Prime Luxury

Hope you did not forget to take that fish taco out once home. Have you noticed cats following you in the car?

 

The manual has a warning about that, on page 42.



I'm looking at back-only, not side or bottom, so I think I can work around this limitation.

For example, imagine using something like this where you remove the seat portion and install only the back portion.

 

That looks like one of those French fry makers.

 

I'm not sure I'd pay extra, but I would DEFINITELY prefer fabric... I have ALWAYS preferred fabric over leather (synthetic OR real). My BIGGEST "fear" is that ALL the 2018 Primes will have fabric available. I may just have to find an EXTREMELY good upholsterer... one that has about a SEVEN-out-of-a-possible-FIVE-star "rating" through Angie's List or some-such....

EDIT: AND... thanks a LOT, Lee Jay ... you sure know how to ruin a party , showin' us where the manual says we shouldn't use bona-fide seat covers due to air-bag issues! Guess I'll just have to hope for the best as far as the "SofTex" seats are concerned....

 

Similarly... as much as I really prefer fabric, I decided to go with a "Premium" mostly because of the larger display screen. For one thing, my eyes ain't what they used to be, and for another, I'm thinking / speculating that within 2, 3 or 4 years (tops), almost ALL new cars (90% or more) will have the larger screens, making a used car with a small screen a harder sell / a lower trade-in value.

 

Sooooo, what are you trying to say?

 

Do you have your windows tinted? I agree that the softex seats get very hot, especially the black interior. But I recently had Ceramic Tine added to my car and it has made all the difference! My seats are no longer hot. Normal tint protects UV, but ceramic or DUB IR tint ceramic blocks 60 percent of heat from the sun, so your interior temperature is greatly reduced. It will run you around 500 bucks, but it's worth every penny if you ask me.

 

Doesn't matter. I've had this problem after dark, when it was still over 90 degrees outside and even in the morning when the car was in the garage all night and the sun is just coming up. The seats just don't breathe. I'm wondering if the people not having this problem actually sit with their back against the seat. I see some people sit a little bit upright with their backs a little away from the seat. I don't do that, I sit completely against the seat back.

 

Just curious have you ever tried a real perforated leather/softex seat with cooling in a luxury vehicle? I've driven lots of miles in luxury cars with those, never a problem. Very different than non-perforated seats and having the cooling built into the butt and back is awesome.

The only time I've had the problem you describe is with the cheap vinyl style seats in econo-boxes, and they don't breathe at all. But real leather or even the higher end vinyl with holes, wonderful.

 

I've tried real leather without cooling, and it's the same problem. Never had this problem with vinyl with holes in it or with any cloth seats.

 

Several people in the other forums have put leather-like seat covers over the cloth. They say there is a flap or slit for the airbag blow-holes. But I still prefer the cloth seats. Even with the pizza stain...

 

I am trying to understand why there is an airbag in my seat. Makes sense as an ejection seat for a fighter pilot, but what useful thing would it do in a collision?

 

On my trip to and from Northern Cal, I noticed that if you wear "breathable" shirts, the Softex is much more comfortable. On the trip up, I had a kind of nylon weave basketball shirt (kind of hard to describe, but it's not cotton) and it was pretty uncomfortable and felt like the Softex was sticking to my back the whole time.

On the trip back, I wore my Nike basketball shirt which was cotton and it was much more comfortable as it allowed for more air circulation between myself and the Softex.

I have to say that I don't think Softex is quite as good as leather but it is reasonably close. Much more durable also? That being said, I may go with a custom leather job on our next Toyota (probably Camry Hybrid).

 

When are they going to finally invent inertial dampening and be done with the seat belts altogether?

 

Agree with @MartyPrime - I have an $800 Huper-Optik Autobahn ceramic tint job on my Prime that I thought was a crazy amount at the time but I now believe is totally worth it for comfort levels alone. The windshield was $300, btw. All lifetime warranties of course.

Driving in 106F temperatures with the sun shining directly through the driver's window the entire afternoon (i.e. heading north on the I-5 for 200 miles) you can barely feel the heat coming through. This allows me to set the A/C at 75 (Auto speed, Eco setting, two bars of fan speed only) and be comfortable (just wear the right type of shirt so it breathes on the Softex - see my earlier post). On my older Camry with a regular tint job, I would have to have the A/C blasting onto me to keep me cool which results in me getting too cold and having to cycle the A/C on and off.

When I was heading back to Los Angeles with the morning sun coming through the Prime's driver window (now heading southbound down the I-5), I had all the vents closed, no fan running and actually forgot to turn on the climate control for at least an hour. The outside temps were 81 degrees or so at the time. It just wasn't that uncomfortable with the ceramic tints reflecting so much heat away from the vehicle.

 

We have 4 months of cooling and 6 months of heating here, so that would be detrimental on average. It's nice to go out to a warm car in the winter. Plus, I had this problem this morning, after the car was in the garage all night and before the sun came up.