[motorworks]

Ok so I have never experienced Ventilated seats, and since I drive in Bangalore I have never felt that I need anything more than a regular AC. However, one question, what is the real downside of ventilated seats? They would be expensive to replace or repair of course, but are there any other downsides to a feature like this, I mean from a practical usage point of view.

Second is an observation, I just happened to see a review about the MG Gloster and it supposedly has ventilated seats,just for the driver! For all the glory of middle row captain seats and the kind of size that the car is, surely a lot of owners are going to be chauffeur driven, and they would feel really shortchanged when they can see that their driver can access ventilated seats and not themselves! I thought MG did not think this through at all! At least the Verna has both front passengers covered!

[amitayu]

Can we put seat covers on ventilated seats?

People will soon start looking for seat covers for such seats!!

[2000rpm]

Originally Posted by amitayu

Can we put seat covers on ventilated seats?

People will soon start looking for seat covers for such seats!!

Can you put a cover on the AC blowers?

Ventilated seats are glorified / specialized AC blowers with openings in the seat back.

[amitayu]

Originally Posted by 2000rpm

Can you put a cover on the AC blowers?

Ventilated seats are glorified / specialized AC blowers with openings in the seat back.

I know. I was just being sarcastic. Such features are often wasted on Indian customers.
I am part of several communities dedicated to Freestyle where people keep enquiring about seat covers for front seats that have airbags for rear passengers. Don't understand why someone buys a car with a special feature only to then seek and destroy it.

[1.2TSI7DSG]

Originally Posted by Mahven

4) Misplaced ambitions : While our country has, if I may dare to say, 'fetish' for sunroofs, the need for a more profound feature like VS is kicked to the corner. How many people would rather have cooled seats than an opened sunroof in their premium hatchbacks on a hot and humid summer afternoon with the kind of air quality we have?

LoL

I believe people have misplaced ambitions because you can't see ventilated seat . Add to that very few people will use it if there is not the owner who is using it. Imagine driver using it (when we just had a discussion for AC usage) and the owner resting his bottom on the hot back seat of a Maruti 800.


It's like the toy your foreign chacha bought which was kept int he showcase to show and rot and never to be played in the way it was supposed to be.

[landcruiser123]

As many people mostly drive cars with 3-5 people, India is still a market that is passenger-focused than being driver-oriented. Features like ventilated seats are in the front seats only. What does the chauffeur-driven do?

Kudos to Hyundai for offering ventilated seats, but I think we need to prioritize safety over everything. I'd rather have them make 6 airbags standard across all variants of the Verna, i20, Venue, and Creta. (followed by the cheaper cars...)

Also, I think features like auto-start using the remote/app to cool the car(in ATs only) will be much easier to implement.

Originally Posted by Mahven

3) Safety : While driver fatigue ....

Safety-wise, I think this hardly changes things. A car with AC is definitely safer (by cutting out stress/noise) than a car without AC, but claiming that ventilated seats will improve safety is taking things too far IMHO.

Same case with many CBUs(ridiculously gets heated seats but not cooled ones)

The reason why these cars come with heated seats (mostly useless for India) is that they are made for the European & American markets which mostly have long and severe winters.

@mods: Please include a poll if possible.

[nagarjun]

I agree that this is a very important feature at least in the top end variant. My reasoning is as follows.

When I had i20 which came with fabric seats it was comfortable and I used it for a whiel and then I went with pure leather seats from Stanley and they were still ok in terms of sweating.

However when I changed my car to Vento TSI in 2016, it came with leatherette only in top end variant. I don't have an option to chose between fabric vs leatherette. Leatherette is quite bad in terms of ventilation and sweating even in Bangalore summers and over long drives in non-summers.

[Pashin]

Having used Ventilated seats for quite some time now, I must say its used as frequently as the car AC is! A must have for our market, I wish more manufacturers would offer VS in their models.

[sameerpatel90]

OEM's have always followed a thumb rule of compensating quality in one or the other means. Specifically, with India we have been shadowed for a lot of years before these companies realized that we are an essential market for them to survive their hunger of growing bigger and bigger.

VC's are always assists a rider and occupant not just for controlling the temperature but if one looks closer, such features makes a driver focus with peace and act smart in emergency situations. Even just by providing these features it's the responsibility of the marketing teams to update their clients about its maintenance and do's & don'ts.

I personally believe it's high time for manufacturers and the governing agencies to take some serious feedback/ inputs from forums (TEAM-BHP, etc.), automobile reviewing companies or agencies to bridge the gap. For instance, if the govt. can skip BSV to equalize with global market emission norms, safety, comfort and built quality must also be considered.

[sam264_2000]

Can someone throw some light on some of the cons of Ventilated Seats in India? What happens if we spill water/tea/coffee or any fluids for that matter? Do they stop functioning? Is replacement the only option in that case? How expensive is it to replace them? I read in the official review of Creta 2020 that the rear of Ventilated Seats is hard plastic which is a no-no for me when you consider rear seat passenger comfort. (May be its similar for Kia Seltos too - I don't know).

[vm27]

Originally Posted by Mahven

Any car that costs above INR 15 lakh on-road should have VS (ventilated seats) at least as an option.

since we live in a tropical country and only someone who has used VS regularly can vouch for its value and there are tons.
How many people would rather have cooled seats than an opened sunroof in their premium hatchbacks on a hot and humid summer afternoon with the kind of air quality we have?

Truer words have not been spoken and it is as if you speak my heart’s desire.

I live in Delhi and ever since we got the Hyundai Elantra in 2013, the only reason I like driving that car is..... The Ventilated Seats!

I love them so much that I have tried getting them on my swift as an aftermarket upgrade but couldn’t find a decent solution.

Ventilated Seats or VS are simply a minimum requirement desperately needed in about 80% of the geography of India and they are hands down on any given day of the week better than a sunroof.

Whether it be leather or a very nice fabric, face Delhi summers or the humid months that follow [about 8 months in total] and no matter the type of AC nor its temperature setting, your shirt is bound to be a puddle of sweat from shoulders to the tailbone. Simply no way round this but.... VS!

We really need these. I doubt many people use the wireless phone chargers in the new cars [I am assuming one needs a fancy phone that supports wireless charging] or the cooled glove compartment and the cooled middle or back hand rest BUT WE ALL NEED VS.

Automakers please listen!

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by 46TheDoctor

While i absolutely agree about the necessity/usefulness of the Ventilated Seats in out hot climate and i will definitely prefer the car with them, i also wonder about how we (humans) complicate the things unnecessarily.

Depending on which part of India you are from, the material makes no 'material' difference to how sweaty your back gets. I for one am from Chennai, have sat on cars with all manner of seat materials from the Rexine days of Fiat, Premier Padmini and Amby to pure leather in an S class and if it is the period March - Oct, your back WILL sweat. Unless you have your temp settings at some obscenely cold level like 17 or 18.

I guess most parts of India in the summer are like this.

I find VS (I too used to think of them as gimmicks) to be an absolute boon and has helped maintain my cabin temp at a pleasant 24 (22*c if passengers are in the rear seat though as Kia Seltos has a ridiculous design flaw in how these rear vent ducts go right next to the exhaust) + VS = chilled out.

In my cars with non VS, unless it was bonechilling, my back was / is soaked when I get out.

Originally Posted by sodapop

I don't think ventilated seats are that much of an essential. If your car has a well designed and powerful air con, you'll never feel the need to cool your back.

Besides, it robs the rear passenger of extra legroom and the hard plastic doesn't feel very good on the knees. Also, unnecessary electronics means you'll get hefty bills when they fail.

I'd rather have some more power or safety features like rollover mitigation or brake assist over these gizmos

But then just to cool your back you have to dial down the temp to very low levels. With VS you can keep it at a pleasant 24*c and still not have a drop of sweat on you.

Legroom doesn't get affected but yes, hard plastic seats are a drawback.

[S.Shyam]

I think the main reason features like Ventilated seats and Powered driver seats are mostly for drivers only is because its most difficult for them to stretch their legs and change their seating position while driving.... Rear passengers can move around to find the most comfortable seating position at any time.

that being said, we do need more choice of accessories in terms of cooling for every seat.

[Napalm]

Originally Posted by rags.singh

How about features like "brakes that actually work"

If I am not wrong, these features are only available on sub 15/20 lac cars of Hyundai/Kia. This has been their strategy from the very beginning, blind the consumers with features and make them overlook the build quality and safety aspects. Yes, it will be good to have the feature and others will follow suit, but right now maybe adding these features are making cars of other companies more expensive than what they would like them to be.

Look at DRLs or the notch screen on phones, these were features which were only available on the high end models, but are now present at all the price points.

Exactly. I would rather prefer OEMs like Kia/Hyundai spend more effort in at least getting a Global-NCAP safety rating for their top-seller cars instead of plonking their cars with 1st world car-features like 10 inch Infotainment units, Ventilated seats, LED headlights etc. I mean, how hard it is to prove the safety of their cars with at least a 3 or 4 star Global NCAP rating, especially since they are exporting cars like Seltos/Creta/Venue/i10/i20 from India to >40 countries around the world. It is more important because India leads the world in the number of accidents & related deaths.

[sreedotk]

I was thinking of doing some Jugaad after getting one of these before Corona and the border issues came up.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001...archweb201603_

Put peltier into it to blow cool air behind my back.

Merc used to have a "Air Scarf" to blow hot air in convertibles , this could be a low cost solution similar to that.