How effective are the heated seats? The heated steering wheel?

Haven't had mine over winter yet. But should be able to report back in about, uh, 2 weeks.

 

Works very well... but not the entire steering wheel is heated..,had mine since January in chicago


iPhone ?

 

The heated steering-wheel gets warm surprisingly fast... by the time I got to the end of the block.

 

On mine the wheel heater is a bit too much, I have to turn it off now and again.
A kind of "pulse and glide" for proper temperature.

jp

 

heated seats are hot! i feel like i wet myself, even on low. and it only takes a few seconds to heat up.

 

You've tried then in Prime?

In PHV, the "hot" was just right for Minnesota.

 

just on my test drive. yeah, i suppose location matters. do you find them different than pip?

 

I have only experienced Spring cold so far, not the dead of Winter yet.

 

And, the heaters draw the battery down a bit. They do reduce the electric distance run a few miles before the gasoline engine starts.

 

Seat & Wheel effectiveness reduces the need for cabin heating. A lower setting works fine when butt & hands are comfortable.

 

probably less than the heat pump.

 

Sounds exciting!

 

I got my Prime Advanced in late January and winter continued until about mid April. It never got into the low teens or single digits, but it was in the upper teens several times. With my previous 2014 PiP I did not have heated steering wheel and would often need to wear gloves when driving in the winter on very cold days. Since I have had the new Prime I have not had to wear gloves and I find that the heated steering wheel works very well. I normally take about 1-2 minutes to get all setup before I start moving from the park position, but in that time I found that the heated steering wheel was nice and warm. I had seat heaters previously and those also worked well and the Prime's work as well as the PiP's so far as I can tell.

My favorite Prime addition though is not the heated steering wheel, but the heap pump and the ability to use remote climate to start the vehicle heating for 10 minutes as I make my way to leave from work. It takes me about 8-9 minutes to walk from my office to my car so at the end of a cold day I just start the remote climate and by the time I get to my vehicle it is nice and toasty compared to the outside temps or the temp inside my car which is parked above ground on the side of "wind chill hill" as I call it. Don't forget to lock the vehicle or remote climate will not work. My 2 cents.

 

Looking forward to trying that heat pump trick from my office window! Do the lights flash to let you know it started?

 

Advanced offers the option of starting the heater using your phone.

 

Yep, I know - but just depressing the button on the key fob sounds 5 seconds faster.

 

I put the heated passenger seat on low, it worked fine. Compared to my vette which is our other car with heated seats, the Toyota ones seem better, but the vette seats are also cooled!

How do you turn on the heated steering wheel?!?

 

It's a button the the right side of the steering wheel.

 

I've had heated seats before in a conventional car and never noticed any less need for cabin heat.