2022 Ram Heavy Duty heated seats and steering wheel Photo by Ram

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It seems like many folks out there shopping for a new car choose to put heated seats right at the top of their ‘must-have’ list in terms of vehicle features. That’s according to a new survey of about 19,000 licensed drivers in the States, which found that nearly half of those walking into a showroom feel heated seats are something with which they just can’t live without.

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AutoPacific, an automotive research company based in California, has been running its Future Vehicle Planner survey for the last five years. “Our study is structured to enable deep-dives into who specifically wants each feature and where it is most applicable,” said Deborah Grieb, AutoPacific Director of Marketing and Consumer Insights. Grieb said the survey uses extensive demographics, psychographics, vehicle use, and purchase intention data to “uncover the whys” behind the answers given by respondents.

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2021 Ram heated seats Photo by Ram

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On this occasion, it polled over 19,000 people, asking them what they considered to be the most important features they’d like to have on their next car. A total of 47% of those asked identified heated seats as a must-have item, followed by front/rear parking sensors (45%) and rearward automatic emergency braking (44%). That triad of seemingly disparate features emphasizes the fact that responses ran the gamut of option categories from comfort to safety. We imagine the heated-seat brigade would be even larger if this survey was undertaken in Canada.