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You know the feeling: You open your car door, and a cloud of hot dragon breath welcomes you to scorching seats and a sizzling steering wheel. Your sweaty fingers slip off the A/C button in a frenzy to "crank the air!" Summer sun at its finest.
Graciously, some smart chap went ahead and invented the car sunshade—a relatively cheap way to help keep your vehicle's interior cooler. It's a simple device, but we wanted to know which car sunshade was the best. There are a few different styles, each with various pros and cons. Which one stashes the best? Which shade fits the windshield of our 2023 Hyundai Santa Cruz the best? What about durability? We set out to answer these questions and more with a test of the top sunshades you can buy.
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Key Takeaways:
The AutoTech Zone is our Best Overall choice because of its quality and value for the price.
Like most of WeatherTech's products, the SunShade is a premium product that's laser-cut to perfectly fit your vehicle's windshield; it costs more than most, but the best usually does.
Want the latest style? The Nmoiss Sunshade Umbrella has a distinctive design that keeps it tight against the windshield.
Things to Consider When Buying a Car Sunshade
Testing car sunshades in the Gear Team's usual fastidious, data-driven fashion would have been impossible due to variables such as unpredictable outside temperatures, direct or indirect sunlight, and more. Instead, we focused on the UX of these sunshades: how easy they were to use, install, and stow; quality of construction and materials; design and function; variety of sizes and styles; and more.
Style
Car sunshades come in a few distinct styles, each lending their own benefits and drawbacks. The style you choose should be determined by which type works best for your situation.
Umbrella: Designed like an umbrella, this style is the king of compact. By compressing it into a small, tuckable cylinder, you can easily stow one of these under the seat or in the glovebox. However, we found that they can be a bit tricky to fit just right, and the wire support tips can scratch your dashboard.
Folding: These thin, cheap car sunshades are the most popular style due to their low cost and ease of installation. Their lightweight construction also makes them easy to store, but folding them can be tricky. The quality of materials and construction usually matches the inexpensive price.
Roll-up/Accordion: We're combining these two styles as they compress largely the same way. This style is super easy to install and put away but can get pricey depending on the material, and they aren't particularly compact. Permanent car sunshades also fall into this category.
Installation
Making sure your car sunshade is installed correctly is the most important aspect in keeping your vehicle's interior cool. You'll want to ensure that the entire windshield is covered to minimize any light intrusion. We found that custom-fit shades do this best, but they cost more.
Additionally, you'll want to make sure the reflective, shiny side is pointing outward toward the sun. The material is designed that way to reflecting light away from your interior. Installing them backward can result in them not working at all.
Storage
As our vehicles fill with more accessories, compactness is key. Car sunshades are no exception. If you're limited on space, you'll want to pick a sunshade that can fit in your door pocket, beneath your seat, or in your glove box. If you live somewhere hot year-round, you may want to consider a permanent sunshade that sticks to your windshield all the time.
Model-Specific Sunshades
While universal sunshades are typically cheaper, model-specific sunshades are definitely worth considering, even though they cost more. We found they fit better and required less fiddling to get them installed properly. If you're shopping on Amazon, verify that the sunshade you've picked fits your vehicle.
Best Car Sunshades, Tested
AutoTech Zone
If we're talking value for money here, this car sunshade from AutoTech is the one to get. With an accordion-style design, it couldn't be simpler. As one of our testers put it, "This may share half its name with the premium option, but it's much more than half the product."
The fitment is solid, and coverage is pretty good too, but you will need to prop it up with the sun visors. It's made of a durable, reflective material that should hold up over time, and it even comes with its own storage bag. Note that it must be folded properly to fit in the bag, and the sun glare can be brutal during the folding process.
All things considered, this is the option we'd go for—which is why we chose it as our Best Overall car sunshade.
WeatherTech SunShade
WeatherTech laser-cuts its sunshades to fit your vehicle. This shade covers the entire windshield, which ensures no rays can sneak through and turn your car into an oven. This is definitely the most expensive option, but if you're looking for "spread to the edge" fitment, it's the one to choose.
The only downside is that it rolls up (instead of folding), which means it isn't as compact or easily portable, and you may be temporarily blinded during the process. But if you're willing to spend a bit more, the fitment and quality on this car sunshade are top-notch.
Nmoiss Sunshade Umbrella
This umbrella-style sunshade from Nmoiss gets points for creative design. But while the style is interesting, it does present some minor flaws. It's basically an umbrella, so opening it inside your vehicle isn't the most graceful task. Be wary of the metal tips at the edges of the supports, as they could poke passengers and scrape your interior surfaces.
There is a flexible spring on the bottom, so it mostly supports itself from the dash, but it took some adjusting to get the fitment and coverage just right. Stowing is quite easy and extremely compact—perfect for vehicles short on space. The design is neat, but be careful of hitting your passengers.
Dash Designs The Original Retractable Shade
A product that is great for those who live in a place like Florida or Arizona where it's hot pretty much year-round, Dash Designs' accordion-style retractable shade mounts to your windshield via semipermanent sticky hooks. Simply pull it across when leaving your car out, and let the reflective coating do its thing.
There will be a slight gap in protection as the shade has to go around the rearview mirror. This looks worse than it is, especially during midday when the sun's angle is too high to sneak through that opening. The installation process outlined in the instructions can be intimidating, but once we figured out where to stick the hooks, it went on easily.
It should be noted that the shade slightly hinders visibility when retracted. But for a semipermanent solution, this is a great choice.
EzyShade 2-Piece Sunshade
Having two separate shades, like this set from EzyShade, can help with adjustability for maximum coverage. That being said, we found it wasn't great. The rearview mirror is the main culprit, causing the shades to fold in on themselves and allowing some rays to infiltrate your cabin.
While fitment lacked around the edges, the shades themselves are sturdy, yet flexible, thanks to their wire borders. Putting these folding-style sunshades away can be tricky, but they do compact into their bag nicely.
The price of these car sunshades reflects their quality, but if you only need them every so often, they do the job.
Magnelex
When you get to this price range, quality takes a dive, but we were slightly surprised by the Magnelex. The twist-up design can be tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, installation, removal, and storage are a breeze.
Fitment was fine, as we didn't need both sun visors for assistance. Coverage could be better, but it also could be worse. Overall, it's a decent value.
EcoNour
As with most things, you get what you pay for. This car sunshade from EcoNour is on the cheaper end of the spectrum, and unfortunately, it shows in fit and performance. It's easily foldable and comes with a storage case, but because of that folding design, it can't support itself on the windshield. We had to employ the sun visors strategically to keep it propped up.
There are gaps in coverage pretty much all around, and installation was compared to "wrestling a wet noodle." Probably best to steer clear of this one.
How We Tested
For testing sunshades, we focused on practical, real-world parameters. To check performance, we installed each sunshade and noted the overall fitment on our 2023 Hyundai Santa Cruz's windshield. Some are custom-fit, others are not; so this angle favored the former.
We also tested each shade for material quality, observing how robust they felt out of the package. We noted any weak spots or pinch points, and whether any portion of the shade would damage the glass or dashboard.
For both ease of use and ease of installation, we took notes on the process of actually installing them against the windshield. As we found, some are trickier than others. The shades also fold down differently, and some styles we preferred over others.
You may notice we didn’t test temperature differences in this story. This is because there are too many variables for us to gather accurate readings. Time, cloud cover, interior materials, and other factors can all affect interior temperature. In our experience, the more coverage you have, the cooler your interior will be.
FAQs
Are car sunshades worth it?
Absolutely. Overall, they're quite affordable and do a solid job of keeping damaging UV rays off your interior. These UV rays can crack and fade the surfaces of your vehicle's seats, steering wheel, and dashboard, but the shade helps to protect those items by blocking out the sun through the largest window on the vehicle.
Additionally, sunshades can help prevent your car's interior from becoming too hot. We've all burned ourselves on a roasting seatbelt buckle—sunshades aim to prevent this. And if you have leather seats (black, especially), you know how much of a nightmare they can be in the summer. Sunshades keep those cooler too.
What color sunshade should I get?
A sunshade works by reflecting light and heat away from your vehicle's interior. The best color to achieve this is metallic or silver. These direct light away like a mirror to keep your interior cool. While there are black sunshades available, these typically aren't as effective as they simply absorb most of the light and heat.
Which side of the sunshade faces out?
You'll want to install your car sunshade with the reflective material pointing outward toward the sun. This reflective material directs light away from your vehicle's interior.
Can I leave a pet in a vehicle with a sunshade installed?
Absolutely not. You should never leave any pet alone in a vehicle, no matter the circumstances. While your vehicle interior stays cooler, it still gets warm inside, whether the windows are blocked or not. Sunshades are meant to reduce heat in the vehicle to protect the interior and keep it cooler for when you return.
Why Trust Us
The Gear Team helps readers make informed purchasing choices about automotive gear, tools, and accessories through hands-on product evaluations and comprehensive testing. Autoweek's renowned testing standards mandate that we use all products we feature and that our findings and recommendations are based on personal experience and knowledge—not hype. We won't claim to have tested something we haven't, and we'll never recommend a product we wouldn't buy ourselves.
We've evaluated dozens of product categories, including cargo e-bikes, tire inflators, and car phone mounts. The Gear Team's product selection and gear picks are editorially independent; Autoweek has a strict policy against accepting payment for placement in articles.
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