I would say its a decent sized place here... I live about central and it takes me 35 min to drive 15 miles to south end of town to work...
City 195.1 sq mi
Population (2012)
• City 532,099
• Density 2,793.6/sq mi (1,078.8/km2)
• Urban 720,425
• Metro 1,020,200
got that from here ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucson,_Arizona
as for a/c. I moved here in 98. drove a old 66 ford pickup truck with no ac..in 03 got my first dsm..a 90 talon..a/c didnt work so it was one of the first things I pulled off.. in 97 got my colt..again no ac..
I personally HATE!!! the cold.. so that's why I moved here.. yes it hits 105-108 in the summer but I can deal with that better than freezing my arse off lol..
it all depends where u live and work.. if you can take the freeway or major road thru town (40 + mph roads) just roll down windows .. if you can only get to work on slower roads (35 ish) it might get a little warm inside the car.
not sure what type of scene your looking for.. a bunch of us hang out at in n out on sat nights for a few hours then some go out and race.. or we move to a diff spot... lot of honda kids here just like any other town lol.. but we do have alot of subbies and evos also.. theres also other groups like mazda guys..vw guys and muscle car guys that also hang out also.
there's 4 or 5 colts here in town but none come out (and mine is dead till mid june. broke a t-belt 2 weeks ago)..
main thing about Tucson is.. it is rated between 3-10 (changes year to year) as the most accidents in the us..lots of stupid ass drivers (they like to go from 1 far lane to other far lane to turn.. right in front of you with no hesitation lol)specially in the winter when the elderly come from other states cause its warmer here... but as long as you are a good offensive and defensive driver and are always watching what is going on around you..you should be fine..
if you have any other questions you can pm me.. moidsm1 and dsmless both also live here with swapped colts/excell
Steve