Buying a Used Car With Window Tinting: What You Need to Know

You're buying a used car, and the one you are considering has tinted windows. It looks cool, but you've never had tinted windows, and you're not sure what to expect. Here's what you need to know:

1. Tinting can protect your health.

If you've never thought about adding tinting to your car windows, you may not be aware of all of the advantages. Tinted windows are about more than style. They also offer health benefits. In particular, tinted windows reduce the amount of UV light that can get into your car, and that can help reduce your risk of getting skin cancer.

If you drive a lot for work, you may want the driver's side window tinted, and if you take your children on a lot of errands or to a lot of activities, you may want the back side windows tinted for their protection as well.

2. Tinted windows can boost the car's value.

Due to the health benefits and privacy offered by tinted windows, they may boost the price of the car you are buying. For example, imagine you have two cars of the exact same make and model. They have driven about the same number of kilometres and are in the same condition. However, one of them has tinted windows. In most cases, you should expect that car to cost more.

However, the difference in price certainly shouldn't be more than it costs to install tinted windows in your area.

3. Adding window tinting may cost more from a dealership.

If you've looked at a few vehicles with tinted windows and fallen in love with the idea but ultimately decided upon a car without tinted windows, you may want to add tinting. And if you are buying your car from a dealership, they may offer to tint the windows for you.

Keep in mind that buying this service through a dealership may be more expensive than paying a specialist to do it for you. Call a few tinting companies and get a quote before letting the dealership add that feature.

4. Not all window tints are legal.

When looking at cars with tinted windows, you need to keep in mind that not all levels of tinting are legal. Window tinting is measured in terms of visible light transmission levels or VLTS, and in Australia, your rear and side windows cannot have more than 35 percent VLT. Front windscreens cannot be tinted at all, but they can have a visor strip along the top of the window.

If you live in the Northern Territory, your rear window may only have up to 16 percent VLT, and in Western Australia, your rear windscreen can only have up to 20 percent VLT. These are important numbers especially if you are buying a used car in the Northern Territory or Western Australia that was originally from another area of the country that allows more tinting.

5. There are ways to measure the tint of a window.

When buying a used car, you should double check as many of the seller's details as possible. This is true when it comes to tinted windows as well. Don't necessarily take the driver's word on which level of tinting the windows have. Instead, try to measure it yourself.

You can order cards that each have a slightly different layer of shading on them. You simply hold up the cards to the car windows until you figure out which level of tinting the car has. There are also apps that you can download to smartphones that can help with this task. These apps work the same way as the cards, but the shading is displayed on the screen of your smartphone.

For more tips on buying used cars with tinting, contact a car window tinting expert.