Air conditioner system for automotive vehicle with minimum discharge temperature for rear foot outlet

An air conditioning system for an automotive vehicle comprising:

• air passage means defining an air path which branches into front and rear air paths, said front air path including front vent and front foot air outlets which open to a vehicular cabin near the front seat for discharging conditioned air into said vehicular cabin in the vicinity of the front seat, and said rear air path including rear vent and rear foot air outlets which open to said vehicular cabin in the vicinity of the back seat;
• air conditioning means disposed within said air passage means, said air conditioning means including a cooling unit for cooling the air flowing through said air passage means and a heating unit for heating the air flowing through said air passage means, said cooling and heating units cooperatively generating conditioned air of a desired temperature, said air conditioning means including front and rear air-mix doors for changing front and rear path areas, through which air is introduced into said heating unit, each of said front and rear air-mix doors being movable between a fully open position at which the corresponding path area is maximum and a fully closed position at which the corresponding path area is minimum so that the temperature of the conditioned air passing through said front and rear paths increases as the opening angles of the front and rear air-mix doors increase;
• a first detecting means for monitoring an actual opening angle of said rear air-mix door to produce a signal (X.sub.PBRRR) representative of said actual opening angle of said rear air-mix door;
• a second detecting means for monitoring an intake air temperature (T.sub.INT) defined by the temperature of air flowing through an evaporating unit as measured just behind said evaporating unit, to produce an intake air temperature indicative signal;
• inhibiting means associated with said air conditioning means, for comparing the signal value representative of said actual opening angle of said rear air-mix door with a target opening angle of said rear air-mix door, to correct the opening angle of said rear air-mix door, said target opening angle of said rear air-mix door being derived in such a manner as to be maintained at a value greater than a lower limit of said rear air-mix door opening-angle, whose lower limit is determined on the basis of said intake air temperature indicative signal value, such that a temperature of conditioned air discharged from said rear foot air outlet of said rear air path is maintained at a level greater than a predetermined temperature criterion (T.sub.30).