Parking a car in the sun in safe, but under the right conditions, it can really mess up the car's paint job.
That's what a San Antonio woman discovered when she saw the back of her Toyota Prius on a sunny October day.
“It looked like she had a wet paint job, and someone took three fingers and ran it completely diagonally,” Melissa Liddle told KSAT.
Liddle's daughter parked the Prius outside their apartment building like normal, but the paint on the car's rear and trunk became distorted and wavy.
The problem wasn't caused by the manufacturer or that the sun suddenly decided to burn extra hot one day, but it was because of the apartment complex's energy efficient windows.
The windows keep home cool but can curve due to pressure and other factors. If the sun hits the windows in a certain way, it can create a powerful reflection that's strong enough to melt plastic and other materials. It's similar to using a magnifying glass to focus sunlight on a particular spot.
It's not a new phenomenon, and it has resulted in melted cars in Massachusetts and melted vinyl siding in North Carolina.
Luckily, it's not super common either because a car has to be parked in the right spot and the sun has to hit the windows just right for this to happen.
For Liddle, none of that matters since the damage to her car is already done and it's not covered by the vehicle's warranty.
“I’ve gone through the warranty and can’t find anything that says ‘Don’t park your car in the sun,’” she said. “Toyota thinks we should pay for it. They said it’s a phenomenon -- solar convergence.”
Photo: Getty Images