22 upwardly extending side 24 front 28 and rear 26 walls and a cover 30 pivotally connected to the rear wall 26 fig2 the walls 22 24 26 and 28 and cover 30 are laminated with insulation 32 to thermally insulate the compartment 18 from the surrounding environment the front wall 28 has an opening 34 extending therethrough the console 12 is provided with a system 35 for controlling the temperature in the console storage compartment 18 an l shaped thermally conductive heat exchanger 36 is in contact with at least part of the front wall 28 and the bottom wall 22 and extends over the front wall opening 34 it will be understood that the heat exchanger 36 can be constructed to any shape so long as it is thermally connected with the compartment and can be in contact with any number of walls e g all of the upright walls of the compartment in the described embodiment the heat exchanger 36 is constructed from aluminum to have an efficient heat conduction and light weight a thermally conductive element 40 extends through the front wall opening 34 and is in thermal communication with the heat exchanger 36 adjacent the corner thereof the thermally conductive element 40 can be constructed from solid aluminum or any other thermally conductive material so long as it has adequate thermal conductive properties at an end of the thermally conductive element 40 remote from the heat exchanger 36 is a thermoelectric system 42 which is connected to an electrical power supply 44 mounted in the vehicle for example a 12 volt electrical system of an automobile insulation 32 is provided around the thermoelectric system.