Heated Seats

As we all look back fondly on our childhood, we can say we were the generation that made it through winter without heated seats. We grew up sliding into freezing cars in the morning, and we lived to tell about it. The latest generation of kids will never know the intense struggle of non-heated seats. It’s our “walk to school uphill both ways” story with which we will regale and yet horrify the current youth of America. Meanwhile, we’re the generation of people sliding into the front seats of cars, and wondering “why is my butt hot?” Of course, we can recognize the desire for and the draw of heated seats in our cars.

There is nothing more unpleasant than being dressed up for work in a skirt, or in a thin pair of dress pants and being greeted in the morning with the shocking feeling of terribly freezing seats. Ladies, we all know nothing makes for a more uncomfortable ride to work than shivering the whole way there. Heated seats changed the game for well-dressed adults everywhere, and many members of our generation and those previous to ours were clamoring for cars with this super-attractive feature. It took very little time from the debut of the first car featuring heated seats until most manufacturers were signing on to offer it in their vehicles.

Initially, heated seats were considered an item specific to luxury cars that featured leather interior, but as their popularity increased, they started to become more readily available in moderately priced vehicles as well. For a very long time, the option for heated seats was only available as an optional feature on standard priced vehicles, but now, even the budget brands are including it as a standard feature in their cars. Heated seats have quickly become one of the most popular features available in newly made cars.

While some people are crazy about their heated seats, and they’ll be easily recognizable by their incessant offering to turn it on for you, even in the summer, some people maintain that the option isn’t for them. Seriously though, the fans are the world’s biggest fans of anything, ever. They’re cuckoo for seat warmers. The people who are disinterested in the feature actually make some pretty valid points about why they refuse to add heated seats to their vehicle, and the expense has very little to do with the decision. The addition of heated seats to your car is a difficult decision if you consider it from the standpoint of the many detractors. The seats are powered by an electrical system that isn’t exactly overly complicated, but still they provide another thing that may need to be repaired, and quite frequently if that system is faulty. You also run some risk of shorting the heaters if you’re a frequent spiller (raises hand), as liquid can damage the mechanism. If you’re looking to buy an affordable car to which you won’t be making massively expensive repairs in the near future, opting out of the heated seat option may be the best choice for you.

There are some kits sold via the internet that allow car owners to install after-market heated seat kits to their cars, and many of them have some fairly positive reviews. The library of videos available on YouTube instructing the novice mechanic how to install these kits, specify that the installation is actually quite simple and requires a surprisingly small amount of work. The existence of these after-market products speaks to the sheer popularity of heated seats, and supports the craziness that surrounds them.

In recent years, most manufacturers have added several more sophisticated options for seat ventilation and heating, but the old standard remains shockingly popular. The car owners that have the feature in their vehicles cannot stop singing its praises, while others continue to maintain they’re doing fine without it. Although the majority of the population never believed that the temperature of their seats would be a polarizing topic, chances are that they would believe it now. Heated seats are the new in-car DVD players, and never before has an additional feature caused such a stir in the automotive community.