Heated Seats on 2006 Prius

Hmm, I am interested in this mod too...

 

I'd do it in a heartbeat if I knew it would be a good job. I suspect it probably would have been better to get cloth seats then replace them with leather with a heater in the seat. I love my heated Lexus seat and will miss it when I trade that in.

 

Same here. I'm also trading a Lexus with heated seats for my 2006 Prius. I am interested in a mod that will put heaters in the factory leather seats of my 2006 Prius.

 

There are lots of aftermarket sources:
Parts For Your Car (the luxury kit looks sweet!)
Google
If I still lived up north I'd probably get them for my wife.

 

any upholstery shop will do it for 250-300 per bucket. you can put heated elements under cloth or leather.

rpm

 

I've contacted my Toyota dealer and they said they would not do it because of the side-curtain airbags. That's all they said and couldn't explain more.

Does anyone know hte reasoning behind this?

 

Hey Technogeek -- where in the Pacific Northwest? I'm in the Willamette Valley. The Toyota dealer isn't giving me a very good trade in price on my Lexus (RX300/2003), and I'm considering selling it myself. Did you consider that and reject the idea? Are you getting a good trade-in price?

 

Hey lsa55, I'm in the Seattle area. I'm trading a thirsty GX470 for a fuel sipping silver package #8 2006 Prius. I have not had my truck appraised yet, but it is in excellent condition, fully loaded. I expect to get the upper end of the KBB/Edmunds trade-in value, which is acceptable to me. I don't like the hassle of selling it myself which includes getting phone calls at odd hours. I don't mind getting the upper end of trade-in value. My Toyota dealer gave me the maximum trade-in value for our 2000 RX300 when we got the Sienna AWD.

My daily commute is about 44 miles round trip. I get 18 mpg in the GX470, and the 2005 Prius I rented for 2 days gave me 55 mpg round trip both days (in September). 65mpg one way, 45mpg the other way. The Prius will cut my fuel bill by 67%. When my wife bought a Sienna AWD, I decided we don't need the GX470 anymore - the Prius will be a perfect commuter car for me. It gets great mileage, has more tech than my GX (except the heated seats and Mark Levinson sound system) and the maintenance will cost less. It just makes sense (to me) to put the miles on a car that costs less to own and operate while polluting less.

 

thanks anti-dub!

 

A cautionary tale about heated seats.

First, a little background.

We purchased our '05 last spring from TJ Toyota in Potsdam, NY. If you look at a map this area looks like 'nowhere'--is is very rural.) However, there are three universities within 10 miles, including Clarkson, an engineering school. Partly as a result of having such a high population of academics locally, TJ began selling Prius at a good rate when they first became available in the US. This was reflected in the fact that they had an allocation of about 5 per month back in April when the waits were generally several months long.

We were able to get the exact color and package we wanted (Driftwood Pearl #5) in about 3 weeks, which is why we drove the hundred miles to do business there. Also because they treated us really decently when other dealerships had a definite "take it or leave it" attitude.

This is all intended to let you know that they have some significant history of experience with the car.

I requested the installation of a block heater prior to taking delivery and was surprised to be turned down on this request.

It turned out that the reason for this was that they had, at the request of a customer, recently installed heated seats in a Prius. At the time we took delivery they had apparently been working on this car for weeks, trying unsuccessfully to get edit the coding in order to accomodate the change in energy balance that resulted from this comfort modification.

That was the reason they were gun shy about the block heater. Although a block heater has no impact on the car's electrical system, they were in a moratorium mode about any electrically related mod on the car.

So, that's my cautionary tale.

storm petrol

 

I have heated seats in my '05 Prius, installed by the same people that did my leather interior. They are perfectly clean with 2 nice switches that I had mounted on the plastic piece under the dash that kind of divides the footwell between the driver and passenger. They work perfectly and have never been a problem. This time of year it is nice to get in the car and turn them on as I drive to work. I have posted pictures of this in the past, back in March, when I had it all done. Can't find them here now though.

 

We're intending on adding post-delivery Leather (better color choices) and heated seats to our '06 NL whenever it gets here. Cost is $1800 for both options. Does this seem consistent with what you paid Cairo?

How's your leather holding up? What colorway did you use? Would you please post or send pics?

email me if you'd like...

Thanks!

 

I'm sitll intending to have a heated option added to my option pack 8 when it comes in, but I'm having difficulty getting a confirmation from the service center on whether it's something that the dealership can do. They've mumbled about side airbags and other things.

Strange.

 

It sounds like this dealership is filled with idiots. Changing the code? Energy balance? Seat heaters are a simple 12V accessory. All you need is a positive power lead and a ground. These guys are clowns.

It's no different than installing an aftermarket amplifier for a stereo. It also uses poer and doesn't need any sort of code change or upset the power balance. The Prius's 12V system is not inherently different than other cars. Adding accessories is done in the same way.

This is an easy mod to do in terms of wiring. The hard part is actually getting the leather off and back on. That's why I won't do it. But I have no qualms about having a competent shop to do it.