OnTheGo

I've had a 350 F-Sport for a few months and am a little disappointed with the ventilated seats. Even when the seat fan is on full speed I can only barely feel any air coming out, and that's mostly on leading edge of the seat bottom. Almost nothing from the back. I've never had ventilated seats before so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I didn't think it would be so subtle.

Is this typical?

JDR76

Yes, it's typical. The ventilation requires air passing through the perforations. With your body blocking them, no air can pass through and the effect is drastically reduced.

They are most beneficial, at least in my experience, to cool down the seat before you get in the car. When I go to my car on a hot day, I will start it up and let the ventilation run for a minute or two, then my black NuLuxe is far cooler to the touch, especially if it's in direct sun light.

Edit: I should add that they function basically the same in my RX with the light gray leather.

RocketG35

Disappointed too. First time with ventilated seats, and they are barely noticeable. I lift my legs and lean forward every now and then to feel them.

cp2

iTrader: (1)

I haven't had any issues w/ mine and I love my butt cooler function! the fan I kind of loud, but it doesn't really bother me. I'll run it on quasi-long trips and it seems to work well. it doesn't freeze or anything, but I can definitely tell it's on when in use.

FPerform

I've read most ventilated seats hardly cool, so I wasn't terribly disappointed.

I will say my heated seats don't get all that hot and that is a bigger disappointment.

LED

Definitely disappointed here as well (2015 350 non-f sport). I don't feel it on the back at all... just seat bottom and barely at that. I was given an Infiniti M37 loaner a couple of years ago and those were far better. They actually felt like they were cooled rather than just ventilated.

titleistek

same here. 2015 IS350F: seat does not feel any cooler. I drove my mom's 2013 ES and the fan seems to work better on that than the IS. Very disappointed!

k3vn

Hmm... I barely just got my '16 IS but enjoy the seat ventilation very much. I feel they function well enough to keep my back from getting sweaty or to wick any sweat from them when I get in the car. Then again, I have a smallish torso and it's only about 70deg here in California so far lol.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Set the air outlet to 'feet only', ventilation will become more effective since it doesn't have to blow through the main dash vents

nslac

I am surprised that a lot of you aren't happy with the ventilated seats.

It's winter here in Australia so I haven't really tested it out to it's full potential but I can definitely feel a lot of air coming through the seats.

Everyone that has seen/sat in the car are very impressed with the ventilated seats, including me.

AndyL

I have a 2014 non F Sport IS and the ventilated seats are effective for me. Just as others have said, if you set the climate control mode to feet only, it will speed up the cooling effect because the way the ventilated seats work is there are fans inside the seats and they draw the air beneath it. By putting the climate control to feet only, it increase the air flow near the bottom of the seats in a shorter time

They have improved the ventilated seats in 2015. The 2015 ones are much quieter (witnessed by the loaner IS I was in) and maybe because of that, it is not as noticeable as the one in 2014.

ramlawih

I live in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and the temperature gets to 50 degrees celsius and the ventilated seats do the job here. i mean they don't make you feel you're sitting on ice but they make you very comfortable but when the weather is cooler, the seats are very cold and unbearable.
i think I'm pretty impressed with mine as do whoever rides the car with me.

PS:i think the ventilated seats work better when the air conditioner fan is at 4 bars or more. i think.

LeapFrog

Lexus must have designed the ventilated seats so that they cool the surface of the seats rather than blow air through the perforations. I've driven several other Toyota products (esp. 2006 vintage Avalons) and they do blow cooled / heated air through the holes in the seat, which is fine at first but then - particularly if you are wearing shorts - your legs really begin to feel really uncomfortable.

When ventilation is on my black 3IS seats get a cool (or at least temperate) surface almost immediately, regardless of the core temperature of the vehicle interior. That temperature seems to be fairly constant until you shut off the ventilation, at which point the seat surface temperature rises dramatically, almost like you had parked the car in the sun for an hour. The first time I noticed this I was startled by it, but then I realized it is a well-designed and quite clever approach to effective cooling of what would otherwise be a very uncomfortable seat.

I do agree the vent fan noise is higher than I would have expected, but otherwise +1 for Lexus on this one.

aritweets

i feel it when im driving naked, try that.

350Nva

iTrader: (2)

I feel the air from the seats. I feel the 2IS seats actually cooled vs this one just blows air through the seat vents..