I have a 04 model. Whenever I want inside air (recirculating air ), the damn A/C botton lights up and comes on even when I am using heat. This is especially annoying in the winter! Is the system design this way or there is a way to override it? Many thanks.

 

That's just how it is. I get frustrated with the climate controls, too. It seems stupid to have buttons that don't do what they are labeled as. Like Microsoft, it seems the engineers spent too much time trying to make things more user friendly and just ended up making things complicated.

 

I share your complaint, but unfortunately, that's how it works. There is no way to override.

This idiot-proof logic behavior is no doubt designed to avoid any possibility of "fogging up" the windows, especially in humid conditions. While an intelligent driver may know how to set recirc and A/C to avoid such a problem, I can't tell you how many times I've been driving in the rain and seen other cars with seriously fogged up windows. I'm sure those other drivers were using recirc, and no A/C!!