Why does the air conditioner do this?

[Vendetta]

How come when turning on the AC, it drains the power from some certain cars? Does it do that in 3s's?

[GabeRT]

this is in no way any expert answer, but to my knowledge its because the compressor has to turn on and it takes extra power to rotate the pulley/belt? it happens on all cars and on 3/s's also...

[Munkey]

The less powerful the car, the more the a/c drains from your power. In my old Eclipse (1.8l) the only time I could turn on the ac was while I was on the highway. If I needed to pull out, it had to go off.