Which cars still have bi-level ventilation?

[corvus]

By that I don't mean dual zone, where you have separate temperatures either side of the car interior. I mean the facility to have cold air through the middle vents and warm air to the feet at the same time. My BMW had it - I found it really useful on a long trip to keep me fresh without freezing my tootsies off. My old 90 Quattro had it too. A lot of older cars had systems that could be controlled manually the same way.

So why is it not found on the majority of cars these days? Cost?

[Fox-]

All BMW's with climate control still have this.

[Eighteeteewhy]

Fox- said:

All BMW's with climate control still have this.

Most Bimmers only blow cold through the higher middle vents.

[GarryA]

My 120d has it, unfortunately my OCD means that both sides must be set equal and only in even whole numbers.

[mrmr96]

GarryA said:

My 120d has it, unfortunately my OCD means that both sides must be set equal and only in even whole numbers.

fail.

[V88Dicky]

My 10 year old Toyota Burnaston has it. Never found a use for it yet!

[maniac0796]

My Nissan Primera, and E36 had it, and my current E30 blows cold air out the middle vents anyway

[mrmr96]

I had an E46 which had centre vents which you could set to hot, neutral or cold using a heat setting directly on the vents themselves (separate from the rest of the climate control.)

Not my image, but you can see the adjuster I'm talking about in the middle between the two centre vents.

[Finlandia]

Many/most Volvos have them.

[miniman]

I really miss having this. I like to be warm in the car, but I **hate** having warm air blown on my face.

[mike88]

My Rover 620ti has this. A little control in between the two centre vents.

[P I Staker]

Our Defender has heater vents in the footwell and exterior vents under the windscreen, what more can you want?

[anonymous-user]

My Jaguar X300 had this, I'd forgotten all about it until I read this. A wheel for the face vents so you could set them to be colder or hotter than the other vents. Excellent feature.

[Matt UK]

My Caterham has this feature - I can simultaneously have the lower left-hand side of my body burned by the heater, whilst the upper right hand side of my body get's cold and wet.

What more could you want on a long motorway trip?

[troc]

My Audi has been on 'auto' since I bought it. I have no idea what air comes out of where! I do wonder however (as it has front left and right and separate rear temperature controls), whether I could set up a weather front in the car an make it rain by setting all 3 controls to the right temperatures....... A little personal tornado might be a fun way to liven up long boring motorway trips.

[sebhaque]

My M3 has this too, interestingly enough my newer 1 series didn't!

[red_rover]

You'll find this feature on most,if not all, Rover cars since the 60s.

[GarryA]

mrmr96 said:

GarryA said:

My 120d has it, unfortunately my OCD means that both sides must be set equal and only in even whole numbers.

fail.

Ahhh feck.

[900T-R]

My Chimaera - no matter what you do with the heater, there's always cold air coming from the fking vent just to the right of the steering wheel... meaning either my right hand or my right knee, but more likely both, are bl00dy freezing this time of year

Old Saab 900s had cold air vents system near the middle of the dashboard aimed at the driver that were independent of the heater/ventilation, but at least you could shut those...

[Baryonyx]

I can't think of any cars that have this feature, though I remember being extremely impressed with my Volvo S60's dual zone climate control, as well as the vents in the back of the transmission tunnel and B pillars for passengers in the rear. And the there was a light over the back seat too! What a car.