Air conditioner for vehicles with right steering wheel and left steering wheel

An air conditioner in combination with a vehicle having an instrument panel on a front side of a passenger compartment, comprising:

• an interior unit, disposed inside the instrument panel at an approximate center in a vehicle width direction, the interior unit including:
• an inside/outside air switching portion for introducing air,
• a blower, having a suction port, for blowing air introduced from the inside/outside air switching portion,
• a heat-exchanging portion for performing a heat exchange with air blown by the blower, and
• a mode switching portion for switching a flow direction of air in the passenger compartment, wherein:
• the inside/outside air switching portion includes an inside/outside air case defining an air passage extending in a vehicle width direction;
• the inside/outside air case has an outside air suction port for introducing outside air outside the passenger compartment into the air passage, and first and second openings opened in the air passage at right and left end sides of the air passage in the vehicle width direction, one of the first and second openings being used as an inside air suction port for introducing inside air inside the passenger compartment into the air passage, and the other one of the first and second openings being used as an air outlet port;
• the air outlet port of the inside/outside air case is coupled to the suction port of the blower through a connection duct;
• the inside/outside air switching portion includes an inside/outside air switching member, disposed in the inside/outside air case, for opening and closing the outside air suction port and the inside air suction port;
• the connection duct is detachably connected to the inside/outside air case;
• the one of the first and second openings is positioned at a vehicle right side, the other one of the first and second openings is positioned at a vehicle left side and the suction port of the blower is positioned at the vehicle left side when the vehicle has a right steering wheel;
• and
• the one of the first and second openings is positioned at the vehicle left side, the other one of the first and second openings is positioned at the vehicle right side and the suction port of the blower is positioned at the vehicle right side when the vehicle has a left steering wheel.