees cooler.

Safety

Often these shades and their ability to reduce heat also mean a bit of extra safety for you and your passengers. No more burning your hands on the steering wheel or with a seat belt again.

Electronics

Electronics are known to quickly degrade in extreme heat and UV light. Except things like our expensive GPS and radar detectors sit on our hot dashboards day after day. Use a sun shade to protect your devices by keeping them in the cool environment they work best in.

Value

Using a car sun shade regularly will not only keep you more comfortable but can actually help your car to maintain its value. Heat and UV light is extremely hard on a car’s interior. It will fade your dashboard and seats and can even cause cracks to form over time. By using a sun shade regularly you will ensure that your car’s interior color remains vivid and looking its best.

Gas

Your cars A/C system runs on power that it pulls from your engine. By lowering the interior temperature of the car you are also able to lower the amount of time you need to blast the A/C. By doing this you can actually lower the amount of gas you consume long term.

Things to Consider When Looking at Sun Shades

Price

Car sun shades like most things can vary greatly in price. The key is to find the right balance of money and function. Spending more will often get you a better fit, more UV protection, and greater heat rejection. But you don’t want to break the bank.

Fitment

Car sun shades come in many different shapes and sizes and they all fit a little differently into different vehicles. They usually come in three different fitment categories of universal, semi-custom and fully custom styles.

Universal will tend to be larger as it needs to cater to all windshield sizes and it is the least likely to fit comfortably into your windshield.

The semi-custom is much better and can get you in the ball park of a quality sun shade that you’ll be happy to use.

Fully custom is obviously the most ideal. These will be made specifically for your vehicle’s model, make, and year. They fit securely covering every square inch of glass without any excess material.

Material

Getting the right material is an important factor when choosing a windshield sun shade. You don’t want a material that just blocks light. Ideally, you want something with strong UV protection to guard your car’s interior against fading and cracking. As well as a heat rejecting material that will keep the inside cool in the summer.

Size

A sun shade is something that you’re going to be carrying around in your car at all times. That means that if you buy a giant sun shade it is going to constantly be taking up a lot of room in your car. You want to buy something that can fold down into a small, easily storable item that can be tucked out of the way.

OUR FAVORITE CAR SUN SHADES!

Best Overall

The Best overall windshield sun shade is the Econour Car Windshield Sun Shade. These are made by a family-owned company in New Jersey. They have managed to become the best selling sun shade on amazon and for a good reason. They always have satisfied customers! This sun shade sells in 5 different sizes for a perfect fit. It is made from high-quality nylon polyester to keep the suns UV and heat rays out of the car’s interior.

It is held in place by your car’s sun visors and is easily collapsable. Folding into a carrying pouch that can fit nicely into your car’s side pocket. This product also comes with a 100% satisfaction guarantee! If you get this sun shade and you don’t like the way that it fits in your car, then just send it back, and you’ll receive a full refund.

Premium Pick

This sun shade is on the pricier side, but if your biggest concern is blocking extreme heat from getting into your car, then nothing works better than the Covercraft UVS100 Heat Shield. This product features triple laminate construction and a foam core for maximum insulation.

These sun shades are vehicle specific and fit like a glove against your car windows. Ensuring that they cover the entirety of the windshield so as not to allow in any stray light. This sun shade blocks virtually all light and heat rays from entering the vehicle, making sure that your car is as cool as possible every time you open the door. This is also the only car sun shade to have gained a US patent for its design.

Best Retractable Car Sun Shade

If you’re looking for maximum ease of use, then the Dash Designs Retractable Sun Shade is the item you want. This sun shade sticks to the side of the windshield in your car. They retract like an accordion into a slim 1.5” thick bar and, when pulled open, miraculously come across to cover your entire windshield.

These shades can keep your car up to 50 degrees cooler using a patented, highly reflective fabric that refracts UV light. They come in multiple sizes with multiple patterns to fit any style of car or personality. These sun shades also come with a 2-year warranty so you can rest assured that they are made with quality, high-end parts, and materials.

Best For Side Windows

Kinder Fluff is an incredible sun shade for any of your passenger windows. Whether you are trying to keep the sun off of your child, the groceries in the back, or you’re on a long road trip and trying to reduce glare. Kinder fluff works! This kit comes with four mesh sun shades. Two are transparent, and two are semi-transparent to let in whatever amount of light works best for you.

They come with 15S Film over the mesh for the highest possible UV rating! This is something that most other sun shades don’t have. However, it is something that is extremely important, especially when using a car window shade for a child. I also love this style because you don’t have to fool around with suction cups or adhesives. You push the sun shade against the glass on any of your car windows, and it sticks like magic. You can also overlap them if needing more coverage.

Best For Rear Windows

For a smart rear sun shade, you need 3D MAXpider. Rear sun shades are different from front sun shades because ideally, you want something that will block the sun but that you don’t have to take down every time you get into the car. This is where 3D Maxpider comes in. This company sells custom fit sun shades for your specific vehicle. The sun shade fits perfectly into the rear window of your car. It has a tension wire design so they don’t require suction cups or adhesives. They block harmful UV, glare, and heat rays all without obstructing your view. That means that this sun shade can stay up 24/7. 

Best Full Car Sun Shade Kit

If you need to cover all of the windows in your car then you need to go with WeatherTech. They can be a bit pricey but if you are covering all of your windows then you have already headed down that road anyway. WeatherTech is well known in the car industry for providing tough, effective, extremely durable, and custom designs for all types of automotive needs. Their full car sun shade kit is no different.

WeatherTech custom cuts all of their shades so that no portion of the window remains uncovered. They also created their sun shades to be double-sided to make them work no matter what season you’re in. They did this by making one side metallic to reflect UV and heat rays in the summer. But when turned around, the back is black and will absorb heat, warming the interior in the winter.