Products: Sun shade buying guide

Outlook Auto Shade

• Rating: ★★★★☆
• Price: £28.49 (for a pair)
• Buy at: Amazon.co.uk

Trust the Australians to crack it when it comes to designing an effective sunshade. The Outlook Auto Shade is the only shade in our comparison test to cover the entire window area of a back door, because it pulls down and over the door a bit like a jumper over your head.

It is claimed to filter out 90% of UV light, (although, confusingly, the maker also states the fabric has an ultraviolet protection rating of 10+) and comfortably gives the darkest finish to the interior, being the only shade the actually prevented glare for those sat in the back seats. So on a hot day, this will make children the most comfortable.

The robust fabric material stretches to fit different sized doors, and is retained by an adjustable strap that hooks beneath the door frame. The only downside to it that we found was that it restricts the driver’s rearward visibility more than the other shades here, and there’s a very slight fluttering sound at motorway speeds. It’s more expensive (the price is a pack of for two shades) but it’s better.

Britax 2 Easy Cling Window Shades

• Rating: ★★★☆☆
• Price: £9 (for two)
• Buy at: Amazon.co.uk

Easy Cling by name, easy cling by nature. Despite being sceptical that the Britax shades wouldn’t stay put on glass, they didn’t budge. One side has a coating of plastic film, the other has a mesh fabric that is said to offer UPF of 30+.

All you do is remove it from the package, unfold it and then press the film-backed side of the shade against the glass. It peels away and folds up much like a photographer’s light reflector, storing neatly in a seat-back pocket.

What lets the Britax shades down is size; they don’t cover that much of the window area – and we were only fitting it to a smallish car, a 2015 Volkswagen Polo 5-door. So the sun does easily get through to passengers, and there’s still quite a lot of glare through the shade itself.

Brica Stretch-To-Fit Sun Shade

• Rating: ★★☆☆☆
• Price: £11.99 (for one)
• Buy at: Amazon.co.uk

It’s a cute name and a nice concept — a shade that stretches to fit different size doors and windows, but unfortunately the Brica Stretch-To-Fit Sun Shade falls down by failing to offer any UPF rating.

That’s a shame, because the approach of having a suction cup at each corner of the stretchable fabric gives this shade the second best coverage of our tested products. The maker says it can almost double in size, and suggests two shades could be overlapped to offer more protection from glare.

We’d just prefer one darker shade with improved ultraviolet light protection.

Clippasafe Fun Sun Screens

• Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
• Price: £3.49
• Buy at: Amazon.co.uk

The Clippasafe Fun Sun Screens didn’t live up to their name. The animal prints on the outer facing side of the screen aren’t visible from inside the car, and the awkward square shape left a lot of glass area uncovered, so a lot of sun filtered through to the cabin.

Two shades come in a single pack and the price is competitive (although it’s cheaper still from the manufacturer) but there is no ultra violet light protection rating, so it’s hard to recommend them.

Like the Britax Easy Cling Window Shades, the Clippasafe items fold away easily, but we’d spend the extra money on a UPF rated product.

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