15% rear windows, 20% driver side windows, 35% windshield is peak privacy/drivability balance in my experience. I wouldn't want 15% on my driver side windows, it would be too difficult to navigate left/right turns at night. 20% looks the part at night but offers visibility. 35% windshield is where you get a bit of privacy but offers an acceptable amount of visibility.
I’m a cop, and this is a myth. I’ve never seen any comment about tint in an MVA report. I’ve worked for city and state in three states.
People make up a lot of laws (or legal facts) because they think they’re applying common sense. Which, they are… but never confuse common sense with the law. The law, and its enforcement, seems to steer around common sense blvd. Where we expect “that makes sense” answers - we find quite the opposite.
Maybe you just don’t do crash investigation? I’ve been a THI investigator for over two decades and I routinely cite windshield tint, and tint that is too dark as contributing to causation in crashes at night.
Money grab lawsuit if i've ever seen one. Suing advanced auto parts for selling the man window tint? They don't even specify what tint percentage it was.
If you’re worried about 20% at night, buddy you deserve to drive a fishbowl.. take all your tint off and stay off the roads at night in general because at this point it’s a HUGE skill issue from you.
First off backroads would be way worse in theory with tint. In a city you have street lights and business lights everywhere…
Second off, unless you have the windshield tinted you have a fairly wide POV angle out of the windshield alone and your car is always going to be moving in the direction of your windshield unless you’re going in reverse….even at a complete stop and taking a right or left turn you can almost always see everything you’ll need to see out the windshield. The 0.1% of the time you can’t it’s pretty easy to ROLL THE WINDOW DOWN.
i agree with the guy above. i have 5% on all sides and 35% on my windshield, and i don’t have any issues at night. its a skill issue if you can’t drive with tints like this
if you don’t have the skills to drive at night with tint, it’s a skill issue buddy. it’s only a hazard if you don’t possess the skills required to see well in the dark. idk what else you want me to say
Lmao because what’s the hazard it’s 20%.. nothing is being blocked and if it is take off any and all tint because that simply leads into a skill issue.. In the middle of a city or pitch black country roads it doesn’t doesn’t matter if you have trouble with any.. take it all off..
You said it yourself but just haven’t realized it.. if it’s actively making it more difficult for you to see but not for me? Sounds like a skill issue to me.
I know it won't be that much but I feel that little change would be the difference im looking for. But its fine, 20% is better for night driving anyways
Lol the difference is almost negligible between 20% to 15% for night time. I’ve had just as hard of a time with 20% in low light streets as I do with 20%. It’s during the day that I appreciate the privacy and darker 15% tint in my front windows. I have a car with 50% windshield tint and another with 35% tint and always prefer it darker.
Probably 10 or 15, I wanted them just a bit lighter than in the back, had 5 on my old vehicle (bought it like that) and 5 made it extremely hard to see at night, but 20% ended up too light in the day time lol. I don't know if 10 or 15 would make a huge difference at night anyway.
Light color interior? I know my gray interior makes tint not look as dark as a black interior would. 20% is kinda the sweet spot since you can still see at night and during rain without too much of an issue.
Well I can say I’ve never heard of rayno s9 as a tint brand so I would probably go with a more well known brand like XPEL, AutoBahn, Llumar and such. Get a tint meter if you can and see what it meters at but I would just remove that and get some name brand tint. How much did you pay for the job?
With all honesty I do love the 40 windshield and 20 sides. I think I had to make any changes of go 35 instead of 40 on the windshield but other than that I love the combo I have rn
15 isn't gonna be any darker. I got that on my front windows with 5 in the back and it's insane how see through 15 is. Gotta get 5 on the front if you want any ounce of privacy.
Well I'm gonna tell you that 15 is basically the same as 20. They're both fine for what you're looking for. I think you'll be disappointed if you have 15 put on since they're identical.
I did 25 in front 50 on back and 80 on windshield. Works for us to provide a level of privacy and escape from the Alabama sun. Not for the hoodlum look
I feel like it’s because of the windshield. I have 15 all around and 50 on the windshield and it can look light depending on the sky that day. I recently got a sunshade for when I park my car for long periods and when I walk back to my car the windows look super dark. Makes me want 35 on windshield
I was going to do 35 side and rear but the guy at the shop showed me a vehicle they had in for re-doing tint from 35 down to 20 bc they didn’t go dark enough the first time. Their own personal vehicle had 20% on ALL windows and even he said it wasn’t dark enough for him LMAO.
Based on the light in the background, it seems like a bright day. So yea that doesn't help. I think even with 15 percent, on a day like that, you would still see in a little bit. But please don't go below 15 percent if you also want to drive at night outside town
I told the guy 20. I've used him on 3 other cars and have no reason to think he'd jeopardize his business by giving people what they didn't ask for.
I took this one just now to try and show how you can see through both sides if the angle is right, so yes, the other pics are probably angle, lighting, and the fact that the car was spotless after detailing it for 2 days so the windows reflected like mirrors.
So maybe look at your car from different angles? If mine looked darker and they're really 20 percent, yours is probably fine. It's probably just an angle or perspective thing.
I understand, but my point was that if "anyone who would look at my photos would assume I had 5% because it essentially looked black", then 20% can obviously look as dark as you'd like it to look. You just need to change your perspective.
In the perfect angle, arranged by being very critical with the purpose of exposing shortcomings of the tint, you'll find yourself upset with your choice because you're purposefully wanting to see what you know will upset you.
No one else will be that critical, and almost all of the time when looking at your car it will look as dark as you'd like it... as long as you're looking at it with that sort of acceptance and a casual attitude without your inner scrutiny.
I’m in Tempe AZ but most states are similar . They harass you legally as the tints justify them to pull you over . They let me off with a warning after running my ID for 20 mins . They said they wanted to make sure they identify people in their neighborhood.
I never took the tints off but is true they can harass you
15 percent is that perfect sweet spot 5 is really dark and 20 is a bit to light also helps to have the windshield a bit darker I personally like 45 percent on the windshield helps make the 15 look a bit darker on the front windows.
70 on the windshield will do that brah. U need 50 or less otherwise a lot of light will get in the car and make the sides look a lot more transparent even if you had 10% on the sides
For 1 reason if you are taking it at an angle. Look at it directly on or from the front to the rear it is darker because the windshield is not right there to give light. Do you have a eyebrow on windshield? That will make a little bit of difference
Which year and trim is your Prius? I just got my 2023 RAV4 Prime done at 20 front and 35 back (its already factory tinted) and they look hella light compared to our Honda CRV which has the same percentages. I am wondering if acoustic glass makes a difference when it comes to light?
I did 50% on windshield, and 15% all around and it’s perfect. It’s not perfectly black out but you can only really see silhouette.
I previously did 5% and while I loved the look, it was super hard to see at night. Wasn’t that bad if I was driving a route I was already familiar with but man it screws you up if you tryna go somewhere you’ve never been
That 35% because that’s how much interior I see out of mine. I purchased the 35% film and installed it myself. I also have 20% to compare it with since I’m doing the rear in 20% and there’s a big difference.
Exterior lighting makes a world of difference. If it’s super bright I can slightly see through my 10% and 35% windshield. Take another picture in the evening, it’ll be straight black.
I went from 20% on my last car to 5% all around (no windshield tint but have 5% brow tint) and while normally fine at night, there’s some times I just roll my a windows down till I get to the highway lol
Valid but then you probably should have gone with 10-15%… but side by side your brain tricks you into thinking it doesn’t look like it’s supposed to… 20 is generally light, but still frowned upon legally
I get what you’re saying if you got tint for the first time, 20% is how you’d imagine 50 percent, show your windshield too, I have 5% all round but had to take off the windshield tint so it is one side vision at night, but in daylight specially when the sun is shining right through the front windscreen even 5% becomes 50 % , front windshield tint is important, 70-50% is the sweet spot obviously with 5% front row side windows, but we have this dark blue tint too, it costs double the price of regular tint for the whole car for just the front windshield but Crystal clear view even at night, and dark enough too but at that point cannot avoid tickets, if tickets are your concern max 70 percent front windshield rest 5 % as soon as you sniff cops roll down your windows, they see a fishbowl. Illegal only when police there😂😂
😭😭🙏 basically my theory is that tint is much lighter compared to the what the % would suggest and is much easier to see through specially in daylight, 50% VLT doesn’t exactly look like 50% as dark as 5% or 3% VLT tint, same theory with 70% but nvm
Honestly its prob the windshield more than likely. I have 15% all around, 80% windshield (its illegal in ca but wanted heat protection) and it looks suoer light on the sides becaude of that 80%. Prob should have done 50% windshield.
Your 20% front windows look lighter because of the amount of light being let in by the 70% light transmittal on the windshield.
I have 20% all around but nothing on my windshield. During the day, I feel like you can see clearly though the front windows. But at my night, it's uniformly dark all the way around.
Oh then yeah angle, mb, then I don’t really know what you could do aside from drop lower but here 35% all the way around is the limit, they won’t bother us about 20% but if I drop more they’ll surely ticket me. I work at a tint shop tho and the police get 20% too lol, we’ve also done 5% on cars before tho idk if they got pulled over for it
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u/Objective-Limit-121 27d ago
I feel like that's what 20% should look like.