There is a physiological difference in the way men and women FEEL heat, and the difference is highlighted by seat heaters. While we all run at about 98.6 F we don’t do so at equilibrium, in fact that’s our internal temperature and it’s often different from our external temp. The key factors are #1 muscle mass and #2 body fat. Everyone understands that body fat is an excellent insulator, the thing most people don’t know is that up to 1/3 of your body temperature comes from your muscles. This alone would indicate that men are generally warmer than women. On top of that, in a biological method of keeping unborn babies nice and toasty, a woman’s external blood vessels are often constricted which makes their extremities cold while diverting heat to your internal organs.
It’s important to understand that the whether you FEEL hot or cold is relayed by nerves near your outermost layer, therefore women, who are colder externally, will feel colder.
My girlfriend comments all of the time that I feel warm to her while my hands and feet are often cold due to poor circulation, I have a fairly high muscle mass so outside of my hands and feet I carry a lot of latent heat at skin level.
As for seat heaters, I love them in my Audi, but I only use them as a jump start. When I get in my car on a cold day I will turn my seat heaters up to 2 max (goes to 7 I think) and once I feel my back heating up instantly turn it down to 1 or off.
People who don’t like seat warmers are maybe a little too advanced for me or they eat a lot of cheese.
One of life’s simple pleasures while driving home in the middle of summer is sneaking on the heat warmer while my wife or whoever the victim of the day is experiences midlife consequences.
I also as a male, love seat warmers although my truck doesn’t have them. Living in the great white North (Canada), they’ve saved many a cold ride home in winter with achy muscles from skiing or shovelling snow.
Living in a cold region, I would prefer a heated STEERING WHEEL. Years ago steering wheels were thin and you could wrap one of those leather insulating covers over them. With today’s thick wheels that’s not possible.
I’ve never felt the need for heated seats, but when I had a car with vinyl seats, I has a sheepskin seat cover on it.
I am a woman and I happen to like a heated anything, including seat, because I want to be as warm as possible (up to, and including burning hot) everywhere I go. My husband HATES heated seats because he says it makes him feel like he’s gone to the bathroom in his pants.
I have a 2010 VW Jetta. Never had heated seats before. I LOVE them! I live in Minnesota, so they’re on pretty much all the time, except August. I also have lower back pain (from all that shoveling!), so I crank it up and hope for long stoplights. I will never buy or lease another car without them!
I live in the Phoenix area, so it never gets cold enough to need a heated seat. I guess some people here would like it as sort of a luxury, but not many, including myself.
I tried calling when this first came up for dicussion. I am a male who LOVES the heated car seat. With all the driving I do, I find it very theraputic for my back…in fact, when I have those 8-9 hour drives to Chicago from Ohio…I can drive longer without as many stops (well, you have to stop and go pee sometime…LOL) and I am ready to go and not as tired by the time I get there. Well, I am sure heated seats in Florida in the middle of an 80 degree day may not be a great option either, but for us folks in the snow belt, on a fridged day…well…my hinnie loves the heat and keeps me ready for action.
I am a woman who loves my heated leather seats. It’s one of the big reasons I chose my current car! I believe there is a simple biological explanation for women preferring a warm derriere. Years ago, when I would go on cold weather backpacking trips with friends, the topic came up…in a different context. On these trips my hands and feed would be cold…more so than the men. What I learned is that a woman’s biological imperative is to protect the ovaries for procreation. So when the temperature begins to drop, the body focuses thermal energy protecting the lower abdomen at the expense of the extremities. When backpacking in cold weather,if I kept my lower abdomen warm, I would not suffer from painful cold toes and fingers.
I absolutely love my leather seats, and living in MN where it’s below freezing several months out of the year, it’s necessary to have heat when the leather feels almost like a block of ice (especially through dress slacks)! Both my hubby & I use them. Though I have a Nissan Maxima, and the heat doesn’t get very “hot” - just “comfortable”. I’ve sat in both my in-laws’ FORD SUV’s however, and within 5 minutes I’m pretty sure my bum is gonna be fused to the seat!! It’s like FIRE! I previously had a Pontiac G6, and that was pretty toasty too. So it could be that American mfg cars have the temp settings too hot? My car has sensors that turn it down/off when it reaches a certain temp (85?), and this is probably lacking in American cars…
The BEST thing in the winter though, is my heated steering wheel! HEAVEN!!! It’s especially nice after standing outside in below zero windchills while filling up my gas tank
Heated cloth seats are offered in the MINI Cooper range of cars. I enjoy the cloth seats because they are warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.
I have had heated seats for years. I have a bad back from working in construction during high school and college. The heat helps make longer drives more tolerable.
Guys, it’s a clothing thing. Only men wouldn’t understand this. Look at your clothes in winter and look at a woman’s clothes as she’s on her way to work. Unless she’s wearing a long winter coat, she’s cold! Women’s clothes tend to be flimsy even in winter, while men’s are not.
Robert and Raymond:
5/12/11 broadcast KQED, SFCA. It is unimaginable that you would make a stupid statement to the effect that only women like heated seats. Do you assume that only women like air conditioning, too? Or cruise control? I am a man. I like heated seats. I would not want a car without them. I use the heating feature on moderately-warm days.
I am a man.
I like heated seats.
You have done an injustice to PBS and NPR by making such sexist comments. I enjoy your program very much, but I am shocked by your diversion into this arena.
I dislike them. Mainly because they’re electric (and thus a waste in energy, it’s not like they’re engine coolant based because that would take too long to warm up) and I try to protect my behind from the temperatures before I sit in the car.
I also dislike sitting on “warm” toilet seats, could also be similar reason for car seats…
oops, was also going to mention heated steering wheels… I’d only like them if I didn’t always carry a pair of gloves during cold weather!
That many women like heated car seats may have something to do with what we grew up wearing: short skirts and pantyhose. Try wearing those along Michigan Avenue in Chicago on a cold winter day as you face lake effect snow walking to your first real job. That was the day I discovered pantsuits and wearing longjohns under them to get to and from work. You just have to duck into the wheelchair stall in the restroom ahead of the morning crowd to change out of the longjohns so that you don’t keel over from indoor heat prostration during the work day. Only very rich people had heated car seats in those days (for themselves, forget the chauffeur), and the CTA still doesn’t have heated seats on the busses or L-trains. They’d never get rid of the illegal street vendors and the homeless people!
I still use public transit and longjohns. That way you won’t see me walking home with a car seat wrapped around me if the public transit workers are out on strike. And I can bum a ride to the grocery store from a pick-up driving neighbor in exchange for a homemade babka and a box of dog biscuits for the pooch.
Men, on the other hand, figure out the longjohn thing in childhood – when their mothers teach them how to dress sensibly for the cold.
