2010 VW GTI: The Secret Fridge

July 26, 2010

Before my trip to the MotoGP race and San Francisco this past weekend, I cleared out our long-term 2010 VW GTI's glovebox to make room for some spare magazines and happened across The Secret Fridge.

There -- in the upper left corner of the top pic -- is a rotary switch that opens a small hole. This allows airflow from the HVAC to enter the glovebox. I turned up the A/C briefly and could feel the cool air coming out.

With that vent open you can keep a drink cool in there. And with a quarter-turn you can also close that vent if you don't want whatever was placed in there -- say, your girlfriend's undergarments -- to be cold.

It worked pretty well. At moderate A/C cooling I was not only able to keep a cold drink cold, but I also was able to chill down a room temp plastic bottle of water to cool (not cold) after a few hours. Impressive.

And the price (free) is infinitely more palatable than the $760 real-compressor fridge in our long-term Ford Flex.

Albert Austria, Senior Engineer @ 10,200 miles