Sunroof Shades: An Insulated Panel, Not Mesh

A glass roof is the hottest pane on the car. The side windows take the sun at an angle for part of the day; the roof takes it square-on for most of it, and whatever comes through lands on the headliner and radiates down onto the people underneath. The thin blind the factory fits is there to cut glare, not heat, which is why it is the first part of a car's interior to fade and sag.

So the panel we cut for sunroofs is not the black mesh we use on door glass. It is a different product, and this page is about what it is and whether it fits your car.

What the panel is

A core of reflective foil over an air-cushion layer, about 8 mm thick, with a hard-wearing skin on both faces. The outside face turns direct sun back at the glass instead of letting it through; the air layer slows what does get in. The cabin face is printed with a sky finish so the roof does not read as a black hole from inside.

It is cut to the exact outline of your model's roof glass, in the number of pieces the roof is divided into, and it sits in the opening against the glass. No tools, no trim removal, nothing stuck to the car. It lifts out by hand when you want the roof open or the glass clear, and goes back in the same way.

Because it is opaque, it does what the mesh cannot: it stops the radiant load rather than filtering it. That is the difference you feel in the second row at two in the afternoon, and in how hard the air-conditioning has to work to hold a temperature. It also takes the sun off the factory blind, which is what makes the blind last.

Panels and prices

Most current SUVs with a panoramic roof are two-piece. Single panels are typical of sedans and older cars: the Camry, the CX-5, the Kona, the Elantra, the LandCruiser 200 and 300. The three-piece roof is the first-body Audi Q7; the four-piece is the VinFast VF 9.

The one thing to check before ordering

The panel fits roof glass, so it only fits a car that left the factory with a sunroof or panoramic roof. The same model is very often sold both ways; the base Tucson has a steel roof and the top one has glass, and the listing cannot know which you have. If your roof is painted steel there is nothing for the panel to sit in. Look up before you order, not at the brochure.

Which cars

There are 112 roof panels in the catalogue, across more than thirty makes. The sunroof shades page lists all of them; the makes with the most are Hyundai (Tucson, Santa Fe, Kona, Palisade, Elantra, Sonata, Venue and others), Toyota (Camry, RAV4, Yaris Cross, the LandCruiser 100, 200 and 300 and the new Prado), Mercedes, Kia (Carnival, Sorento, Sportage, K5, Sonet), Lexus, Ford (Everest and Explorer), BYD, Volvo, Porsche and MG.

The ones people ask about most:

A note on the years

The roof panels come from a different fitment sheet to the door shades, organised by model rather than by build year, so many roof listings carry no year range and some carry a range narrower than the matching window-shade listing. Where a listing shows years, they are the years the roof glass is known to match. Where it shows none, the glass has not changed across the model's run as far as the sheet knows. If your car is near a model change, or the roof listing's years do not match your window-shade listing, tell us the build month and whether the roof is one piece or two and we will confirm before you order.

What it will not do

It will not let light through; that is the point of it, but if you want a bright cabin with the heat taken out, the mesh door shades plus the factory blind is the compromise. It does not fit over the glass from outside, and it does not replace a broken or missing factory blind mechanically, though it does the blind's job better while it is in.

Ordering

Check the roof. Find your car on the sunroof shades page, confirm the piece count matches what you see from inside, and order. If the door shades are the main job and the roof is an extra, the guide to which windows to cover puts the roof in context with the rest of the glass.