Products: Made in the Shade

Few summertime experiences are more excruciating than climbing into a parked car that has been broiling under the hot sun. Now growing numbers of American motorists are discovering that they can help their cars play it cool by giving them some shades: a cardboard sun shield that fits neatly inside the windshield. Sales of the $4 Auto Shade have surged from $2 million in 1985 to $6 million in just the first six months of this year.

The product was invented in 1970 by Abraham Levy, an Israeli businessman who was inspired by his country's merciless sunshine. In 1982 Avi Ruimi and Avi Fattal, two immigrants from Israel, introduced the product in Los Angeles, calling it the Auto Shade. Sales began to take off last year, mostly in California. Now Ruimi and Fattal have lined up distributors in 25 states, concentrated, of course, in the Sunbelt.