Next Gen Seat Heaters - Worthless

Oh but that heated lumbar really makes my back feel good.

Worthless is quite the stretch... Could they be improved? Sure, but overall I have no issues with them and I've been using them daily since I got the car on 11/25... Small sample size I know but it never dawned on me that something was incomplete, wrong, missing, etc...

Jeff

What nonsense. My Nextgen heaters are perfectly adequate for our frigid 50° winter nights here in San Diego.

Here is a thermal image of the old seats. Maybe you can get someone wwith a thermal camera to take a photo of the new seats so we can see the difference.

You know what's worthless? Having a heated steering wheel on a car with lane-keeping autopilot.

But, seriously I haven't had any issues with the heated seats with my next-gen seats. Maybe because I find the back of the seat and the lower back to be more important.

I should definitely take a thermal image of it though to see what percentage gets heated.

Caligula said:

What nonsense. My Nextgen heaters are perfectly adequate for our frigid 50° winter nights here in San Diego.

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+100. Just wondering how they'll be when I travel to 25º temps one day!

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S4WRXTTCS said:

You know what's worthless? Having a heated steering wheel on a car with lane-keeping autopilot.

(snip).

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I agree! Sometimes I take AP off if my hands are cold!

I've found the seat heat to be ok, granted I've had them mostly on "3" (mostly).
Plus my big a$$ covers the entire seat, so insulating it and preventing any excess from escaping into the cabin. :biggrin:

That said, I was a little surprised that there were only 3 settings, my last few cars have had much greater adjustability in the heat settings: 0-6...

Everything in this car should go to 11.

I see no problems with the next gen seat heaters. I have been using them for a few weeks now and they seem perfectly adequate to me.

Mine r great!

I just ran into the same issue today. While I would not call the Next Gen seat heaters worthless, I was a little disappointed today while driving my wife's car with temps in the low 30s. Car had been outside overnight, but pre-heated for 20 minutes. My car has First Gen seats. My wife's car has the Second Gen seats. I have arthritis in my hips, with the most cold sensitive area on the sides of them. In the Next Gen seats the sides of my hip stay cold for a long time while my butt melts. Very uncomfortable. Makes me wonder what I do when I get my MX. Or are those seats heated on thebutt sides as well?

ElectricTundra said:

I gave it a week hoping that I'd get use to them. They are quite awful. Both the front 50% and the side bolsters have no heat. The side bolster problem isn't unusual, at least in lower end cars. Having 50% of the front part of the seat remain freezing cold is a problem and something that even my son's VW doesn't have. I checked with a friend who also has the Next Gen and he's experiencing the same problem. He spends most of his winter in Florida so isn't too concerned about it but said that the past week had been disappointing.

I've stopped using them because the difference in a heated rear and freezing front thigh is worse than the entire seat being unheated.

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I too had this concern when purchasing this car (delivered 11-30-15). Didn't see much mentioned about the heated seats. Coming from an Infiniti G35 Coupe 2003 model, the heated seats on that car was worthless. My MINI Cooper S Convertible 2006 model low setting was a lot warmer than the high setting on the G35. So I've had less than a day on the car but I did try out the heated seats in a robe (LOL) in the garage with the level 3 setting and it is better than the G35 but I would assume a lot of cars are better than that. It is getting a bit chillier here in NoCal and we're spoiled with good weather and no rain.

Now let me go back and cry about the 1.5" scratch that was on the car upon delivery. I don't see how stuff like this gets by the detailers or whomever they use to inspect the vehicle before delivery. They're planning on trying touchup paint before attempting to repaint.

If you are coming from BMW the Tesla seats are at least 50% weaker and slower to heat up. I would talk to Service though as there may be a disconnected section in the front of the seat cushion?

Mine takes about 30 seconds to heat up. Much faster than our Lexus.

Still wish we had air-conditioned seats like Lexus...

S4WRXTTCS said:

You know what's worthless? Having a heated steering wheel on a car with lane-keeping autopilot.

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Agreed, my wife and I had a good laugh about this.



OP: I didn't like the next gens, but the heat on the regular seats is VERY good. I often set it for 3, and when my behind starts burning, move it to 2.

jeffro01 said:

Worthless is quite the stretch... Could they be improved? Sure, but overall I have no issues with them and I've been using them daily since I got the car on 11/25... Small sample size I know but it never dawned on me that something was incomplete, wrong, missing, etc...

Jeff

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perhaps its the fact that we are in California and they are in Minnesota...guessing the cold bites a little harder over there