I know what you mean in terms of the AC. Luckily with those trains I've never been in a hot R68/As car during the summer, however in the case with the R62As it's a different story. Alot of times I could not bare with the R62As lack of AC or even how dirty and disgusting they look on the these days. I've lived by the for majority of my life and I do say that its time for change. As of late the R62As have been a eyesore for me, but that being said I still ride'em for personal/professional purposes regardless.
I do understand. But before a train model gets retired, the new model has to get all of it's testing cleared up and done right. As far as ASAP, that's up to them in trying to keep up with the schedule they have laid out to put a new train into service and retire a old train. I think maybe some of you people need to realize that CBTC will take a while before being implemented to the whole entire subway system. It's NOT overnight or something that can be done in 5 or 10 years. This type of technology component takes time and years to install and mechanically have everything working properly. NTT train models have to ensure communication with one another during passenger service on the road. We've seen the network meltdowns that have been happening throughout the Flushing and QB lines.