I live in Oklahoma where we have over thirty days of tempertures above 100 degrees and no rain in sight. The air conditioning on my new Prius is better than any car I have ever driven. There seems to be little time between when you switch it on and cold air coming out of the vents. The car cools down in just minutes and best of all there seems to be little loss of gas mileage when the air is on. I am completely satisfied with my Prius in every respect, but the air conditioner surprised me. I expected some anemic system, designed to save power that the Oklahoma weather would laugh at. Compared to my 2010 Rav4, the Prius air is superior.
It really is a superior A/C to any other car I have owned. Also, if you're worried about the power draw of the A/C you can switch to ECO mode, as it helps conserve the power that the air conditioner uses. However, you may not want to do that with 100+ temperatures. Maybe an idea would be to crank it up to get the cabin cooled off, and once it's at a comfy temperature switch it to ECO mode and it could help. Just an idea!
