I am planning a road trip to California later this year. My car with untinted windows can heat up fast, even with a reflective windshield cover in place. Also, when the sun is low in the sky (late afternoon, early evening), passengers can get uncomfortably hot. So I decided to look into car window tinting.
At first, I thought I would do it myself. Amazon and other online retailers will sell window tint kits, including laser-cut tint pieces that are supposed to fit exactly into each window. Well, when I mentioned my plan to three different people, they all said NO, get it done by a professional.
Nashville has quite a few professionals who do window tinting. Some reviews for other vendors said that the work was good but the cost was way higher than they expected. I checked Angie's List and tried to contact a window tint company that got good reviews, but the outfit never wrote or called me back.
So, I called a local supplier/installer of auto window glass, since I figured they know auto glass and would know who does a good tint job at a reasonable price.
The woman at the auto glass place said that Solar Advantage was where she gets all her car windows tinted. She said to call and ask for Rick and tell him she sent me.
I called Rick, the owner of Solar Advantage, and set up an appointment. My call was on Tuesday, and he got me a morning appointment on Friday of the same week. I chose to wait while he worked. Well, he said it might take two hours, but only one hour later he was done.
Rick used a ceramic based tint coating that has significantly reduced the heat buildup in the car. The price was quite fair, too, and lower than those other tinting outfits that I had read about on Yelp. Rick takes cash, check, and credit cards. Note that if you use a credit card, you have to pay a little extra - the amount that he is charged by the credit card company. This policy is totally fair and I wish other companies did it. (In other words, at Solar Advantage, cash payers are not subsidizing credit card users.)
Note that some tinting companies put some kind of sticker on the driver window, with information on the tint darkness and a compliance with TN law. Solar Advantage does not use these stickers. So I keep the Solar Advantage business card and a copy of my cancelled check in my glove box, in case I am ever pulled over for some traffic offense and get asked about the tint job.
I am very pleased with the quality of the work, and glad that I did not try to do it myself.
Comment to any DIY folks out there that did a crappy job - Rick can strip your poor workmanship off and do it right, but you got to pay an extra $100 or more for the stripping activity. So, get it done right the first time, by Rick at Solar Advantage - that's my advice. read more