I live in Summerville, SC. When the seats are cloth, you don’t ever have to worry about needing warmed seats. That would have been nice when we lived in New Jersey from 1989 to 1995 with our vinyl seats and freezing tuchus’ during the long dark cold winters.
In Sunny South Carolina, we need seat Coolers!
My VW Passat’s heat stopped working 2 years ago. I haven’t had to get it repaired because I have heated seats!
Living in Houston there is little use for heated car seats to keep driver and passenger warm. There is one interesting off label use, however. That is for fetching a pizza. A seat heater set on high will keep a pizza toasty warm for 20 to 30 minutes, and you can still run the A/C full blast to deal with the humidity.
I’m a guy and I love heated seats. I just bought a new used car and it had to have heated seats or forget it. 300+ HP, sport wheels and all the goodies but it had to have those heated seats.
We live way up in northern NY State off the eastern end of Lake Ontario and we have 6 month winters up here and we need all the heat we can get! I have the heat seat on ALL the time when I’m in the car from October thru March and maybe in September, if we have cold nights! My husband loves it and uses it as well in his car, too. Plus, it helps keep you warmer, so you don’t have to have the inside temperature as warm and maybe that helps save on gas??!!
Tom and Ray – years ago our friend Roy replaced his old Camry with a new one. One day he called his brother to say that he was concerned about symptoms he was having. He explained that he’d been been overcome by heat, like a fever, or some kind of hot flashes. He said that the heat sometimes got so bad that he had to pull over and get out of his car and walk around and cool off before he could proceed running his errands, but that he often felt overcome by the time he reached his next destination. Roy’s brother suggested he see a doctor, but before the end of the call his brother somehow hit upon the cause possibly being the car’s heater or the seat warmers. “Seat warmers? I’ve never heard of such a thing!” said Roy. Sure enough when his brother came over to check, Roy had accidentally turned his seat warmers to HIGH!
My VW has “leatherette” seats and it is nice to take the chill off those (usually less than one mile). There is a scientific reason why women like them more–you can test this yourselves. Women’s hands and feet are colder than men’s. Their “core” temperature is warmer. Thus they dive for the heat dial on the heated seats. One does wonder why they allow fashion to tell them to wear skirts in cold weather. In my own spouse’s situation (despite wearing warmer clothes), i can pour water down through her fingers and it changes into ice cubes on the downside of the fingers.
I’ve also found that most men I know do not use them if the car comes equipped with them, while most women I know love them. I think it’s primarily a macho thing (I don’t need no stinkin’ seat warmers!) and also because in general men are more heat-sensitive on their skin (especially down under) than women are and the temps that we find toasty they think are scorching hot. How many men you know like hot tubs either?? How many men balk at passing a hot dish at the dinner table, when women can handle it with no problems with bare hands? I think that’s cause we wash the dishes and generally are the ones handling hot cooking utensils, but maybe it’s just because men are wimps. Most times men are dressed more warmly than women, usually men are hotter (temperature-wise) than women because their basal metabolic rate is indeed higher. For us women, stuck in a car adjusted by the driver (often the man because they think that’s more macho too) at a temperature we can’t abide, it is easier to turn on a heat warmer in the privacy of our side of the car than to ask his lordship to turn up the heat, thus saving arguments.
First, let me state that I’m an American Scot and have driven my car in winter and summer while wearing the kilt. My car has leather seats, and I haven’t once felt the need to heat the seat.
Second, let me relate my one experience with said “roaster”: I had occasion to rent a car, and since insurance was footing the bill I drove a Cadillac for a week. As I drove away from the rental agency, I noticed a building heat beneath me. It took me five minutes to find the correct switch to disable said building heat, by which time I was tender.
back in late 60’s early 70’s, I listened to Don Imus, a funny DJ on a morning NYC radio show. He did a bit called the “leather seat degree report” which was a woman in a short skirt getting into a car on a very cold or steaming hot day. The screams determined how cold (or hot) the seat was. Imus was very funny until he got weird.
I would not buy a car without heated seats. I’d rather have them and not need them than the other way around. I’m a man who hates being cold. I also have arthritis in my back and the heat feels good. My lady passengers always enjoy the option of heated seats too.
A week after I got my new Jeep Grand Cherokee I laid some sod for a new front lawn. The next morning I went out to do a bagel run and my back was a little stiff. I turned on the heated seat and by the time I got to the bagel shop, I was in love. We use them all of the time in cooler weather and, since I like fresh air, I crack the sun roof, crack open the back windows and enjoy the fresh air while staying comfortable with the heated seats. My next car will need to have them!
No…don’t heat my tush! Have you ever heard of a middle aged woman having HOT FLASHES!!!
I am a guy and installed a after market seat heater in my Chev K1500 pickup because that big V8 engine has allways taken about 7 miles to get up to full temp.
My car doesn’t have seat warmers, nor would it be a feature I’d spend extra money to get (I’m female, by the way). But I don’t like it when other people’s cars have seat warmers and they don’t give you the heads up (buns up?) that they’re turning the seat warmers on! I was once in a friend’s car on a chilly night, and did not know her car had seat warmers, and that she had activated the warming process. All of the sudden my posterior region started getting warm for no apparent reason. I started getting very concerned, thinking perhaps my bladder had decided to let loose, without any prompting from my brain. I made a comment about the strangely warm seats, and then found out that my friend had put the seat warmers on. Then I could make jokes about being relieved that I hadn’t relieved myself. But ever since then I’ve been suspicious of the car seat warmer feature.
I’m a 49 year old female and I do like heated seats. Unfortunately, my Smart car doesn’t have them. But, it’s not JUST car seats. I like heated seats in general and heated toilet seats especially. That’s right: heated toilet seats. They changed my life. Here’s my review:
UltraTouch Heated Toilet Seat - White - Round Bowl (available on Amazon.com): This is a good seat, with a seat life of just over a year. Easy to install and is definitely good on those cold winter nights when sitting on a cold toilet seat is a form of physical assault.
ToastieTush Toilet Seat Heater (available on Amazon.com): This thing hots. It not only warms the seat, it heats it. It a veritable spa experience for the tush. Not only that, but the heat radiates up through the lid and makes for a wonderful cat bed; one of my female cats sleeps here every night (rather than in her non-heated cat bed). I don’t have any male cats, so I can’t confirm or reject the idea that male cats would consider a heated seat un-male-catly.
Both my husband and I love love love our heated seats…him for his lower back and me just because I don’t like the cold and the time it takes for the car to heat in the Michigan winters. I recently bought a Prius, which I loved, but it didn’t have leather heated seats. I did like the cloth seats over leather, but really wanted the heated seats. When I mentioned it to the salesperson, he said no problem, the cloth seats could be heated. And so they are. I love the warmth of the cloth AND the heat on my lower back!
I drive a big diesel pickup - with leather seats. On those cold winter days, the only heat you get for a long time comes from the heated seats. Love those butt toasters!
Until recently our family divided jsut as you hypothesized. Then this winter I caught my husband turning on his seatwarmer. Turns out he’d had a sore back one chilly morning, and realized that a warm seat and lumbar region wasn’t so girly after all. Gotta love a man who can admint a change of opinion…
Our outdoor farm cats have the luxury of a heated water dish in the winter. Once we forgot to refill it and found the male kittens taking turns sitting in the empty dish, warming their furry little butts. SO! Heated seats aren’t just enjoyed by people!